Attention in the Brain

Seeing without looking: Brain structure crucial for moving the mind's spotlight

ScienceDaily (2009-12-29) -- Like a spotlight that illuminates an otherwise dark scene, attention brings to mind specific details of our environment while shutting others out. A new study shows that the superior colliculus, a brain structure that primarily had been known for its role in the control of eye and head movements, is crucial for moving the mind's spotlight. ... > read full article

Eating when not hungry?

Why some continue to eat when full: Researchers find clues

ScienceDaily (2009-12-28) -- New research in mice suggest that ghrelin might also work in the brain to make some people keep eating "pleasurable" foods when they're already full. ... > read full article

Smoking levels have leveled off...but rates among poor, southerners, and less educated still high!

This is a report on the most recent data on smoking levels in the U.S. Notice that smoking amoung Southerners is still high and the rates are higher among young people and those with only a high school education. Is there a connection between self-control, addictive behaviors, and low levels of life success? How is the brain connected to all of this?

Negative Works Better....In Subliminal Advertising!

Key To Subliminal Messaging Is To Keep It Negative, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (2009-09-30) -- Subliminal messaging is most effective when the message being conveyed is negative, according to new research. ... > read full article

Fat Molecules and the Brain

Ice Cream May Target The Brain Before Your Hips, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (2009-09-19) -- Blame your brain for sabotaging your efforts to get back on track after splurging on an extra scoop of ice cream or that second burger during Friday night's football game. ... > read full article

You Won't Believe This! Fat Molecules in Ice Cream Make You Want More...For Up to 3 Days!

It seems fat molecules found in butter, cheese, beef and ice cream can affect the brain and turn off your feeling of being satisfied...for up to 3 days!

Here's the academic study!

Thanks to Prof. Marion Moore at Darden School of Business, University of Virginia for the links!!

Stars of Learning...in the Brain That Is!

Star-shaped Cells In Brain Help With Learning

ScienceDaily (2009-09-11) -- Every movement and every thought requires the passing of specific information between networks of nerve cells. To improve a skill or to learn something new entails more efficient or a greater number of cell contacts. Scientists can now show that certain cells in the brain -- the astrocytes -- actively influence this information exchange. ... > read full article

Happiness Trumps Sadness!

Brain Detects Happiness More Quickly Than Sadness

ScienceDaily (2009-06-21) -- People make value judgments about others based on their facial expressions. A new study shows that -- after looking at a face for only 100 milliseconds -- we can detect expressions of happiness and surprise faster than those of sadness or fear. ... > read full article

Recent Consumer Behavior Paper on Blue and Red Effects on Cognitive Tasks

Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances
Ravi Mehta and Rui (Juliet) Zhu*

Existing research reports inconsistent findings with regard to the effect of color on cognitive task performances. Some research suggests that blue or green leads to better performances than red; other studies record the opposite. Current work reconciles this discrepancy. We demonstrate that red (versus blue) color induces primarily an avoidance (versus approach) motivation (study 1, n = 69) and that red enhances performance on a detail-oriented task, whereas blue enhances performance on a creative task (studies 2 and 3, n = 208 and 118). Further, we replicate these results in the domains of product design (study 4, n = 42) and persuasive message evaluation (study 5, n = 161) and show that these effects occur outside of individuals' consciousness (study 6, n = 68). We also provide process evidence suggesting that the activation of alternative motivations mediates the effect of color on cognitive task performances.

More on Red

Red Enhances Men's Attraction To Women, Psychological Study Reveals

ScienceDaily (2008-10-28) -- Psychologists have added color -- literally and figuratively -- to the age-old question of what attracts men to women. Psychologists have demonstrated that the color red makes men feel more amorous toward women. And men are unaware of the role the color plays in their attraction. ... > read full article

The Color Red - More

Research On The Color Red Shows Definite Impact On Achievement

ScienceDaily (2007-03-01) -- The color red can affect how people function: Red means danger and commands us to stop in traffic. Researchers at the University of Rochester have now found that red also can keep us from performing our best on tests. ... > read full article

Color Red Bias

Red All Over: How The Color Red Affects A Referee's Judgment

ScienceDaily (2008-08-10) -- A new study has found that choosing the color red for a uniform in competitive sports can actually affect the referee's split-second decision-making ability and even promote a scoring bias. ... > read full article

Chipotle's Fast Food Facelift

Chipotle's Fast Food Facelift

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Assymetry in Distribution of Single Men and Women...Why?

