![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Wow. Buckeyes win.
Jan. 4th, 2003 12:41 amI was rooting for them, actually. (First time in my life I ever wanted Ohio State to win....)
Jan. 4th, 2003
gotta love that placebo effect
Jan. 4th, 2003 12:48 amEven 'Vodka-Free' Vodka and Tonics Impair Memory
People who think they are drinking alcohol perform worse on memory tests than others, even when their drink is nothing more than tonic water, new research shows.
In memory tests involving eyewitness accounts, people who believed they were drinking a vodka and tonic were more swayed by misleading information presented after the event than those who were told their drinks were vodka-free.
Supposed alcohol drinkers also tended to report feeling more confident about the accuracy of their responses than did those who knew they were downing tonic water alone, report Drs. Seema L. Assefi and Maryanne Garry of Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.
"Together, these results lead us to conclude that the suggestion one has consumed alcohol can affect not only memory for an event, but also confidence about how accurate that memory is," they add.
[...]During the experiment, 148 undergraduate students all drank tonic water, and half were told the drinks contained vodka. The students drank while they watched a short film, then saw a slide sequence showing a man shoplifting at a bookstore. After the show, participants read a 500-word story that contained some misleading information about some of the objects in the slide show, such as incorrectly describing their color.
The authors then quizzed the students about details regarding the objects that appeared in the original slide show.
This aspect of memory contains a social component, the authors argue, because previous research has suggested that social influences can affect how a person responds to misleading information. The status of the figure who presents the misleading information, as well as his or her appearance, all appear to influence how people respond to it, they note.
Indeed, in the current study, people who believed they were drinking alcohol were more strongly influenced by the misleading information presented after the slide show, and also reported feeling more confident about their memories than did people who knew their tonic was vodka-free.
However, the students who believed their drinks were spiked answered questions about objects not discussed during the misleading story just as well as those who knew what they were drinking--suggesting alcohol does not impact the so-called "nonsocial" aspect of memory.
People who think they are drinking alcohol perform worse on memory tests than others, even when their drink is nothing more than tonic water, new research shows.
In memory tests involving eyewitness accounts, people who believed they were drinking a vodka and tonic were more swayed by misleading information presented after the event than those who were told their drinks were vodka-free.
Supposed alcohol drinkers also tended to report feeling more confident about the accuracy of their responses than did those who knew they were downing tonic water alone, report Drs. Seema L. Assefi and Maryanne Garry of Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.
"Together, these results lead us to conclude that the suggestion one has consumed alcohol can affect not only memory for an event, but also confidence about how accurate that memory is," they add.
[...]During the experiment, 148 undergraduate students all drank tonic water, and half were told the drinks contained vodka. The students drank while they watched a short film, then saw a slide sequence showing a man shoplifting at a bookstore. After the show, participants read a 500-word story that contained some misleading information about some of the objects in the slide show, such as incorrectly describing their color.
The authors then quizzed the students about details regarding the objects that appeared in the original slide show.
This aspect of memory contains a social component, the authors argue, because previous research has suggested that social influences can affect how a person responds to misleading information. The status of the figure who presents the misleading information, as well as his or her appearance, all appear to influence how people respond to it, they note.
Indeed, in the current study, people who believed they were drinking alcohol were more strongly influenced by the misleading information presented after the slide show, and also reported feeling more confident about their memories than did people who knew their tonic was vodka-free.
However, the students who believed their drinks were spiked answered questions about objects not discussed during the misleading story just as well as those who knew what they were drinking--suggesting alcohol does not impact the so-called "nonsocial" aspect of memory.
Culture is a technology.
Jan. 4th, 2003 01:19 amStudy Suggests Orangutans Are Cultured
Some orangutan parents teach their offspring to use leaves as napkins. Others say good night with a spluttering, juicy raspberry. And still others get water from a hole by dipping a branch and then licking the leaves.
These are examples, researchers say, that prove the orangutan is a cultured ape, able to learn new living habits and to pass them along to the next generation.
The discovery, reported in a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, suggests that early primates, which include the ancestors of humans, may have developed the ability to invent new behaviors, such as tool use, as early as 14 million years ago. That would be some 6 million years earlier than once believed.
"If the orangutans have culture, then it tells us that the capacity to develop culture is very ancient," says Birute Galdikas, a co-author of the study.
[...] Culture, in the scientific sense, is the ability to invent new behaviors that are adopted by the population group and are passed along to succeeding generations.
Orangutan culture, while crude by human standards, is culture nonetheless. It developed and is practiced independently by different groups and succeeding generations in the same way that human societies develop and perpetuate unique forms of music, architecture, language, clothing and art.
[...] "Developing this culture is indicative that their cognitive level is very high," said Galdikas, who has studied the animals in the wild for 30 years. "Orangutans are as intelligent as chimpanzees and gorillas, but they have a different kind of mentality and personality."
Some orangutan parents teach their offspring to use leaves as napkins. Others say good night with a spluttering, juicy raspberry. And still others get water from a hole by dipping a branch and then licking the leaves.
These are examples, researchers say, that prove the orangutan is a cultured ape, able to learn new living habits and to pass them along to the next generation.
The discovery, reported in a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, suggests that early primates, which include the ancestors of humans, may have developed the ability to invent new behaviors, such as tool use, as early as 14 million years ago. That would be some 6 million years earlier than once believed.
"If the orangutans have culture, then it tells us that the capacity to develop culture is very ancient," says Birute Galdikas, a co-author of the study.
[...] Culture, in the scientific sense, is the ability to invent new behaviors that are adopted by the population group and are passed along to succeeding generations.
Orangutan culture, while crude by human standards, is culture nonetheless. It developed and is practiced independently by different groups and succeeding generations in the same way that human societies develop and perpetuate unique forms of music, architecture, language, clothing and art.
[...] "Developing this culture is indicative that their cognitive level is very high," said Galdikas, who has studied the animals in the wild for 30 years. "Orangutans are as intelligent as chimpanzees and gorillas, but they have a different kind of mentality and personality."