How does the design of the study make it possible to test if bonobos have theory of mind? Photo: Sergey Uryadnikov/Shutterstock Typically-developing human children point. Pointing can mean that I want to make sure (for example) that you notice the baby rabbit outside, or I want to tell you that you dropped your fluffy scarf …
Category: Chapter 13; Quasi-Experiments and Small-N Designs
Do “hands free” cell phone laws make drivers less distracted?
To measure distracted driving, the study recorded how often people's cell phones moved while they were driving.Photo: Ekaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock In the summer of 2023, 28 U.S. states, including Alabama, started banning handheld cell phones while driving. This news story from the Birmingham News (AL) shows data from an interrupted time series design that tracked people's …
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Playing outside and myopia
In one study, the more time kids spent outdoors, the less likely they were to develop myopia. Photo: Evgeny Atamanenko/Shutterstock It's summertime--when kids head outdoors for beach time, pool parties, and picnics. Time spent outdoors is not only fun; it's also associated with lower rates of near-sightedness (myopia). A journalist from NPR covered this topic …
Patients of female doctors live longer, research shows
The study found lower mortality among patients of female physicians. Photo: PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/Shutterstock Here's a large study that tested whether the life expectancies of Medicare patients differed, depending on whether their primary physician was a woman or a man. The website StudyFinds reports: The study, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, …
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Sports fans and self-esteem
Based on how many UD articles these students are wearing, can you predict whether their team won or lost last weekend? Christopher Ginn/University of Delaware Here's a newspaper feature on how people's moods and self-esteem fluctuate with the performance of their favorite sports teams. A variety of studies were covered by a journalist for the …
When are doctors on a first-name basis?
Which doctors do you think will be more likely to be addressed by their first name: Doctors who are men or those who are women?HPhoto credit: sbartsmediagmail.com/DepositPhotos How do you address your physician? Do you refer to them as "Dr. X", or do you use their first name? Physicians may feel awkward when their patients …
Has the pandemic changed people’s personalities?
The study reported that average levels of extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness all went down from before the pandemic when compared to a year after lockdowns. Credit: TheVisualsYouNeed/Deposit Photos During the lockdowns of the pandemic, many researchers developed and tested interesting research questions. They collected data to test COVID-related hypotheses, and now many of those studies …
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Stress and food: experimental and quasi-experimental evidence
In one study, department store workers ate more unhealthy foods when they were working more demanding shifts. Is such a study likely to bean experiment, a quasi-experiment, or a correlational study?Credit: 22January/Shutterstock A Washington Post journalist integrated several health psychology studies in an article about the relationships between stress and eating. For many people, stress …
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Amazon’s Alexa and baby-naming trends
Amazon's choice to use the wake word "Alexa" seems to have led to a decrease in that name's popularity for babies. Photo: vectorstockcompany/Depositphotos Here's a report from the Washington Post, entitled "Amazon, can we have our name back?". The journalist interviewed several women named Alexa, reporting about their experiences related to having the same name …
Music festivals “make people more generous, socially connected”
Credit: halfpoint/Deposit Photos Summer is the time for music festivals like Burning Man, Burning Nest, Firefly, and Bonnaroo. If you are planning to attend one this year, this post might interest you. The science journalism clearinghouse called Study Finds recently reported on a study conducted at Yale University. The journalists' report included the causal headline …
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