A little off my usual post but interesting nonetheless, Prof. Dan Goldstein, London School of Economics, blogs at "Decision Science News" and today he featured an interesting mapping website called www.whosyourcity.com. One of the maps showed that the ratio of single men to single women is higher on the West Coast and lower on the East Coast.

The pivotal question Dan asks is what explains this disparity? I'm thinking it might be due to the ratio of ethnic groups such as African Americans where women dominate in numbers and many males are incarcerated or outside the traditional system (homeless, transient, illegal activity) and less likely to participate in a census. Just my guess!

Trial and Error Works! Past Experience Changes Neural Circuitry

Past Experience Is Invaluable For Complex Decision Making, Brain Research Shows

ScienceDaily (2009-05-15) -- Researchers have shown that past experience really does help when we have to make complex decisions based on uncertain or confusing information. They show that learning from experience actually changes the circuitry in our brains so that we can quickly categorize what we are seeing and make a decision or carry out appropriate actions. ... > read full article

IQ Linked to Better Financial Decisions

People With Higher IQs Make Wiser Economic Choices, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (2009-04-28) -- People with higher measures of cognitive ability are more likely to make good choices in several different types of economic decisions, according to a new study. ... > read full article

Jet Lag a Myth?

Since I live with sleep deprivation, I have always wondered, given the severe effect on my cognitive and emtional judgement my lack of sleep causes, how it impacts consumer psychology. This latest post by my esteemed colleague Dan Goldstein at London B School states the case for why jet lag may not exist and that the effect people feel when they travel across time zones is actually sleep deprivation. See more here!

Behavioral Economics/Neuroeconomics Advise

Leading academics like Ariely (MIT), Thaler (Chicago), Kahneman (Princeton), advise Obama on how to motivate and persuade people the right way...by using their natural inclinations and biases...

Color and Behavior!!!

Red Enhances Men's Attraction To Women, Psychological Study Reveals

ScienceDaily (2008-10-28) -- Psychologists have added color -- literally and figuratively -- to the age-old question of what attracts men to women. Psychologists have demonstrated that the color red makes men feel more amorous toward women. And men are unaware of the role the color plays in their attraction. ... > read full article

The Eyes Have It: Face Recognition In 2 Points - Just Left and Center of the Nose

The Nose Knows: Two Fixation Points Needed For Face Recognition

ScienceDaily (2008-10-21) -- Many of us are bad at remembering names but we are very quick to point out that at least we never forget a face. Never mind recognizing a familiar face -- how is it that we recognize faces at all? ... > read full article

Attention and Brand Location

DVR Fast-forwarding May Not Be Fatal To TV Advertising

ScienceDaily (2008-11-21) -- With the advent of digital video recorders and products like TiVo, viewers can fast-forward past commercials while playing back their favorite shows. Researchers found that viewers can retain valuable brand information even from an ad glimpsed for a fraction of its actual length. However, they also found that ads with brand information located on the periphery of the TV screen are of virtually no value. ... > read full article

Financial risk behavior shown in men with higher testosterone levels!

ScienceDaily (2008-09-30) -- Two researchers from Harvard jointly led a recent study in which they showed that men with higher testosterone levels invest more money during a risky investment game. The study associates higher testosterone levels with financial risk-taking behavior. LINK

Risk taking gene isolated!

ScienceDaily (2009-02-11) -- A new study provides provocative insights that relate to the question of the day: "How in the world did so many financial titans take such huge risks with out nation's well being?" The new research pinpoints the roles specific variants of the serotonin transporter gene and the dopamine receptor gene play in predicting whether people are more or less likely to take financial risks. LINK

Material versus experiential gifts and happiness!

An experiential gift is better and more memorable than a material gift unless the experiential gift is negative. http://ucelinks.cdlib.org:8888/sfx_local?sid=google&auinit=M&aulast=Schulte-R%C3%BCther&atitle=Gender+differences+in+brain+networks+supporting+empathy&id=doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.04.180

Women's mirror neurons activate when looking at other's emotional faces but men's do not!

A recent paper (Shulte-Ruther et al. 2008) found that women, when evaluating the emotional expressions in faces, showed higher activation in right inferior frontal cortex where mirror neurons are believed to be, while men did not show this activation.

Color Matters

New research in Science shows how color influences cognitive processes.