UPDATES in Psychology for 17 January 2012
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Here is what I am reading today:
“Scientists at Tokyo’s Yamazaki Gakuen University wondered why dogs do not seem to feel the cold in their paws, even though the paws have less insulating fur than their trunks. The paws have pads containing a high fat content, which freezes less easily than other tissues, but they also have a high surface area-to-volume ratio, which means they should lose heat easily.”
“Dr. Adam Perkins, lead author of the study at the IoP at King’s says: ‘Our research group focuses on understanding the causes of anxiety. No one knows exactly what anxiety is. However many animal studies link it to risk assessment behaviour, suggesting anxiety can be explained as a defensive adaptation. We wanted to see if this was also the case in humans.’”
“College can be some of the best years of your life, but what happens after graduation? With the tough economy, increased costs of living and outsourcing of jobs, what’s a recent graduate to do?
We partnered with prominent blogger and author of Life After College, Jenny Blake, to develop a post-college decision making roadmap. Whether you live at home, are job hunting or not sure what to do with your life, it may be a good idea to start brainstorming and planning your future.”
“It’s common for people to pick up on each other’s movements. “This is the notion that when you’re having a conversation with somebody and you don’t care where your hands are, and the other person scratches their head, you scratch your head,” says Sasha Ondobaka of the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. He cowrote the paper with Floris P. de Lange, Michael Wiemers, and Harold Bekkering of Radboud and Roger D. Newman-Norlund of the University of South Carolina. This kind of mimicry is well-established, but Ondobaka and his colleagues suspected that what people mimic depends on their goals.”
“To find out why teens might be more prone to such maladies, the team started with the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain that produces so-called happy chemicals in response to rewards such as food or sex. As many are aware, various chemicals (such as recreational drugs) can cause the same effect. In this study, the researchers taught a group of rats to respond to a tone by dipping their nose in a certain hole. Doing so resulted in a tasty treat. In the brain, the tone resulted in the production of happy chemicals which served as a reward, causing the rats to learn to do as they were bid. Both teens and adults made the same amount of the happy chemicals, but, when the researchers compared the reaction of another brain part, the dorsal striatum, to such chemicals in teen rats versus adults they found that this particular brain region responded with more activity in the teen rats.”
“Apple is scheduled to host an education-related event Jan. 19 — shrouded with a veil of mystery, as always. A new report from Ars Technica says the company is about to unveil a set of tools to create interactive ebooks.
Previous rumors said Apple will show no new devices, and that the event will center around Apple’s new partnerships with textbook publishers.”
