science wire

Public lectures explore the brain and behavior
Register for the lectures online or call 206-616-5274. See previous years' lectures on UWTV. How do fish hear and communicate with each other?

Here is what real commitment to your marriage means
What does being committed to your marriage really mean? UCLA psychologists answer this question in a new study based on their analysis of 172 married couples over the first 11 years of marriage.

How does the compassionate brain, measured in the lab, predict what occurs in real life?
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are launching a new series of studies to understand how laboratory measures of virtuous qualities such as compassion relate to their behavior in the real world. Richard J. Davidson , founder of the UW's Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM) , at the Waisman Center, has received a three-year, $1.7 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to develop laboratory and real-world measures of virtuous qualities such as altruism and compassion.

Multitasking may harm the social and emotional development of tweenage girls, Stanford researchers say
Multitasking may harm the social and emotional development of tweenage girls, but face-to-face talks could save the day, say Stanford researchers Too much screen time can be detrimental to girls

Experiences are better when we know they’re about to end
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - People often view the "last" moments of an event positively simply because they signal the end of an experience, say University of Michigan researchers.

Seeking the neurological roots of conflict
MIT neuroscientists explore how longstanding conflict influences empathy for others. MIT postdoc Emile Bruneau has long been drawn to conflict - not as a participant, but an observer. In 1994, while doing volunteer work in South Africa, he witnessed firsthand the turmoil surrounding the fall of apartheid; during a 2001 trip to visit friends in Sri Lanka, he found himself in the midst of the violent conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan military.

Mental health professionals from China to enhance their training via new program

Enhancing cognition in older adults also changes personality
CHAMPAIGN, lll.

Women with celiac disease suffer from depression, disordered eating
University pledges continued cooperation with NCAA inquiry Hotels to support RAINN over commencement weekend A message from President Rodney Erickson As lawmakers review child abuse laws, Erickson expresses support Blue out, canning efforts raise $47,000 to fight child abuse, rape UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.

Persistence Pays Off in the Mating Game
AUSTIN, Texas — A new study co-authored by a University of Texas at Austin psychology professor suggests that self-deception may help men succeed in the mating game, while women will benefit more from effective communication.

New book on teen brains can help improve reasoning, decision making
Teenage brains undergo big changes, and they won't look or function like adult brains until well into one's 20s.

People More Motivated to Give When They See Others Volunteering Abroad
AUSTIN, Texas — People are more inspired to give when they see others contributing their time and money to a good cause outside their home state, according to a new psychology study from The University of Texas at Austin.

Book addresses need for more infrastructure for Latino mental health
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - It was an alarming message: A Spanish speaking woman in the Champaign area was on the brink of suicide, and a bilingual mental health professional was urgently needed for crisis intervention, but none could be found.

Sound and vision work hand in hand, UCLA psychologists report
"If we think of the perceptual system as a democracy where each sense is like a person casting a vote and all votes are counted to reach a decision — although not all votes are counted equally — what our study shows is that the voters talk to one another and influence one another even before each casts a vote," said Ladan Shams, a UCLA associate professor of psychology and the senior author of the new study.

Parental response to sexual abuse varies by age of victim, suspect
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Parents are more likely to blame or doubt a child victim of sexual abuse when the suspected perpetrator is an adolescent rather than an adult, according to a new study that examined child molestation cases in four states. The findings also suggest that, regardless of the age of the perpetrator, parental blame/doubt toward the victim significantly increases if the victim is an adolescent.

2 million Californians report mental health needs; most receive little or no treatment
Nearly 2 million adults in California, about 8 percent of the population, need mental health treatment, but the majority receive no services or inadequate services, despite a state law mandating that health insurance providers include mental health treatment in their coverage options, a new report by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research shows.

Hippocampus Plays Bigger Memory Role Than Previously Thought
Human memory has historically defied precise scientific description, its biological functions broadly but imperfectly defined in psychological terms. In a pair of papers published in the November 2 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience , researchers at the University of California, San Diego report a new methodology that more deeply parses how and where certain types of memories are processed in the brain, and challenges earlier assumptions about the role of the hippocampus.

Children of deployed military at greater risk of engaging in violent behavior
Adolescent boys with at least one parent in the military are at elevated risk of engaging in school-based physical fighting, carrying a weapon and joining a gang, according to researchers at the University of Washington's School of Public Health.

Exploring the science and nuance of facial perception
  Alexander Todorov, an associate professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, has designed a new freshman seminar, "The Face: The Forces That Shape How We Perceive Others," t

U of M round table to focus on science of early childhood development
What: Round table on child development and child welfare
 When: 1 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov.

Funny Finding: Men Win Humor Test (by a Hair)
Funny Finding: Men Win Humor Test (by a Hair) UC San Diego Researchers Used New Yorker Cartoons to Explore Gender Stereotype October 19, 2011 By Inga Kiderra Huffington Post ABC News and "Good Morning America" TIME Slate Scientific American Men are funnier than women, but only just barely and mostly to other men.

