News
dmunger | July 26, 2006I'm still on vacation, but I've got just enough time to pop in with a quick link to a nice discussion about the link between heredity and IQ. While some have argued that as much of 75 percent of the variability in IQ is hereditary, more recent research suggests a more complex interaction. The key, as always, are studies on adoption of identical twins:
Regardless of whether the adopting families were rich or poor... children whose biological parents were well-off had I.Q. scores averaging 16 points higher than those from working-class parents. Yet what is really remarkable is how big a…
dmunger | July 21, 2006How is a mother "connected" to her infant? According to a recent report in Stem Cells, quite literally. The research, conducted on mice, found the stem cells of fetal mice were present in their mothers' brains. These cells persist long after birth, and even seem to assist in the process of repair when the mother's brain is damaged.
So how did the researchers identify the fetal cells? They inseminated the mothers with "green mice" who had been genetically altered using jellyfish genes to glow a phosphorescent green. Some of the babies, therefore, were also green mice, and any of their cells…
dmunger | July 13, 2006The New York Times infographic on Lasik got me thinking: How many of our readers would consider getting Lasik surgery? Let's make this one a poll:
dmunger | July 13, 2006The NY Times has an excellent infographic showing exactly how the newest Lasik eye surgery process works:
The key modification to this technique is that the flap is now cut with a laser instead of a metal blade, reducing the chance of complications. I still think I'm going to stick with good old fashioned eyeglasses for now.
dmunger | July 11, 2006We've written before about the positive impact of video games, on how playing video games can improve visual ability for certain tasks such as field of view and attentional blink. Now the researchers who conducted the initial study have completed some follow-up research. Chris Chatham has the details:
The authors note that their results do not show a connection between subitizing and multiple-object tracking abilities, which had been hypothesized in the literature previously. Instead, multiple object tracking appears to increase with serial enumeration ability. According to my interpretation…
dmunger | July 6, 2006We've reported here before on the research of Dennis Proffitt on the perception of distance -- how wearing a backpack can cause you to perceive distances as longer. Now the team has a new study, which is featured today in seedmagazine.com. In this study, they examine the perception of the steepness of a hill:
To test his hypothesis, Proffitt asked participants to estimate the slant of a hill on the UVA campus, while outfitting some of the subjects with a heavy backpack. They found that subjects donning backpacks estimated the slant to be much steeper than did those who had nothing on their…
dmunger | July 6, 2006Deric Bownds has an excellent post about a proposed neurological mechanism for mellowing as we age. This study to me represents an example of good work that can be done using brain imaging. (Although we pointed to an article critical of fMRI last week, this was by no means meant to suggest that fMRI research can't be valuable. Smooth Pebbles has a good list of other valuable fMRI studies.)
Here's how Bownds describes the study:
They used fMRI (function Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or ERP (Event related potentials recorded on the surface of the scalp) to examine the activity of the medial…
dmunger | July 5, 2006If you had to guess where in the world kids are the most enthusiastic about science and technology, you might figure that places like Norway and Japan would seriously outdistance, say, Uganda and Botswana. If you did, you'd have it exactly backwards. An article in the new online journal Science in School reports on a study of teenagers in 35 countries.
Across a variety of measures, kids in poorer countries -- those whose economies depend much less on science and technology -- had a much more optimistic attitude about science than kids in wealthier nations.
Take a look at this figure showing…
dmunger | June 29, 2006A team of researchers in Japan has built a device that is capable of reproducing an impressively large array of smells, says a report in New Scientist.
The system will use 15 chemical-sensing microchips, or electronic noses, to pick up a broad range of aromas. These are then used to create a digital recipe from a set of 96 chemicals that can be chosen according to the purpose of each individual gadget. When you want to replay a smell, drops from the relevant vials are mixed, heated and vaporised. In tests so far, the system has successfully recorded and reproduced the smell of orange, lemon,…
dmunger | June 29, 2006There's been a decent amount of press lately about the struggles of boys in education. More women than men go to college, and more graduate. But Jay Matthews of the Washington Post is skeptical. He cites an Education Sector report (full PDF here)
which claims that much of the hype about boys suddenly falling behind is overblown.
Take a look at this chart, for example:
Girls have outperformed boys in reading for decades, and boys continue to outperform girls in math.
'The real story is not bad news about boys doing worse,' the report says, 'it's good news about girls doing better.'
But one…
dmunger | June 28, 2006Small Gray Matters is a new blog which claims to be "about brains and minds. What else do you need to know?"
