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Mars Base

Claims of fairness in apes have critics crying foul | Zoology | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/..._apes_have_critics_crying_foul

scibyte78

shared by Mars Base on 16 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Chimpanzees often share and share alike when cooperating in pairs, suggesting that these apes come close to a human sense of fairness, a controversial new study finds.
  • chimps tend to fork over half of a valuable windfall to a comrade in situations where the recipient can choose to accept the deal or turn it down and leave both players with nothing
  • Yerkes National Primate Research Cente
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • just as people do, chimps turn stingy when supplied with goodies that they can share however they like
  • But psychologis
  • of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
  • considers the new results “far from convincing.
  • In Proctor’s experiments, pairs of chimps interacted little with each other and showed no signs of understanding that some offers were unfair and could be rejected
  • study suggests that there is no fairness sensitivity in chimpanzees
  • coauthored two earlier studies in which chimps given food generally shared as little as possible with partners, who accepted most offers
  • Apes on the receiving end affirmed an offer by pulling food within reach using a mechanical device or refused an offer by doing nothing for 30 seconds.
  • In the new study, chimps and preschool children were tested in a way that Proctor contends is closer to a cooperation task known as the ultimatum game that is used in experiments with adults.
  • In the game’s standard version, one player splits a pot of money with another player
  • If the receiver accepts the proposer’s offer, both players keep their shares.
  • If the receiver rejects the offer, both players get nothing.
  • Proposers fork over 40 percent to 50 percent of the pot in most human cultures
  • A concern with fairness and a fear of retaliation for lowball offers prompts these generous offers
  • Her group studied six adult chimps at an outdoor research facility and 20 preschool children ages 2 to 7
  • Four pairs of chimps and 10 pairs of kids played a modified ultimatum game, in which a proposer can offer one of two tokens to a receiver
  • Accepted tokens got handed to an experimenter in exchange for rewards
  • Proposers opted for even splits much more frequently when a partner could reject offers
  • Two pairs of chimps split banana slices equally substantially more often than expected by chance
  • In both species, receivers exchanged all tokens for rewards, even those for unfair deals.
  • Neither chimps nor kids were trained that refusal was an option, but the mere threat of a partner’s retaliation motivated proposers to share equally
  • Jensen disagrees with that conclusion. Receivers’ acceptance of all offers “suggests that they were not sensitive to unfairness but were motivated only by getting rewards,
  • undermines any suggestion that chimp or child proposers assumed that their offers could be rejected
Mars Base

Coffee, other stimulant drugs may cause high achievers to slack off: research - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...3-coffee-drugs-high-slack.html

scibyte40 coffee

shared by Mars Base on 29 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • While stimulants may improve unengaged workers’ performance, a new University of British Columbia study suggests that for others, caffeine and amphetamines can have the opposite effect, causing workers with higher motivation levels to slack off.
  • impacts of stimulants on “slacker” rats and “worker” rats, and sheds important light on why stimulants might affect people differently, a question that has long been unclear
  • suggests that patients being treated with stimulants for a range of illnesses may benefit from more personalized treatment programs.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • suggest that some stimulants may actually have an opposite effect for people who naturally favour the difficult tasks of life that come with greater rewards
  • found that rats – like humans – show varying levels of willingness to expend high or low degrees of mental effort to obtain food rewards.
  • with stimulants, the “slacker” rats that typically avoided challenges worked significantly harder when given amphetamines
  • worker” rats that typically embraced challenges were less motivated by caffeine or amphetamine
Mars Base

Carrots, not sticks, motivate workers - 0 views

phys.org/...2012-06-carrots-workers.html

scibyte52 Motivation

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • new study co-authored by a Michigan State University business scholar says it's the carrot – and not the stick – that drives productivity.
  • challenges previous research that says the threat of penalty is more effective for getting increased effort
  • findings show what carrots work better than sticks – in other words, workers respond better to bonuses than penalties
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • conducted a scientific experiment in which participants played the role of supervisor and employee
  • Some employees were subjected to a bonus program implemented by the supervisor
  • others worked under a penalty system.
  • Employees subjected to the bonus exhibited more effort and this was driven by greater trust in the supervisor
  • the study is the first to identify this trust factor.
  • those subjected to penalties tend to distrust the supervisor and, because of that, work less hard
  • employees who receive bonuses for their efforts will work even harder, increasing productivity and potentially bolstering profits
  • Examples of penalties in the business world include pay reduction, demotion and sanction or other disciplinary action, such as a salesperson with lower performance getting less territory to work.
Mars Base

Casual marijuana use linked to brain abnormalities in students - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...inked-brain-abnormalities.html

scibyte127 marijuana

shared by Mars Base on 19 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Young adults who used marijuana only recreationally showed significant abnormalities in two key brain regions that are important in emotion and motivation
  • This is the first study to show casual use of marijuana is related to major brain changes
  • the degree of brain abnormalities in these regions is directly related to the number of joints a person smoked per week
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • The more joints a person smoked, the more abnormal the shape, volume and density of the brain regions
  • Some of these people only used marijuana to get high once or twice a week
  • think a little recreational use shouldn't cause a problem
  • data directly says this is not the case
  • Scientists examined the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala—key regions for emotion and motivation, and associated with addiction—in the brains of casual marijuana users and non-users
  • chers analyzed three measures: volume, shape and density of grey matter
  • to obtain a comprehensive view of how each region was affected.
  • Both these regions in recreational pot users were abnormally altered for at least two of these structural measures
  • The degree of those alterations was directly related to how much marijuana the subjects used
  • Through different methods of neuroimaging, scientists examined the brains of young adults
  • ages 18 to 25, from Boston-area colleges; 20 who smoked marijuana and 20 who didn't. Each group had nine males and 11 females
  • The users underwent a psychiatric interview to confirm they were not dependent on marijuana
  • The changes in brain structures indicate the marijuana users' brains are adapting to low-level exposure to marijuana
  • The study results fit with animal studies that show when rats are given tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) their brains rewire and form many new connections. THC is the mind-altering ingredient found in marijuana
  • think when people are in the process of becoming addicted, their brains form these new connections
  • In animals, these new connections indicate the brain is adapting to the unnatural level of reward and stimulation from marijuana. These connections make other natural rewards less satisfying
  • The brain changes suggest that structural changes to the brain are an important early result of casual drug use
  • researchers did not know the THC content of the marijuana, which can range from 5 to 9 percent or even higher
  • The THC content is much higher today than the marijuana during the 1960s and 1970s, which was often about 1 to 3 percent
Mars Base

