News by Subject Social & Behavior

Does the potential to win or lose money influence the confidence one has in one's own decisions? Researchers (UNIGE) investigated confidence bias in a learning context through a system of monetary punishment and reward. They demonstrated that we become more confident in our choices when learning to seek rewards. However, this confidence evolves into over-confidence. Moreover, the monetary gains makes us less flexible, while the fear of losing money preserves our ability to adapt.

A new study by a University of Maryland researcher published in the April 15, 2019, issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concludes that exposure to extreme heat and precipitation in prenatal and early childhood years in countries of the global tropics could make it harder for children to attain secondary school education, even for better-off households.

Using a statistical approach known as stylometry, which analyzes everything from the poem's meter to the number of times different combinations of letters show up in the text, a team of researchers found new evidence that Beowulf is the work of a single author.

Young children whose parents read them five books a day enter kindergarten having heard about 1.4 million more words than kids who were never read to, a new study found. This 'million word gap' could be one key in explaining differences in vocabulary and reading development.

New research reveals the impact of poverty on children's brain activity. Researchers studied the brain function of children aged between four months and four years in rural India, and compared their results with children from families in Midwest America. They found that children in India from lower-income backgrounds, where mothers also had a low level of education, had weaker brain activity and were more likely to be distracted.

There are substantial differences among Americans when it comes to knowledge and understanding of science and scientific processes. People's level of science knowledge varies by education, race, ethnicity and gender.