Brain, Cognition, Language

Contrary to media hype, new review says learning a second language won’t protect you from dementia
GettyImages-490879490.jpg
Neurons with amyloid plaques – a pathological feature of Alzheimer’s disease

By Alex Fradera

Some brains struck by pathology seem to stave off its effects thanks to a “cognitive reserve”: a superior use of mental resources that may be related to the way we use our brains over a lifetime, for instance through high levels of education or, possibly, learning a second language.

Bilingual people certainly seem to use their brains differently. For example, practice at switching languages has been associated with enhanced mental control. It’s even been claimed that being bilingual can stave off dementia by up to four or five years.

If true, this would have serious implications for public policy – learning a second language would be as much a desirable health behaviour as it is an educational or cultural one. But are the brain benefits of bilingualism real? The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease has published a systematic review and meta-analysis to establish the strength of the evidence base.

Continue reading “Contrary to media hype, new review says learning a second language won’t protect you from dementia” →

Emotion, Gender, Social

Women know better than men what other women are thinking and feeling
Screenshot 2017-09-13 17.18.57.png
Interaction effect of perceiver and target gender on mindreading performance, from Wacker et al, 2017

By Emma Young

If you want to know what a woman is really thinking, ask another woman. That’s the message of a new study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, which was designed to probe our ability to use other people’s posture, facial expressions and behaviours, as well our interpretations of ambiguous statements, to infer what’s going on in their mind – no matter what they’re actually saying.

The research team, led by Renata Wacker at the Free University of Berlin, Germany, recruited 304 women and 241 men, ranging in age from 17 to 70. The volunteers were put through possibly the most irritating – though potentially clinically useful – movie-watching experience imaginable.

Continue reading “Women know better than men what other women are thinking and feeling” →

Creativity

Let’s dial down the hype about grit – new paper finds no association with creative achievement
26891943881_8cc630c0e9_z
Duckworth’s book is a best-seller

By Alex Fradera

In 2007, the University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth authored a paper on a trait she called “grit” which went on to arrest the attention of anyone interested in the secrets of success. TED talks and a 2016 book followed, wherein Duckworth explained how a combination of passion for a topic, and perseverance in the face of difficulties – the two facets of grit – were the recipe for achievement, a claim borne out by studies within schools and across the lifespan.

In recent years, however, researchers have become more critical of the scope and relevance of the concept. Now an article published in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, suggests grit gives surprisingly little insight into the world of creative success.

Continue reading “Let’s dial down the hype about grit – new paper finds no association with creative achievement” →

Autism, biological

Autistic boys and girls found to have “hypermasculinised” faces – supporting the Extreme Male Brain theory
41598_2017_9939_Fig1_HTML.jpg
3D image annotated with 21 facial landmarks, from Tan et al, 2017

By Christian Jarrett

According to the Extreme Male Brain theory of autism, there are certain cognitive and behavioural characteristics that manifest more often in men than women, on average, such as a bias for systematic rather than empathic thinking. Autism can be seen as as extreme version of that typical male profile, the theory proposes, possibly caused by prenatal exposure to higher than usual amounts of testosterone in the womb.

A related observation is that exposure to high concentrations of prenatal testosterone leads to the development of “hyper masculine” facial features. It follows that if the Extreme Male Brain theory of autism is accurate, then autistic people will have hypermasculine faces.

A new study in Scientific Reports put this logic to the test, and consistent with the Extreme Male Brain theory, found that autistic girls and boys had more masculine faces as compared with neurotypical control children.

Continue reading “Autistic boys and girls found to have “hypermasculinised” faces – supporting the Extreme Male Brain theory” →

Emotion, Mental health

New research reveals the long-term toll of keeping secrets
GettyImages-639794440.jpg
It is mind-wandering about our secrets that most seems to take a toll, rather than the job of concealing them

By Alex Fradera

Secrets burden minds. To understand how, researchers have previously focused on the act of concealment during one-off social interactions, showing that keeping a secret is draining and can increase anxiety. But what about the longer-term toll? A new paper in Attitudes and Social Cognition describes ten studies on the impact of secrecy day-on-day, showing how the burden of a secret peppers our waking life with reminders and periods of brooding.

