Psychology

  1. Humans

    Girls have head start on snake and spider fears

    At 11 months of age, girls quickly learn to associate fearful faces with images of snakes and spiders, a new study suggests.

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  2. Psychology

    How to walk in circles without really trying

    People walk in circles when landmarks and other directional cues are not available.

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  3. Psychology

    Neighborhood unity offers behavioral protection for poor kids

    A five-year study of British families finds that young children living in low-income communities show fewer signs of serious behavior problems if they have close-knit, concerned neighbors.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    300 milliseconds from hand to head

    New work shows that the “rubber hand illusion” only works when a hand feels a sensation no more than 300 milliseconds before the eyes see it

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  5. Health & Medicine

    You Are Who You Are by Default

    A neural network active when the brain is at rest may prove critical to zoning out, a sense of self and envisioning the future.

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  6. Psychology

    2-year-olds possess grammatical insights

    Toddlers discern basic rules for using nouns and verbs at least one year before speaking in complete sentences, French brain researchers report.

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  7. Humans

    Autism care takes biological toll on mothers

    Caring for teens and young adults with autism not only creates intense psychological pressure on mothers but may promote sharply decreased production of a crucial stress hormone, a long-term study suggests.

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  8. Psychology

    School-age lead exposures most harmful to IQ

    New studies find lead exposure has greater potency in school-age children than in infants and toddlers, including effects on brain volume.

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  9. Psychology

    Males, females swap sex-role stereotypes

    Analysis finds that mating strategies are not universal

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  10. Humans

    Rapid emotional swings could precede violence

    A tool from physics helps link the patterns of psychiatric patients’ symptoms and the likelihood they will commit violent acts.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Autism immerses 2-year-olds in a synchronized world

    By age 2, kids with autism focus on synchronized physical events, such as a person’s moving lips accompanied by sounds, rather than on eye movements and other social cues, a new study suggests.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Gestures speak volumes in the brain

    A new brain-imaging study suggests that an understanding of spoken language relies on changing sets of brain networks that exploit acoustic and visual cues.

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