For starters, I'd like to know who's writing it, but I'm prepared to be swayed by good content. The blog's first post doesn't disappoint in that regard: it's a spirited defense of neuroimaging. The author makes some excellent points in defense of fMRI and other types of brain scans.
FMRI is popular, but its popularity doesn't actually distract from other areas of psychology -- it just adds to the total amount of science coverage in the news
Many fMRI studies extend existing…
dmunger | June 27, 2006In case you're reading this on RSS, or have trained yourself to ignore the links immediately to the right, I wanted to point you to Paul Bloom's excellent article on Seedmagazine.com. Why does an fMRI brain scan suddenly make a humdrum task suddenly seem like "real science?" Bloom points to one experiment (NOT involving an MRI machine) which may give us the answer:
Deena Skolnick, a graduate student at Yale, asked her subjects to judge different explanations of a psychological phenomenon. Some of these explanations were crafted to be awful. And people were good at noticing that they were…
dmunger | June 27, 2006The BBC has an article about the latest computer "mind-reading" technology. It's not as sinister as it sounds: the computer is programmed to monitor human facial expressions and attempt to recognize the corresponding emotion.
Peter Robinson, professor of computer technology at the University of Cambridge, said: "The system can already cope with the variation in people's facial composition; for example, if you have a round or thin face, or if you wear glasses or have a beard.
So what are the applications of this technology? Just follow the money:
Robinson added: "Our research could enable…
dmunger | June 26, 2006Brainethics has a summary of a recent Science Magazine article about cross-cultural sharing behavior. The study set up three different sharing scenarios, then examined how cultures with different values with respect to sharing behaved:
These results demonstrate that there is a positive relationship between the likelihood of accepting an offer (i.e. the level of willingness to punish small offers) and the willingness to share (i.e. altruism). In other words, in cultures where you are expected to share, you give more, even though others have no way to threaten or punish you.
The authors of the…
dmunger | June 21, 2006I've spent the morning looking around the Web to bring you today's news snippets, but then I came back to ScienceBlogs and realized that the best posts on cognitive science are being made right here.
Jonah Lehrer has an excellent analysis of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. Having just finished the book myself, I tend to agree with most of what Jonah says. "Instead of delving into the scientific details," Jonah says, "Gladwell always goes with the telling anecdote."
I might add to that: I've caught Gladwell in at least one muff of the details. When discussing Nalini Ambady's work with thin-slicing…
dmunger | June 19, 2006I heard about 20 minutes' worth of today's Diane Rehm show about childhood obesity on NPR. The program was motivated by Bill Clinton's recent deal with the soft drink industry to ban sales of some soft drinks in schools.
The plan will be implemented by 2009, and will include the following provisions:
No sugared carbonated beverages
No full-fat milk or chocolate milk
No artificially sweetened fruit juice
No sports drinks at elementary/middle school level
Of course, this still leaves plenty of unhealthy options at both elementary and middle schools, as well as in high school. There are no…
dmunger | June 16, 2006The Canadian Automobile Association is proposing a ban of all distracting electronic devices for new drivers. It's an interesting approach -- instead of a global ban on cell phones, for example, this ban would target only new drivers.
"It is also our hope that a preventative measure like this one will create a generation of motorists who recognize the severe implications of driver distractions -- and work towards reducing them where they can," Flewelling said.
It looks to me like they've done a pretty good job of taking the relevant research into account. For example, we've discussed…
dmunger | June 15, 2006I've just got time for two quick links on women's brains and sex.
First, Vaugan at MindHacks points to a new study showing that women's brains respond more quickly to erotic images than non-erotic images.
Now all we need is a study on how quickly women can respond when their lovers glance at other attractive women.
Second, Jake at Pure Pedantry cites a preprint article about PET scans of women's brains during sexual climax. At climax, activity fell in nearly the entire brain. For men, brain activity at climax was undetectable. In the comments, Shelley warns that this is a pre-printed article…
dmunger | June 15, 2006The New York Times has an article about the influence of genetics on behavior. It's a synthesis of a number of recent studies implicating a genetic relationship between predispositions for a number of different phenomena, from "wild streaks" to obesity.
ScienceBlogs' own Jonah Lehrer has already written an impressive response, noting that most of the genetic effects described in the article are small and unreliable.
Even more interesting, the Times article actually cites a blog post inspired by our own Razib. This is probably the most heavily linked New York Times article I've ever seen -- is…
dmunger | June 14, 2006Just a quick shoutout to Shelley at Retrospectacle, who has a great analysis of our cell phone ringtone poll results. Also, take a look at her commentary on the Southern Baptist convention's threat to remove their children from public schools. Retrospectacle is fast becoming one of my favorite blogs.