Continue reading “New research reveals the long-term toll of keeping secrets” →

Brain, Mental health, Perception

Mentally well voice-hearers have a heightened ability to detect real speech

 

Screenshot 2017-09-12 09.49.55.png
(A) Averaged brain activity in response to intelligible speech in control participants and (B) in non-clinical voice hearers; from Alderson-Day et al, 2017

By Emma Young

Hallucinating voices isn’t always distressing. While the experience is commonly associated with schizophrenia, some people – an estimated 5 to 15 per cent of the general population – hear voices that aren’t real without finding it upsetting or debilitating (they may even welcome it) and in the absence of any of the other symptoms of psychosis, such as delusions or confusion.

Now new open-access research published in Brain has revealed a perceptual advantage for this group of people: they can detect hard-to-comprehend speech sounds more quickly and easily than people who have never hallucinated a voice.

Continue reading “Mentally well voice-hearers have a heightened ability to detect real speech” →

Developmental, Morality, Religion

Children as young as four believe in karma – good things happen to those who do good

GettyImages-516294624-2.jpgBy Christian Jarrett

Even the most scientifically trained among us have an instinct for mystical thinking – seeing purpose in nature, for example, or reading meaning in random coincidences. Psychologists think this is to do with the way our minds work at a fundamental level. We have evolved to be highly attuned to concepts relevant to our social lives, things like intentions and fairness. And we just can’t switch off this way of thinking, even when we’re contemplating the physical world.

This may explain the intuitive appeal of the Buddhist and Hindu notion of karmic justice – the idea, essentially, that you get what you deserve in life; that the cosmos rewards those who do good (variations of this idea are also spread by other religions). Indeed, in a new paper in Developmental Science, psychologists at Yale University have shown that children in the US as young as four are inclined to believe in, and actively seek, karmic justice, regardless of whether they come from a religious family or not.

“We conclude that, beginning early in development, children expect that life events are not purely random occurrences, but instead that they happen for an intended reason, such as rewarding people for their good behaviour,” said the study authors Konika Banerjee and Paul Bloom.

Continue reading “Children as young as four believe in karma – good things happen to those who do good” →

Emotion, guest blogger, Personality, Social

Learning more about yourself could help you better understand others
GettyImages-501651483.jpg
The intervention used in this research was based on the Internal Family Systems model that sees an individual’s personality as made up of different sub-personalities

By guest blogger Marianne Cezza

As social creatures, accurately recognising and understanding the mental states of others (their intentions, knowledge, beliefs, etc.) is crucial to our social bonds and interactions. In fact, in today’s multi-cultural world and strongly divided political climate, this skill – known as Theory of Mind – is perhaps more important than ever. A recent study published in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement proposes that an effective way to develop our Theory of Mind lies in learning to better understand ourselves.

Continue reading “Learning more about yourself could help you better understand others” →

biological, Cognition, Gender, Sex, Thought

How short-term increases in testosterone change men’s thinking style
GettyImages-91016858.jpg
Competitive situations or the presence of attractive potential mates can lead to the short-term testosterone increases that were the focus of the new research

By Emma Young

The hot-headed “macho man”, who acts first and thinks later, has long been popular in movies. Now there’s psychological evidence to support it. A new study in the Psychological Science finds that a short-term rise in testosterone – as might occur when in the presence of an attractive potential mate, or during competition – shifts the way men think, encouraging them to rely on quick, intuitive, and generally less accurate, judgements, rather than engaging in careful, more deliberate thought.

Continue reading “How short-term increases in testosterone change men’s thinking style” →

Personality

Researchers asked these British mothers which personality traits they would most wish for their babies – extraversion came out on top

GettyImages-587877026.jpgBy Christian Jarrett

Ambitious and self-disciplined or affable and fun-loving? If you could choose the personality profile for your children, what would you prioritise? Researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London, put this question to 142 British mothers with a baby aged 0 to 12 months. Reporting their findings in Personality and Individual Differences, Rachel Latham and Sophie von Stumm say there was a clear preference among the mothers for most of all wanting their infants to grow up to be extraverted, especially friendly and cheerful, more so than conscientious or intelligent, even though these latter attributes are more likely to contribute to a healthy, successful life. To the researchers’ knowledge this is the first time mothers’ wishes for their children’s personalities has been studied.

Continue reading “Researchers asked these British mothers which personality traits they would most wish for their babies – extraversion came out on top” →