Can autism be diagnosed in infants? New study says yes.

AUTHOR: Robbie Woliver

PUBLICATION NAME: Psychology Today

DATE OF PUBLICATION: August 18, 2010

SUMMARY: At the University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, doctors conducted a study with newborn babies. At first this study had nothing to do with detecting Autism, but soon doctors began to realize that there was a connection between a certain symptom that the babies had and Autism. Every baby that had this symptom was later diagnosed with autism later on in life. This possible discovery could prove to be very helpful to children with Autism because if it is detected earlier in a child's life, treatment can be given at an earlier age. This would greatly benefit children with Autism as Autism is usually detected around 3-5 years of age.

However, one of the limiting factors of this study is the fact that only very ill babies were included. The unit that was in charge of this study was the intensive care unit, so the only reason that the symptoms connected with Autism were detected was because of how closely each baby was being watched by doctors. Also, healthy babies were not included in this study.

This discovery could prove incredibly useful to future children with autism. If autism could potentially be diagnosed during a child's infancy, then treatment could be given earlier, which would help a child much more in their life.

LINKS TO STUDY: none listed

ARTICLE: Can autism be diagnosed in infants? New study says yes.

SUBMITTED BY: Kimmy Guzzetta

New Study Shows Humans are on Auto Pilot Nearly Half the Time

AUTHOR: Dr. David Rock

PUBLICATION NAME: Psychology Today

DATE OF PUBLICATION: November 14, 2010

SUMMARY: Daniel Gilbert and Matthew Killingsworth recently found from a study they did that most people are "mentally checked out" for about half of their time. In addition to this, the people that participated in the study reported that during the time that they let their minds wander, they were unhappy. Rock concludes that the amount of mind wandering that is done can be used as an indicator as to how happy one is when doing an activity. The more that the mind wanders during an activity, the less happiness it brings to the person.

Rock then links this study to another study by Norman Farb called, "Mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reverence." From this study Norman Farb concluded that humans are able to experience things in two different ways using different networks. The first network, called the default network, becomes active when not much else is happening. This network allows the mind to wander rather than paying direct attention to one's surroundings.

The other way of interacting with experiences is through direct experience. This mode of thought allows one to focus directly on what is happening right at that moment.

According to Kirk Brown, mindfulness is one of the keys to more cognitive control. It is a habit that you must develop, and by adjusting your mind to become more mindful, you can become happier person.

LINKS TO STUDY: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6006/932.abstract

http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/2/4/313.short

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=15556264

ARTICLE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-work/201011/new-study-shows-humans-are-auto-pilot-nearly-half-the-time

SUBMITTED BY: Kimmy Guzzetta

Positive And Negative Messages In Advertising

AUTHOR: unknown

PUBLICATION NAME: PsyArticles.com

DATE OF PUBLICATION: December 2008

SUMMARY: Researchers have discovered that consumers will spend more on a product using positive advertising if there is no deadline or the deadline is far in the future for the purchase. On the other hand, if the deadline is eminent, consumers will spend more money on products using negative advertising. A positive advertisement is something that encourages a consumer to buy a product because something good will happen to them if they do. One example is “get the best deal”. A negative advertisement is something that discourages a consumer from not buying the product. An example is “do not get ripped off.”

Researchers have also discovered that high levels of emotion in an advertisement have a positive effect on consumers regardless of the intended message of the advertisement or what the emotion in the advertisement is. In addition, advertisements with low levels of emotion have no effect on the consumer, no matter how factual or informative the advertisement is. This suggests that companies should focus more on the creativity and emotion in their advertisement than on factual information because no matter how good your product sounds on paper, consumers are only affected by the emotions in the advertisement. This may also lead to consumers being less aware that the advertisement is influencing their behavior, thus making them more susceptible to its sway.

To sum it all up, in an advertisement you should use positive reinforcement for products that there is no eminent deadline to purchase and negative advertisement if there is an eminent deadline. In addition, it does not matter what you say, but how you say it.

LINKS TO STUDY: none listed

ARTICLE: http://www.psyarticles.com/emotion/advertising-message.htm

SUBMITTED BY: Stephanie Walker

Girls are More Intelligent than Boys, but Men are More Intelligent than Women

AUTHOR: Satoshi Kanazawa

PUBLICATION NAME: Psychology Today

DATE OF PUBLICATION: October 3, 2010

SUMMARY: Girls mature faster than boys, so the “male advantage” in intelligence does not seem to appear until after puberty. Due to a large difference in maturity level, comparing two boys at age 10 is considered the equivalent to comparing two girls at the age of 12. Older and more mature children have a greater cognitive capacity than those children younger and less mature.

Britain’s National Child Development Study took a group of about 17,000 newborns in March of 1958 and followed them for more than fifty years, measuring their IQs at set dates. Using data from this interesting study, it is apparent that at ages seven and eleven (before puberty), girls have a higher IQ than boys. This indicates that prepubescent girls are more generally intelligent than prepubescent boys.

At age 16, however, measuring the IQs of the same group of children, it is evident that the roles have been reversed: males at this age have a slightly higher IQ than females.

Kanazawa claims that the later male advantage in intelligence is attributed to both maturity as well as height. This height theory connects to a previous post by Kanazawa and study, which can be found here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200901/why-men-are-more-intelligent-women

The notion that young girls are more intelligent than young boys is widely accepted and is no surprise. Boys are much less mature than girls. However, the theory about teenage boys and men being more intelligent than teenage girls and women is somewhat controversial. It is an interesting concept, one that I believe will take many more years and many more studies to actually prove, if it ever can be proved.

LINKS TO STUDY: none

ARTICLE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201010/girls-are-more-intelligent-boys-men-are-more-intelligent-w

SUBMITTED BY: Courtney Caglia-Hilty

Keeping Young Minds Healthy

AUTHOR: Jeffrey Kluger

PUBLICATION NAME: Times Magazine

DATE OF PUBLICATION: October 21, 2010
SUMMARY: Bethany was a young girl that developed a mental illness by the time she was in fifth grade. She began to question whether or not she truly was attracted to boys. Most children who begin to question their orientation eventually accept and embrace the fact that they are gay. However, Bethany was not homosexual; instead she had a form of OCD that feeds on uncertainty. Even when she instinctively felt that she was attracted to boys, she obsessed over the question of her onrientation. This constant doubt was fed from the fact that there is no scientific way of proving whether a person is attracted to men or women. When Bethany was thirty, she found a website for an OCD institute and found that she fit one of the expressions of this disorder. Once diagnosed, she was able to begin therapies to could cope with her uncertanity.
Studies show that there are high numbers of children who have emotional or behavioral disorders. About one in five children in the U.S. suffers from some sort of mental-health condition, and fifty percent of adults with these conditions were diagnosed before the age of fourteen. The good news is that most of these codnitions can be improved through early intervention. One way for these disorders to be diagnosed in time to be treated and resolved relatively quickly is for parents to notice behaviors that could be signs for a condition such as OCD or ADHD.
ARTICLE: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2026672_2026712_2026677,00.html

SUBMITTED BY: Ginevra Scherini