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Psychology News and Research Briefs Category Archive:
Cognitive Psychology

Brain Scans Show Sparks Don't Have To Fade
November 18, 2008 11:22 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Both scientists and relationship experts say the rush of early love only lasts somewhere between three months and three years. However, new research finds that for some couples, this phase can last longer than 20 years.

Continue reading Brain Scans Show Sparks Don't Have To Fade



Brain Scans Show Relationship Between Guilt, Depression
August 27, 2008 06:16 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

As if feeling guilty wasn't bad enough, a new study by the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has confirmed a deep, cognitive association between guilt and depression.

Continue reading Brain Scans Show Relationship Between Guilt, Depression



Stress In Early Pregnancy Linked to Schizophrenia
August 21, 2008 08:35 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Mothers who experience severely distressful events such as a natural disaster, war-related events or the loss of a loved one early in pregnancy may have offspring with increased predisposition to schizophrenia.

Continue reading Stress In Early Pregnancy Linked to Schizophrenia



Background Television May Impair Attention In Young Children
July 16, 2008 07:30 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

A new study published in the journal Child Development shows homes with a T.V. always on may harm a young child's ability to focus--even if they're not actually watching it.

Continue reading Background Television May Impair Attention In Young Children



Gestures May Reveal Innate Linguistic Structure
July 03, 2008 05:24 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

An English speaker kicks a ball, but a Turkish speaker ball kicks--at least if you're following the grammatical order of his or her language. However, a new study shows that without words, speakers of these two language order things in the same way.

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Chronic Pain Alters Brain Function
February 06, 2008 04:54 PM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Chronic pain is often only the start of the problem for sufferers, who also suffer high rates of depression, anxiety and sleep disorders.

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PsychBriefs: January 13-19, 2008
January 19, 2008 04:49 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work.

Continue reading PsychBriefs: January 13-19, 2008



MRIs Show Culture Influences Brain Functions
January 11, 2008 05:48 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Where you were raised can affect the parts of your brain used to perform different tasks. Researchers at MIT studied 10 American and 10 East Asian patients using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to find out whether their respective cultures aff...

Continue reading MRIs Show Culture Influences Brain Functions



Estrogen Linked to Anorexia
January 02, 2008 09:40 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

High levels of estrogen in the womb may increase risk of anorexia, shows new research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

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Foster Children Experience Marked IQ Gains Over Institutionalized Orphans
December 20, 2007 05:34 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Abandoned children who receive foster care receive an average eight- to ten-point IQ boost over those who enter orphanages, shows a new study on abandoned Romanian children.

Continue reading Foster Children Experience Marked IQ Gains Over Institutionalized Orphans



Anorexic Brain Set on Planning, Not Pleasure
December 03, 2007 08:05 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Women who recover from anorexia show notably marked differences in brain patterns one year after recovery, states a report in this month's American Journal of Psychiatry.

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ADHD Brains Mature Three Years Later
November 12, 2007 08:16 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder delays development of certain regions of the brain by an average of three years shows a study of 446 youth with and without the disorder.

Continue reading ADHD Brains Mature Three Years Later



That's My Choice and I'm Sticking To It
November 09, 2007 04:10 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Researchers at Yale University have found that cognitive dissonance, the psychological state in which an individual's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are at odds, is a mind state that not only appears in adults but in children and other primates as well.

Continue reading That's My Choice and I'm Sticking To It



Researchers Identify False Memories with Brain Scans
October 24, 2007 05:22 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Patterns of electrophysiological activity in the brain may be used to distinguish false memories from real ones, shows a report published in November's Psychological Science.

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Conscience or Cognitive Science?
October 04, 2007 07:46 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

When the moral compass fails, the threat of punishment for wrongdoings is always there keep people in line. And yet, every day people transgress social mores despite knowledge of personal or even legal consequences. Now, psychologists are one step closer to...

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Republican vs. Democrat: A Matter of Brain Chemistry?
September 11, 2007 10:25 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Research by New York University and UCLA researchers appearing in Nature Neuroscience shows that liberal or conservative leanings may come down to cognition rather than conviction. In the experiment college students across the political spectrum were instr...

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Psychologists Explain Why 'They All Look the Same'
August 15, 2007 09:22 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

The difficulty some people have distinguishing between members of another race has become something of a joke, with minorities arguing that, in fact, "All white people look alike." Humor aside, many argue that this effect points to prejudice, ignorance or l...

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Reading vs. Doing Produces Different Forms of Thinking
July 13, 2007 08:51 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

In May, we reported on how the "woulda" and "shoulda dones" in life affect decision-making. Now, a new series of experiments by Vittorio Girotto of the University IUAV of Venice, Italy and his colleagues demonstrates how this type of thinking differs betwe...

