-
The Road to Language Learning Is Iconic
Languages are highly complex systems and yet most children seem to acquire language easily, even in the absence of formal instruction. New research on young children’s use of British Sign Language (BSL) sheds light on one mechanism - iconicity - that may play an important role in children's ability to learn language. For spoken and written language, the arbitrary relationship between a word’s form – how it sounds or how it looks on paper – and its meaning is a particularly challenging feature of language acquisition. But one of the first things people notice about sign languages is that signs often represent aspects of meaning in their form.
-
New Research On Visual Perception From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research on visual perception from Psychological Science. Inattention Abolishes Binocular Rivalry: Perceptual Evidence Jan W. Brascamp and Randolph Blake Binocular rivalry occurs when a different image is shown to each eye and instead of seeing one image, the viewer shifts between the two images. In this study, researchers examined the effects of attention on binocular rivalry by presenting participants with visually different stimuli in each eye.
-
New Insights Into Cognitive Control From Psychological Science
Read about new insights into cognitive control from Psychological Science and Current Directions in Psychological Science. Memory and Cognitive Control in Task Switching Franziska R. Richter and Nick Yeung Although researchers know that cognitive control affects memory and vice versa, the interconnections between these two have only recently been examined. Participants performed a classification task in which they were shown displays that contained task-relevant and task-irrelevant stimuli. Participants then performed a surprise recognition test that evaluated their memory for the previously presented stimuli.
-
Taking Early Exits Off Wall Street
The Wall Street Journal: After five years in investment banking, Matt Wolf decided he'd had enough. While the 35-year-old vice president enjoyed his close-knit team of colleagues at Morgan Stanley MS +0.91% in Manhattan, he had reached a breaking point: Too many takeout-fueled late nights, too many canceled trips with his wife and too many judgmental looks at social gatherings. His pay—still generous, but lower than he had expected before the financial crisis—was no longer worth the sacrifices. So last month, he left.
-
Political beliefs rooted in childhood, study shows
Detroit Free Press: A person’s temperament in childhood and the type of parenting they received have a major effect on their political beliefs, according to a new study. Children with authoritarian parents were more likely to have conservative political beliefs when they were 18, while those with egalitarian parents were more likely to have liberal beliefs, according to a study of more than 700 children who took part in earlier research from the U.S. National Institute on Child Health and Human Development.
-
Pounds of Personality
The Huffington Post: It's November, which means that Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching -- and with it the season of temptation. Beginning with the giblet gravy and ending with the New Year's Eve champagne toast, the weeks ahead will add a pound of weight to the typical American -- a pound that will rarely be lost. That means steadily expanding waistlines as we move from young adulthood into middle age and beyond. But some people won't follow this trend. Some are conscientious and disciplined and know where to draw the line on indulging, while others seem to lack control of their impulses and desires.
