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Goalies Tend to Dive Right in World Cup Penalty Shoot-Outs When Their Team is Behind…Why?
In World Cup penalty shoot-outs, goalies tend to dive right when their team is behind and they have a chance to save the game for their country, according to a study.
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Even Before Language, Babies Learn The World Through Sounds
It’s not just the words, but the sounds of words that have meaning for us. This is true for children and adults, who can associate the strictly auditory parts of language— vowels produced in the front or the back of the mouth, high or low pitch—with blunt or pointy things, large or small things, fast-moving or long-staying things. Do the same principles apply for young infants, and not just to things, but also to abstractions? A new study by Marcela Peña, Jacques Mehler, and Marina Nespor, working together at the International School for Advanced Studies, in Trieste, Italy and Catholic University of Chile, says yes.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A Functional Role for the Motor System in Language Understanding: Evidence From Theta-Burst Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Roel M. Willems, Ludovica Labruna, Mark D’Esposito, Richard Ivry, and Daniel Casasanto Previous studies have revealed that motor areas of the brain can be activated when people read or listen to action words. To determine whether motor areas are necessary for language comprehension, researchers used theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation to stimulate an area in either the left or the right premotor cortex.
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Teaching The Neurons To Meditate
Studies show that Buddhist monks, who have spent thousands of hours of meditating, have distinct patterns of brain activity. But findings suggest brain activity could change after just a short period of practice.
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Chicks Dig Certain Types of Music
Newly hatched chicks appear to prefer certain sounds over others, just like human infants, suggesting that this musical preference may be innate.
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Ironic Effects of Anti-Prejudice Messages
Organizations and programs have been set up all over the globe in the hopes of urging people to end prejudice. According to a research article, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, such programs may actually increase prejudices. Lisa Legault, Jennifer Gutsell and Michael Inzlicht, from the University of Toronto Scarborough, were interested in exploring how one’s everyday environment influences people’s motivation toward prejudice reduction.