Mars Colony Project Gets 78,000 Applications in 2 Weeks | Mars One | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/s-one-colony-applications.html

scibyte93 MarsOne

shared by Mars Base on 08 May 13 - No Cached
  • About 78,000 people have applied to become Red Planet colonists with the nonprofit organization Mars One since its application process opened on April 22, officials announced today (May 7).
  • 78,000 applications in two weeks
  • goal of half a million applicant
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • Mars One estimates that landing four settlers on Mars in 2023 will cost about $6 billion
  • plans to pay most of the bills by staging a global reality-TV event, with cameras documenting all phases of the mission from astronaut selection to the colonists' first years on the Red Planet.
  • The application process extends until Aug. 31. Anyone at least 18 years of age can apply, by submitting to the Mars One website a 1-minute video explaining his or her motivation to become a Red Planet settler. (
  • application fee, which ranges from $5 to $75 depending on the wealth of the applicant's home country. United States citizens pay $38
  • reviewers will pick 50 to 100 candidates from each of the 300 regions around the world that Mars One has identified
  • By 2015, this pool will be whittled down to a total of 28 to 40 candidates, officials said.
  • core group will be split into groups of four, which will train for their one-way Mars mission for about seven years
  • . Finally, an audience vote will pick one of these groups to be humanity's first visitors to the Red Planet.
  • more than 120 countries
  • United States
  • 17,324
  • China (10,241) and the United Kingdom (3,581). Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Argentina and India round out the top 10.
Mars Base

Confirmed: Dogs Sneak Food When People Aren't Looking - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...ogs-animals-science-mind-smart

scibyte83 dog

shared by Mars Base on 19 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • The research shows that domestic dogs, when told not to snatch a piece of food, are more likely to disobey the command in a dark room than in a lit room
  • The one thing we can say is that dogs really have specialized skills in reading human communication
  • This is special in dogs
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • recruited 84 dogs, all of which were more than a year old, motivated by food, and comfortable with both strangers and dark rooms
  • The team then set up experiments in which a person commanded a dog not to take a piece of food on the floor
  • repeated the commands in a room with different lighting scenarios ranging from fully lit to fully dark
  • They found that the dogs were four times as likely to steal the food—and steal it more quickly—when the room was dark
  • the dog's behavior depended on whether the food was in the light or not, suggesting that the dog made its decision based on whether the human could see them approaching the food
  • were thinking what affected the dog was whether they saw the human, but seeing the human or not didn't affect the behavior
  • The study of dog cognition suddenly began about 15 years ago
  • Many of the new dog studies are variations on research done with chimpanzees, bonobos, and even young children
  • Selectively bred as companions for thousands of years, dogs are especially attuned to human emotions
  • are better at reading human cues than even our closest mammalian relatives
  • research reveals more and more insight into the minds
  • We still don't know just how smart they are
  • researchers are interested in whether the dog has a theory of mind
  • theory of mind is "an understanding that others have different perspective, knowledge, feelings than we do
  • Now, a new study suggests dogs might understand people even better than we thought
Mars Base

Could the Video-Game Tetris Curb Cravings for Food, Cigarettes and Alcohol? - 0 views

www.scienceworldreport.com/...ood-cigarettes-and-alcohol.htm

scibyte122

shared by Mars Base on 25 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • A recent study suggests that Tetris could actually help dieters reduce cravings
  • examine how the game can affect people's carvings
  • researchers created two study groups: One that played Tetris for three minutes while the other group was told that the game was loading but they never received the chance to play
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • participants were then asked to rate their cravings for cigarettes, food and alcohol based on the vividness, intrusiveness and strength of those cravings.
  • Tetris group showed a 24 percent reduction in cravings following their activity with the game
  • the other group who did not get to play Tetris did not experience any craving reductions.
  • "Ultimately, we are constantly looking for ways to stimulate cravings for healthy activities - such as exercise - but this a neutral activity that we have shown can have a positive impact."
  • "Feeling in control is an important part of staying motivated, and playing Tetris can potentially help the individual to stay in control when cravings strike
  • It is something a person can quickly access, for the most part whether they are at work or at home, and replaces the feeling of stress caused by the craving itself,"
Mars Base

NASA's Curiosity Rover Drills Sandstone Slab on Mars - Mars Science Laboratory - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte130 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 11 May 14 - No Cached
  • The full-depth hole for sample collection is close to a shallower test hole drilled last week in the same rock, which gave researchers a preview of the interior material as tailings around the hole
  • "The drill tailings from this rock are darker-toned and less red than we saw at the two previous drill sites," said Jim Bell
  • , deputy principal investigator for Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam)
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • "This suggests that the detailed chemical and mineral analysis that will be coming from Curiosity's other instruments could reveal different materials than we've seen before.
  • Sample material from Windjana will be sieved, then delivered in coming days to onboard laboratories for determining the mineral and chemical composition
  • One motive for the team's selection of Windjana for drilling is to analyze the cementing material that holds together sand-size grains in this sandstone.
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