Continue reading Reading vs. Doing Produces Different Forms of Thinking



Putting Feelings Into Words Examined In Brain Scans
July 11, 2007 11:52 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Why does talking to a friend or writing in a journal make us feel better in troubled times? Simply naming an emotion does nothing to solve our problems, but often makes them feel less intense. A brain imaging study conducted by a group of UCLA psychologists...

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Your Brain Loves Paying Taxes As Much As It Loves Cheeseburgers
June 26, 2007 09:58 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Can you get as much satisfaction from paying taxes as you can from eating a cheeseburger? According to a study conducted at the University of Oregon, the answer is yes. The pleasure center of your brain reacts the same way to paying taxes, giving to chari...

Continue reading Your Brain Loves Paying Taxes As Much As It Loves Cheeseburgers



Study Finds The Blind Have Superior 'Serial Memory'
June 21, 2007 07:45 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Remembering the order of things can be key to finding the right doorway, shirt or flavor of yogurt for someone who cannot see. A new study shows that this aspect of understanding and organizing the world may train the minds of the blind to have superior "se...

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Race And The Psychology Of Police Shootings
June 04, 2007 06:22 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Can training be used to counter potentially deadly racial stereotypes? While the great majority of police shootings are necessary and often heroic, news reports still tell of questionable shootings. Most frequently the victims are young, black men, who man...

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MRIs Reveal Highly Distinct Branches Of Anxiety
May 30, 2007 11:28 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Anxiety is a word used to describe feelings associated with both worry and fear. However, a new study by University of Illinois psychologists provides evidence for that these are actually two types of anxiety so different they take place in opposite hemisph...

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How Meditation Changes The Brain's Attention Span
May 15, 2007 09:10 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

The observational capacities of the human brain are limited by a phenomenon known as the "attentional blink." Here, the brain ignores the second of two quickly presented stimuli, having allocated too many resources to the first. For example, when two images...

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Babies Can Remember--Just Not for Long
February 19, 2007 10:07 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

New research shows that babies can form memories--despite few people being able to recall anything before preschool. The trouble is, they also forget, said Duke University researcher Patricia J. Bauer at the annual meeting of the American Association for t...

Continue reading Babies Can Remember--Just Not for Long



Study: Folic Acid May Help Mental Functioning
February 05, 2007 10:28 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Folic acid, a naturally occurring form of vitamin B-9 necessary for new cell production, may help improve mental functioning in aging adults, shows a Dutch study of more than 800 men and women age 50 to 70 with low levels of homocysteine, a risk factor for ...

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Understanding Others Key to Altruism
January 22, 2007 10:14 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

When a team of researchers at Duke University began using fMRIs to study the brain's connection to altruism, they expected to find that selfless acts were linked to reward systems in the brain--but were treated to some surprising findings. They discovered ...

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To Buy or Not to Buy: Brain Chemistry May Make the Call
January 16, 2007 06:06 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Stanford University psychologists are using brain images to learn more about why some people are impulse shoppers and others have an easier time holding on to their dough. Experimental subjects were given $40 and the option to keep the money or to buy vari...

Continue reading To Buy or Not to Buy: Brain Chemistry May Make the Call



Instinctive Decisions Most Reliable
January 09, 2007 04:04 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Under some circumstances following your gut is your best bet, shows research from University College London psychologists. Participants in their study, published in today's issue of Current Biology, were given between zero and 1.5 seconds identify on which ...

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Without Memories of the Past, Dreams of Future May Be Impossible
January 02, 2007 05:30 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Brain scans from a Washington University - St. Louis study suggest that our ability to envision the future is impacted greatly by our ability to recall the past. Without memories, doing so may even be downright impossible, results show, helping to explain ...

Continue reading Without Memories of the Past, Dreams of Future May Be Impossible



Cognitive Exercise Helps Seniors' Skills Stay Sharp
December 20, 2006 05:45 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Short-term cognitive training can have lasting affects, a study published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association reports. Almost 3000 seniors participated in the five-year, multi-site trial. Some received no cognitive training while three o...

Continue reading Cognitive Exercise Helps Seniors' Skills Stay Sharp



Videogame Violence Affects Brain Function
November 29, 2006 06:06 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Teens who play violent video games experience decreased activity in parts of the brain associated with control and concentration and increased activity in the areas linked to emotional arousal, a study by Indiana University researchers shows. Comparing two...

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Findings: Proteins Anchor Long-Term Memories in Brain
November 28, 2006 10:31 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

A mathematician at University of Utah Brain Institute has published a paper detailing how long-term memories may be stored in the brain. The paper proposes that in a synapse, the junction between neurons, proteins called "AMPA receptors" are held in place b...