Exercise gives mental health a boost
While most people know physical exercise helps them in losing weight or achieving better physical health, perhaps less well known is the extensive evidence concluding that exercise also benefits mental health.

Wash away your troubles with soap
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Cleaning your hands removes more than dirt, it also removes residues of the past, such as guilt and doubt, a new University of Michigan study finds.

Stanford launches center to study fraud against the elderly
An overwhelming number of defrauded people are older than 50 – but the profile of the typical target is not who you would expect, say the founders of the new interdisciplinary Research Center on the Prevention of Financial Fraud.

Feeling entitled makes dull tasks drag on
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—People who feel entitled may think performing dull tasks is a waste of their precious time, resulting in a perception that time passes slowly, according to a new University of Michigan study.

Albert Hastorf, professor emeritus of psychology, former provost, dead at 90
Hastorf, who joined Stanford's faculty in 1961, retired in 1990. He and his wife, Barbara, remained supporters of the Psychology Department and endowed the Hastorf Family Fund and the Albert and Barbara Hastorf Teaching Fund.

Who are you People yearn for positive perception about themselves
Sept. 27, 2011 Who are you? People yearn for positive perception about themselves ANN ARBOR, Mich.—People care about how others view them and will go to great lengths to repair negative perceptions, a new University of Michigan study found.

Rebranding exercise: Quality of life a better motivator than Live longer
Sept. 27, 2011 Rebranding exercise: 'Quality of life' a better motivator than 'Live longer' Listen to podcast ANN ARBOR, Mich.—A new University of Michigan study finds that the most convincing exercise message emphasizes immediate benefits that enhance daily quality of life. Health care, business and public health have presumed that promoting health and longevity benefits from exercise will motivate people to exercise.

Advantages of single-sex schooling a myth
As Madison deals with a proposal to establish a single-sex charter school, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of psychology is one author of an article that calls the scientific case for sin

33 percent drop in physical bullying in schools using Steps to Respect
Elementary schools using the bullying prevention program Steps to Respect saw a reduction in physical bullying and in the number of teachers reporting fighting as a big problem, according to a new University of Washington study.

Hogg Foundation Funds New Initiative to Provide Safer, More Effective Alternatives to Seclusion and Restraint
Sept. 20, 2011 AUSTIN, Texas — The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at The University of Texas at Austin is funding a new statewide initiative to help residential treatment centers adopt safer, more effective tools than traumatic and potentially deadly seclusion and restraint practices commonly used to manage the behavior of children and youth.

Researchers predict long-term personal finances in the lab
A Stanford neuro-economics study shows that a simple kind of learning, supported by our emotional responses, is surprisingly good at predicting real-world financial success. Why are some people wealthier than others? It's a question that has spawned a slew of maddeningly optimistic self-help books – and a pile of research that takes a much more depressing stance.

Size matters: Length of songbirds’ playlists linked to relative size of their brain parts
The term "birdbrain" may take on new meaning as a Cornell study is the first to prove that the capacity for learning in birds is not linked to overall brain size, but to the relative size of their brain parts. The study finds that songbirds whose higher brain areas are larger in relation to lower brain areas have a greater capacity for learning songs.

Captivated by Critters: Humans Are Wired to Respond to Animals
Some people feel compelled to pet every furry animal they see on the street, while others jump at the mere sight of a shark or snake on the television screen. No matter what your response is to animals, it may be thanks to a specific part of your brain that is hardwired to rapidly detect creatures of the nonhuman kind.

Study offers insight for returning troops and their relationships
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ‘ Troops overseas often want nothing more than to get back home to loved ones ' but the reunion period often can be more emotionally taxing than the deployment. Returning service members are at a greater risk of both depressive symptoms and relationship distress, and research shows the two often go together, says University of Illinois researcher Leanne Knobloch (pronounced kuh-NO-block).

Study of childhood bullying shifts focus to victims
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Many wonder why bullies bully, but a new study looks at the other side of the equation: How do children respond to bullying and why‘ The answer, researchers say, may lead to more effective interventions to reduce the negative consequences - and perhaps even the frequency ' of bullying.

9/11 Attacks Led to New Understanding of Mass Trauma
Out of the wreckage of the World Trade Center attacks and the events of 9/11 came some of the first large-scale research of mass trauma. The resulting findings have led to a broader understanding of how post-traumatic stress disorder can affect hundreds of thousands of people, not just individuals. Sandro Galea , chair of the epidemiology department at the Mailman School of Public Health , is one of the leading researchers on the topic, having written some 50 articles on the subject of 9/11 and trauma.

Online Game Offers Autistic Children the Chance to Express Emotions
Aug. 25, 2011 AUSTIN, Texas — Yan Zhang , assistant professor in the School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin, is creating an interactive online game to help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) communicate their emotions.

UM Researcher Develops Prevention Program for Postpartum OCD
— Coral Gables — The birth of a baby can elicit many emotions, from joy and excitement to fear and uncertainty.

Hotel School study: Women traveling for business seek safe, comfortable hotels