Tag Psychology
How talking more can make you better at listening — to foreign languages
The typical foreign language class spends much of its time listening to fluent speakers, but new UW research shows that the students should spend more time talking.
Here is how a cat can hinder children learning new words
A new study found that familiar objects more interesting to children reduced their ability to learn new words associated with novel objects.
When communicating with color, balance can be a path to accuracy
UW-Madison Researchers found that the best colors to use for waste bins are shades of white for paper, red for plastic, pale blue-green for glass, dark grey for metal, dark green for compost, and black for trash.
They grin, you bear it. Research reveals physical impact of a smile.
New research shows that smiles meant to convey dominance trigger a physical spike in stress hormones in their targets, while smiles intended as a reward appear to physically buffer recipients against stress.
To sleep, perchance to forget
The debate in sleep science has gone on for a generation. People and other animals sicken and die if they are deprived of sleep, but why is sleep so essential?
New approaches in neuroscience show it’s not all in your head
“How we experience the world affects us in more ways than we previously thought,” says Richard Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at UW–Madison and director of the Center for Healthy Minds.
Gambling against the odds on life’s risks more common after childhood stress
Trouble reading the signs that a loss or punishment is looming can lead to situations that risk avoidable problems.
Virtual reality users must learn to use what they see
The study found that when most people put on a virtual reality headset, they still treat what they see like it’s happening on any run-of-the-mill TV screen.
Davidson elected to National Academy of Medicine
The director of the Center for Healthy Minds has authored more than 375 papers exploring the neural bases of emotion, and interventions that may be helpful for promoting well-being, kindness, compassion and empathy.
Healthy competition makes habit of sustainability
A new analysis shows lasting reductions in electricity use among hundreds of players of the Cool Choices game, which uses friendly competition to get energy-saving habits to sink in.
To pick a great gift, it’s better to give AND receive
A new study shows that gift recipients are happier with a present when the giver got themselves the same thing — a phenomenon researchers call "companionizing."
Researchers crack the smile, describing 3 types by muscle movement
The smile may be the most common and flexible expression, used to reveal some emotions, cover others and manage social interactions. But how do we tell one kind of smile from another?
Analysis: Gender differences in depression appear at age 12
An analysis just published online has broken new ground by finding gender differences in both symptoms and diagnoses of depression appearing at age 12.
Alumna Nancy Armstrong shares stories of American women’s movement
UW-Madison graduate Nancy Armstrong is senior producer of MAKERS, a multimedia platform that includes the first documentary of the modern American women’s movement and the largest collection of women’s stories ever assembled.
Telling the tale of midlife in the United States
MIDUS is a national longitudinal study on aging explicitly focused on midlife, including transitions from young adulthood to midlife, and from midlife into old age.
Magnetic brain stimulation can bring back stowed memories
The lab of Brad Postle, a psychology professor at UW–Madison, is challenging the idea that working memory remembers things through sustained brain activity.
Young children’s spatial talk predicts their spatial abilities
Researchers are hoping that focusing on this early in childhood will promote interest in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.
Some brains are blind to moving objects
As many as half of people are blind to motion in some part of their field of vision, but the deficit doesn’t have anything to do with the eyes.
A visual nudge can disrupt recall of what things look like
The connection between visual knowledge and visual perception challenges widely held theories that visual information about the world is stored abstractly.
UW–Madison teams up with Madison police to foster officer well-being
The collaboration will focus on whether mindfulness-based practices can help improve officers’ abilities to manage their daily and occupational stressors.