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Showing posts from 2017

Need the ER? Pray Your Doc Plays Video Games

We're all so used to picking on our kids for playing video games but the next time he's in the ER, you just might be happy that doctors do it, too. According to new research, video games improve doctors' recognition and triage of severe trauma patients, newswise.com reports. Playing an adventure video game featuring a fictitious, young emergency physician treating severe trauma patients was better than text-based learning at priming real doctors to quickly recognize the patients who needed higher levels of care, according to a new trial led by the  University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine .  The results held, even though doctors assigned to the game enjoyed it less than those assigned to traditional, text-based education. This indicates that if game enjoyment can be improved, the already favorable results might be enhanced, the web site notes.  “Physicians must make decisions quickly and with incomplete information. Each year, 30,000 preventable deaths occur

Leave Your Ego at the Door

You might think this has nothing to do with you -- wingsuit flying, that is.  That's where crazy people strap on wings and attempt to fly in wind currents. But there's a lesson here in those who push themselves to the limit . Researchers from Leeds Beckett University are challenging the myth that extreme sports enthusiasts push themselves to the max and take risks no matter what the consequences. Wingsuit flying is a relatively new parachute sport which involves a specifically designed jumpsuit that facilitates forward motion and directional control, according to newswise.com. It is considered the most dangerous parachute sport as it involves flying close to structures at speeds of over 200 mph, where a mistake or accident would most likely result in death, the web site maintains. “When you think of the people involved in such extreme sports, you tend to think of risk takers who push themselves to the limit," says  Dr Eric Brymer, a Reader in the Carnegie School of

Be Humble. Your Employees May Work Harder

You wouldn't know it from our current crook- er - commander-in-chief but it pays to be humble , new research is showing. It’s good to be humble when you’re the boss – as long as that’s what your employees expect, according to newswise.com. Researchers studying workplaces in China found that some real-life teams showed more creativity if the employees rated their bosses as showing more humility. “Whether leader humility is a good thing really depends on the team members’ expectations,” says  Jia (Jasmine) Hu , lead author of the study and associate professor of  management and human resources  at The Ohio State University’s  Fisher College of Business . Humble leaders are most effective when team members expect a low degree of distance between the leaders and followers, Hu explains. When there is "low power distance" (I assume, this means when the boss is humble), employees share power with their boss in a collaborative way. But humility may be seen as a weaknes

Are You Unsocial? That Could Be a Good Thing

Would you rather spend time alone reading, or immerse yourself in a crowd at a party?   Though my gig is public relations, and I've had to make nice for years at corporate events and affairs (and I'm pretty good at it), I've begun to realize that my most fun activity is simply being by myself to think, or dream, or just, well, cogitate (look it up, millennials!). Now a new study says social withdrawal is not necessarily a bad thing.  According to newswise.com, though s pending too much time alone can be unhealthy and there is growing evidence that the psychosocial effects of too much solitude can last a lifetime,  newly published research by a University at Buffalo (UB) psychologist suggests that not all forms of social withdrawal are detrimental.  In fact, the research findings suggest that one form of social withdrawal, referred to as unsociability, is not only unrelated to negative outcomes, but linked positively to creativity, the web site reports. “Motivatio

Black Friday May Make You Poorer

Listen up.  Even if you're one of those people who get up before dawn to go stand in line, then shove your way through the crowd, on Black Friday , you're probably going to spend more than you intend, anyway, according to newswise.com. The web site reports that n ew research suggests some types of discounts encourage shoppers to overspend. That's why I usually stay home on Black Friday.  I don't need any more reasons to spend more! Researchers  explored promotional credit deals and how they can lead to fallacious thinking in consumers.  “Let’s say you went to Ann Taylor Loft, you bought a sweater for $50 and received $10 of Loft credit to spend in the future," says  University of Delaware’s Andong Cheng . "This purchase feels like it’s only $40 instead of $50. And then later, you spend the $10 on another shirt and feel like the shirt is free, because you’ve only been spending that merchandise credit instead of more money out of your pocket.” In this sc

