Cognitive Psychology Archives

Chronic Pain Alters Brain Function - February 6, 2008

Chronic pain is often only the start of the problem for sufferers, who also suffer high rates of depression, anxiety and sleep disorders. New research from Northwestern University shows the pain may cause a cognitive impairment which contributes to these...
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PsychBriefs: January 13-19, 2008 - January 19, 2008

Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Bisexuality more than a phase A ten-year study of 79 non-heterosexual women shows that bisexuality in women should not be viewed...
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MRIs Show Culture Influences Brain Functions - January 11, 2008

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...
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Estrogen Linked to Anorexia - January 2, 2008

High levels of estrogen in the womb may increase risk of anorexia, shows new research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Psychiatrists studied medical records of thousands of Swedish twins. They found anorexia to be higher in female twins...
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Foster Children Experience Marked IQ Gains Over Institutionalized Orphans - December 20, 2007

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. The study monitored 136 children aged 31 months or less who were assigned...
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Anorexic Brain Set on Planning, Not Pleasure - December 3, 2007

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. Walter H. Kaye, M.D., professor of psychiatry at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine...
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ADHD Brains Mature Three Years Later - November 12, 2007

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. Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging techniques to scan subjects brains at...
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That's My Choice and I'm Sticking To It - November 9, 2007

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...
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Researchers Identify False Memories with Brain Scans - October 24, 2007

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. Researchers examined intracranial electroencephalographic recordings from 52 epileptic patients while they performed a task in...
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Resistance is Futile When Brain is Overworked - October 10, 2007

Why is it that some people easily resist temptation in one area but fail miserably when trying to control the simplest urge in another? In the latest issue ofPsychological Science, researchers Michael Inzlicht of the University of Toronto Scarborough and...
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Conscience or Cognitive Science? - October 4, 2007

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...
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Republican vs. Democrat: A Matter of Brain Chemistry? - September 11, 2007

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 instructed to tap an...
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Psychologists Explain Why 'They All Look the Same' - August 15, 2007

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...
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Reading vs. Doing Produces Different Forms of Thinking - July 13, 2007

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...
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Putting Feelings Into Words Examined In Brain Scans - July 11, 2007

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...
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Your Brain Loves Paying Taxes As Much As It Loves Cheeseburgers - June 26, 2007

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...
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Study Finds The Blind Have Superior 'Serial Memory' - June 21, 2007

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...
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Race And The Psychology Of Police Shootings - June 4, 2007

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 many say...
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MRIs Reveal Highly Distinct Branches Of Anxiety - May 30, 2007

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...
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Improving Decision Making Skills in Adults - May 23, 2007

Decision scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and the Rand Corporation have released a study in the May issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that indicates that it may be possible for adults to be taught better decision...
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How Meditation Changes The Brain's Attention Span - May 15, 2007

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...
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Babies Can Remember--Just Not for Long - February 19, 2007

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 the...
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Study: Folic Acid May Help Mental Functioning - February 5, 2007

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...
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Understanding Others Key to Altruism - January 22, 2007

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...
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To Buy or Not to Buy: Brain Chemistry May Make the Call - January 16, 2007

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...
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Instinctive Decisions Most Reliable - January 9, 2007

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 side of...
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Without Memories of the Past, Dreams of Future May Be Impossible - January 2, 2007

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...
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Cognitive Exercise Helps Seniors' Skills Stay Sharp - December 20, 2006

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 other groups underwent ten sessions...
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Videogame Violence Affects Brain Function - November 29, 2006

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 groups of...
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Findings: Proteins Anchor Long-Term Memories in Brain - November 28, 2006

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...
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Myelin 'Internet' Makes Human Brain Unique But Vulnerable, Researcher Says - November 21, 2006

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 published by UCLA...
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Social Rejection Hurts Brain Function - November 15, 2006

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 were likely to end up alone...
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Research Suggests New Theory of Memory Storage - November 14, 2006

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...
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Researchers Discover How Memories Are Packaged - November 10, 2006

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 those...
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Cognitive Decline Often Undiagnosed in Older Patients - November 1, 2006

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...
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New Screening Tool Helps Detects Dementia Earlier - November 1, 2006

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, supplements the MMSE, takes about...
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Exercise Prescribed for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - October 13, 2006

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, antidepressants and...
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How Close Relationships Affect Healing: A Neuroscientific Overview - October 11, 2006

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...
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High BMI May Lead to Low Cognitive Functioning - October 10, 2006

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...
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Multitasking Easy Only When Stimuli Type Differ - September 28, 2006

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...
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Attraction Based on 'Ease' of Mental Processing - September 28, 2006

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. Using random-dot patterns and common geometric patterns, researchers first "prepared" participants to receive a...
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Columbia Neurologists Discover Neurocircuit of Fear Response - September 21, 2006

Columbia University researchers have discovered the brain's mechanism for keeping frightening or otherwise emotionally intense stimuli from interfering with normal functioning. Participants in their study underwent fMRI scanning while they were asked to look at pictures of faces imprinted with...
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Teens Under-Use Empathy Region of Brain - September 7, 2006

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. In the study, adult and teen-aged participants were asked...
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Attractiveness, Trustworthiness Gauged in Milliseconds - August 23, 2006

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. In an experiment, subjects were shown different faces for durations of 100 milliseconds...
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Sunlight Gives Your Brain A Boost - August 21, 2006

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 light then performed a cognitive...
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