Psychology

When shopping, we often find ourselves choosing between lower- and higher-cost items. But most people make a choice based on the first digit they see, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.  "Shoppers pay a disproportionate amount of attention to the leftmost digits in prices and these leftmost digits impact whether a product's price is perceived to be relatively affordable or expensive," write authors Kenneth C. Manning (Colorado State University) and David E. Sprott (Washington State University). In one experiment, Manning and Sprott asked participants to…

It looks the Nintendo folks who came up with the name 'Wii' were onto something - apparently if they had named it 'Vaiveahtoishi' it wouldn't have been as successful.   'Whee' is a noise kids make when they're having fun and studies have suggested that we tend to perceive familiar products and activities as being less risky and hazardous than unfamiliar ones. If something is familiar, the thinking goes, it is comfortable and safe. But how do we know if something is familiar? We often rely on a simple shortcut: If it is easy to perceive, remember or pronounce, we have probably seen it…

For many children, a trip to the doctor or dentist is a stressful experience. The sensory environment (i.e., the sounds, smells, and lights associated with the clinical setting) can cause a child's anxiety levels to rise. This is especially true in children with developmental disabilities who may have difficulty understanding the unfamiliar clinical environment. A new study soon explores the relationship between the sensory environment and anxiety levels in children. Dr. Michele Shapiro of the Issie Shapiro Educational Center and colleagues from Hebrew University in Israel studied the effects…

Self-control is one of our most cherished values; we applaud those with the discipline to regulate their appetites and actions and we try hard to instill this virtue in our children.   But is it possible that willpower can sometimes be an obstacle rather than a means to happiness and harmony? Yes, say Tufts University psychologists Evan Apfelbaum and Samuel Sommers, who were intrigued by the notion that too much self-control may have a downside and that relinquishing some power might be paradoxically tonic, both for individuals and for society. They explored the virtue of powerlessness…

While science tries to understand the stuff dreams are made of, humans, from cultures all over the world, continue to believe that dreams contain important hidden truths, according to newly published research.  In six different studies, researchers surveyed nearly 1,100 people about their dreams. "Psychologists' interpretations of the meaning of dreams vary widely," said Carey Morewedge, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the study's lead author. "But our research shows that people believe their dreams provide meaningful insight into themselves and their world." In…

Preschool children who are securely attached to their mothers form closer friendships in the early grade-school years for a number of reasons, according to a new University of Illinois study published in Child Development. Scientists have known about the link between attachment and friendship quality, but they haven't understood the reasons it exists. The study included 1,071 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Researchers assessed mother-child attachment at age three. They also assessed how openly mothers…

Think there's not enough time to do everything you need to do?   You may just need to change your perception, says Michael DeDonno, a doctoral student in psychology at Case Western Reserve University. If you don't think you have enough time, you've already given up. DeDonno recently studied 163 subjects performing the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a popular psychological assessment tool, to investigate the effect of perceived time pressure on a learning-based task. His study, the first to look at the relationship between perceived time pressure and IGT performance, was published in the…

As many as 2.4 million Americans have schizophrenia so a late or incorrect diagnosis and the lack of effective treatment options can destroy a sufferer's quality of life. Schizophrenia usually emerges between the ages of 18 and 30 but diagnosis before the disease manifests itself could be the key to developing more successful treatments, says Prof. Talma Hendler, of Tel Aviv University's Department of Psychology. Until now, detecting mental illness before symptoms appear has been nearly impossible. Building on her groundbreaking work on facial recognition and brain imaging, Prof. Hendler is…

In almost every diet book you read, they tell you to never get hungry.   You will binge if you do, they all say, because of temptation and that gnawing in your stomach.   Yet all those snacks and meals have corresponded to a ballooning obesity problem which gets instead blamed on trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, salt - you name it. It may be that all those self-help books and catering to mental weakness has caused a drop in self-control, says psychological theory.   If you want to lose weight, keep a house full of chocolate. According to counteractive self-control…

When it comes to assessing the romantic playing field -- who might be interested in whom -- men and women were shown to be equally good at gauging men's interest during an Indiana University study involving speed dating -- and equally bad at judging women's interest.  Researchers expected women to have a leg up in judging romantic interest, because theoretically they have more to lose from a bad relationship, but no such edge was found.  Place's study, published in the January issue of the journal Psychological Science, focused on the ability of observers to judge romantic interest…