Think You're Pretty Smart? You May Actually Stink at Visual Skills, Crucial in Today's Digital World

For all of you out there who got straight A's and scored high on your SAT (if you can remember back that far!), it doesn't necessarily mean that you can  learn the visual skills needed to excel at tasks like matching fingerprints, interpreting medical X-rays, keeping track of aircraft on radar displays or forensic face- matching. Your visual intelligence is not the same as your IQ, according to newswise.com. That is the implication of a new study which shows for the first time that there is a broad range of differences in people’s visual ability and that these variations are not associated with individuals’ general intelligence, or IQ. “People may think they can tell how good they are at identifying objects visually,” says  Isabel Gauthier, David K. Wilson Professor of Psychology  at Vanderbilt University, who headed the study. “But it turns out that they are not very good at evaluating their own skills relative to others.” In the past, research in visual object reco

End Your Texts With a Period? Don't

Now think about this.  You know how we're all doing away with punctuation o n our texts?  Well, a new study says that that very thing is what now stands in for the visual cues we used to get in face-to-face conversation. ‘Textisms’ convey meaning in absence of spoken conversation, says newswise.com. Emoticons, irregular spellings and exclamation points in text messages aren’t sloppy or a sign that written language is going down the tubes  — these “textisms” help convey meaning and intent in the absence of spoken conversation, according to newly published research from Binghamton University, State University of New York. “In contrast with face-to-face conversation, texters can’t rely on extra-linguistic cues such as tone of voice and pauses, or non-linguistic cues such as facial expressions and hand gestures,” says Binghamton University Professor of Psychology Celia Klin. “In a spoken conversation, the cues aren’t simply add-ons to our words; they convey critical inform

Want Something? Focus on It and You'll Want It More

You've had a hard day at work and now it's couch potato time.  You turn on the TV and there's that commercial for that car you've been eyeing for some time. You're really into the show but wait, here comes that commercial again.  And you know what?  The more you focus on it, the more you want it, at least, according to a new study, as reported by newswise.com. The relationship between desire and attention was long thought to only work in one direction: When a person desires something, they focus their attention on it.  Now, new research reveals this relationship works the other way, too: increasing a person’s focus on a desirable object makes them want the object even more—a finding with important implications for marketers and clinicians seeking to influence behavior. “People will block out distraction and narrow their attention on something they want,” says Anne Kotynski, author of the study and a PhD student in psychological sciences at Case Western Re

Are You Cool? You're Probably Not, If You're Reading This!

Do you want to be cool ? If you're reading this, you're probably not! Newswise.com says c oolness, by its nature, is ephemeral, elusive and ever-evolving. In the marketplace, coolness excites consumers, steers purchase behaviors and dictates trends. Coolness is something wanted by most and valued by consumers and marketers alike, but understood by few. But a new study says that coolness is a merger of autonomy, authenticity, attitude, and a fourth trait, association, which is helpful but not essential, according to the web site. In the study, autonomy referred to lack of conformity, unconventionality, rebellion, individuality and independence. In other words, people or brands high in autonomy are those who do their own thing, which often goes against the expectations of others. It's important to note that a “cool” product does not necessarily mean a “good” product, and having a cool product, or marketing a product as it will not work for every product categ

Make Dumb Decisions? Blame Your Neurons

Do you find it hard to make d ecisions ? I don't.  I make them quickly.  But sometimes, I regret them. Now a new study says penny-wise, pound-foolish ones are explained by neurons' firing in our brains, according to newswise.com. Spending decisions are influenced by adaptation in neural circuits. Say what? It's all trying to say that the  study suggests that being penny wise and pound foolish is not so much a failure of judgment as it is a function of how our brains tally the value of objects that vary widely in worth. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that when monkeys are faced with a choice between two options, the firing of neurons activated in the brain adjusts to reflect the enormity of the decision. Such an approach would explain why the same person can see 20 cents as a lot one moment and $5,000 as a little the next, the researchers said. “Everybody recognizes this behavior, because everybody does it