Does “Baby Einstein” actually make kids smarter?
pe: In recent years, parents in the United States and worldwide have purchased enormous numbers of videos and DVDs designed and marketed for infants, many assuming that their children would benefit from watching them. We examined how many new words 12- to 18-month-old children learned from viewing a popular DVD several times a week for 4 weeks at home. The most important result was that children who viewed the DVD did not learn any more words from their monthlong exposure…
1 min read
Does letting your teenager drink at home make them more or less likely to binge drink?
e current study examined whether permitting young women to drink alcohol at home during senior year of high school reduces the risk of heavy drinking in college. Participants were 449 college-bound female high school seniors, recruited at the end of their senior year. Participants were classified into one of three permissibility categories according to their baseline reports of whether their parents allowed them to drink at home: (a) not permitted to drink at all; (b) allowed to drink with family…
1 min read
Can you tell how smart your child is by how early they start lying?
a BBC: Toddlers who tell lies early on are more likely to do well later, researchers claim. The complex brain processes involved in formulating a lie are an indicator of a child's early intelligence, they add. A Canadian study of 1,200 children aged two to 17 suggests those who are able to lie have reached an important developmental stage. Only a fifth of two-year-olds tested in the study were able to lie. But at age four, 90% were capable of…
2 minutes
Do We Love Our Families More As We Age?
e current study examined age differences in the intensity of emotions experienced during social interactions. Because emotions are felt most intensely in situations central to motivational goals, age differences in emotional intensity may exist in social situations that meet the goals for one age group more than the other. Guided by theories of emotional intensity and socioemotional selectivity, it was hypothesized that social partner type would elicit different affective responses by age. Younger (n = 71) and older (n =…
1 min read
Can an adult tell when a child is lying?
investigated adults' ability to detect children's prepared and unprepared lies and truths. Furthermore, we examined children's strategies when lying. Thirty children (11-13 years) were interviewed about one self-experienced and one invented event each. Half had prepared their statements, the other half not. Sixty adult observers assessed the veracity of 10 videotaped statements each. Overall deception detection accuracy (51.5%) was not better than chance. The adults showed higher accuracy for unprepared statements (56.6%), than prepared statements (46.1%). The adults reported…
1 min read
Does being close to your family make you less trusting?
..people with strong family ties have a lower level of trust in strangers than people with weak family ties, and argue that this association is causal." We provide direct evidence that people with strong family ties have a lower level of trust in strangers than people with weak family ties, and argue that this association is causal. We also investigate the mechanisms that underlie this effect, and provide evidence that these revolve around the level of outward exposure: factors that…
1 min read
Is your brother smart? Then you might be crazy.
lose relatives of successful students showed increased risks of psychosis." Background It has been suggested that psychosis genes mightbe associated with beneficial effects, explaining their highfrequency in all human populations. Aims To test the relationship between academic success and the incidence of psychotic disorders. Method The unusually complete demographic and scholastic records available in Iceland were used to locate academically accomplishedindividuals and assess the probability of previously identifiedpatients with mental disorders and their relatives being amongsuch groups. Results Close relatives…
1 min read
Why you don’t want an older brother or a younger pair of twin siblings:
t an older brother? You're less likely to have kids: Sex-specific sibling interactions are potentially important in human ecology. It is well established that in patrilineal societies that sons suffer from the presence of brothers because of competition for inheritance. However, offspring (of both sexes) might also suffer from being born after an elder brother because of the greater costs sons may entail for their mother. Evidence that the cost of producing sons is higher has been gained from studies…
2 minutes