Continue reading Findings: Proteins Anchor Long-Term Memories in Brain



Myelin 'Internet' Makes Human Brain Unique But Vulnerable, Researcher Says
November 21, 2006 06:07 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Myelin, the layer of fat and protein insulating neurons and conducting the neuronal impulses in human brains, was called a "recent invention of evolution" which causes man's "unique vulnerability to highly prevalent neuropsychiatric disorders" in a paper pu...

Continue reading Myelin 'Internet' Makes Human Brain Unique But Vulnerable, Researcher Says



Social Rejection Hurts Brain Function
November 15, 2006 03:40 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Researchers have found that being socially excluded causes notceable changes in the brain. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), they monitored 30 subjects' brain activity. After completing a personality inventory half were told their answers indicated they ...

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Research Suggests New Theory of Memory Storage
November 14, 2006 10:09 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Brown University researchers have set forth a new theory of memory storage challenging the widely held belief that new memories are transferred by the hippocampus to the neocortex during sleep. Using in vivo recordings, they found that this transfer is rat...

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Researchers Discover How Memories Are Packaged
November 10, 2006 03:42 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

University of California, Irvine researchers have released a report which may help to explain why some memories are more vivid than others. Employing an fMRI to study individuals who experienced and then recalled a complex event, scientists found that thos...

Continue reading Researchers Discover How Memories Are Packaged



Cognitive Decline Often Undiagnosed in Older Patients
November 01, 2006 08:40 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

For patients over 65, hospitalization for an acute illness may also be accompanied by a decline in cognitive ability that goes undiagnosed or even unnoticed says research by Sharon Inouye, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Aging Brain Center at Hebrew SeniorLif...

Continue reading Cognitive Decline Often Undiagnosed in Older Patients



New Screening Tool Helps Detects Dementia Earlier
November 01, 2006 08:09 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Scientists at Saint Louis University have developed a new tool for diagnosing dementia believed to work better than the routinely administered Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE). SLUMS, or the Saint Louis University Mental Status Examination, supplement...

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Exercise Prescribed for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
October 13, 2006 03:58 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

A British review of treatments for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) published in the Journal for the Royal Society of Medicinehas found that cognitive behavior therapy and exercise are the most effective ways to treat the disease. In comparison, antidepressan...

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How Close Relationships Affect Healing: A Neuroscientific Overview
October 11, 2006 04:05 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Research has long shown that people with strong social networks and relationships heal faster than those who do not. Now the emerging field of "social neuroscience" offers several explanations as to why. At the top of the list is the discovery of "mirror n...

Continue reading How Close Relationships Affect Healing: A Neuroscientific Overview



High BMI May Lead to Low Cognitive Functioning
October 10, 2006 04:49 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

A longitudinal study of French adults published in Neurology shows that a high body mass index (BMI) is linked to poorer in cognitive function in healthy middle-aged adults. Participants aged 32 to 65 performed four cognitive tests in 1996 and then again 2...

Continue reading High BMI May Lead to Low Cognitive Functioning



Multitasking Easy Only When Stimuli Type Differ
September 28, 2006 07:03 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

A study to be published in the October issue of Psychological Science shows that the human brain is quite capable of conducting two tasks at the same time--for example talking while driving--so long as the tasks were of distinct types of perceptual stimuli....

Continue reading Multitasking Easy Only When Stimuli Type Differ



Attraction Based on 'Ease' of Mental Processing
September 28, 2006 05:23 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Experiments published in the current issue of Psychological Science show that attractiveness depends upon the ease of mental processing a given object has on the brain.

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Columbia Neurologists Discover Neurocircuit of Fear Response
September 21, 2006 04:33 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Columbia University researchers have discovered the brain's mechanism for keeping frightening or otherwise emotionally intense stimuli from interfering with normal functioning.

Continue reading Columbia Neurologists Discover Neurocircuit of Fear Response



Teens Under-Use Empathy Region of Brain
September 07, 2006 05:23 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Teenagers under-use the region of the brain involved in considering their own and other people's emotions according to a study presented at the BA Festival of Science at University College London.

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Attractiveness, Trustworthiness Gauged in Milliseconds
August 23, 2006 04:11 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

A study by Princeton psychologists has found that judgments about attractiveness and character traits such as trustworthiness and competence are formed in just one-tenth of a second.

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Sunlight Gives Your Brain A Boost
August 21, 2006 07:35 AM
Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff

Researchers at the Universities of Liege and Surrey have released findings associating exposure to daylight with increased cognitive function. In the study, Daytime Light Exposure Dynamically Enhances Brain Responses, subjects were exposed to bright white l...

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This is an archive page containing articles from Psychology Briefs, the FindCounseling.com Blog.

Many more entries can be found on the main index page or by looking through the Psychology Research Archives.

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