IB Psychology Crane

Research published in the Journal of Neuroscience Tuesday claims that chronic sleep loss can lead to a permanent loss of brain cells - nullifying any hope to "make up" for lost sleep.

AA and rehab culture have shockingly low success rates, and made it impossible to have real debate about addiction

With a sophisticated neural network transmitting messages from trillions of bacteria, the brain in your gut exerts a powerful influence over the one in your head, new research suggests

Prior research has documented cultural dimensions that broadly characterize between-culture variations in Western and East Asian societies and that bicultural individuals can flexibly change their behaviors in response to different cultural contexts. In this article, we studied cultural differences and behavioral switching in the context of the fast emerging, naturally occurring online social networking, using both self-report measures and content analyses of online activities on two highly popular platforms, Facebook and Renren (the "Facebook of China"). Results showed that while Renren and Facebook are two technically similar platforms, the Renren culture is perceived as more collectivistic than the Facebook culture. Furthermore, we presented evidence for the first time that users who are members of both online cultures flexibly switch and adapt their in-group sharing behaviors in response to the online community in which they are: They perform more benevolent in-group sharing when they participate in the Renren community and less so when they participate in the Facebook community. We discussed both the theoretical and methodological implications of the current research

A Violence in the Blood

Advances in neuroscience could transform our criminal justice systems. But the jury is out as to whether "my brain made me do it" will ever be accepted in court.

Are we born to be optimistic, rather than realistic? Tali Sharot shares new research that suggests our brains are wired to look on the bright side - and how that can be both dangerous and beneficial

Young people who sustain brain injuries are more likely to commit crimes and end up in prison, research suggests

Scientists are testing the idea that the stress of modern city life is a breeding ground for psychosis

There are people who can quickly memorize lists of thousands of numbers, the order of all the cards in a deck (or ten!), and much more. Science writer Joshua Foer describes the technique - called the memory palace - and shows off its most remarkable feature: anyone can learn how to use it, including him

Depressive disorders are among the most frequent psychiatric disorders, accounting for up to 30% of primary care service utilisation in developing countries in general, and Uganda in particular. However, delays in seeking treatment, misdiagnosis and non-specific treatments have compromised appropriate care for people with depression

Children are notoriously bad at delaying gratification to achieve later, greater rewards -and some are worse at waiting than others. Individual differences in the ability-to-wait have been attributed to self-control, in part because of evidence that long-delayers are more successful in later life (e.g.,Shoda, Mischel, & Peake, 1990. Here we provide evidence that, in addition to self-control, children's wait-times are modulated by an implicit, rational decision-making process that considers environmental reliability. We tested children (M= 4;6,N= 28) using a classic paradigm-the marshmallow task (Mischel, 1974)-in an environment demonstrated to be either unreliable or reliable. Children in the reliable condition waited significantly longer than those in the unreliable condition(p< 0.0005), suggesting that children's wait-times reflected reasoned beliefs about whether waiting would ultimately pay off. Thus, wait-times on sustained delay-of-gratification tasks (e.g., the marshmallow task) may not only reflect differences in self-control abilities, but also beliefs about the stability of the world.

For the past four decades, the "marshmallow test" has served as a classic experimental measure of children's self-control: will a preschooler eat one of the fluffy white confections now or hold out for two later? The original research began at Stanford University in the late 1960s. Walter Mischel and other researchers famously showed that individual differences in the ability to delay gratification on this simple task correlated strongly with success in later life. Longer wait times as a child were linked years later to higher SAT scores, less substance abuse, and parental reports of better social skills.

In this excerpt from the SBS series, Food Investigators, Dr Paul Harrison from Deakin University discusses with host Renee Lim how supermarket management use a sophisticated understanding of psychology and sociology to manipulate the supermarket environment to persuade us to enter, stay and buy. For more information go to www.sbs.com.au/foodinvestigators and www.tribalinsight.com