A new study by research psychologists Alan Brown of SMU and Elizabeth Marsh of Duke University provides new clues about déjà vu, that eerie sense of experiencing a moment for the second time.
These clues, in turn, could help unlock the secrets of the human brain.
"Déjà vu is inappropriate behavior by the brain," says Brown, professor in SMU's Department of Psychology and a leading researcher on memory. "By shedding light on this odd phenomenon, we can better understand normal memory processes."
Continue reading "Déjà Vu research pushes around memory, creates illusion of past encounter" »
Vertebrate paleontologist Louis L. Jacobs is scientific consultant and co-writer of a new 33-minute video just released by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
A professor in Dedman College's Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Jacobs introduces the "We Are SVP" video. An internationally known vertebrate paleontologist, he is a former president of the society.
Continue reading "Louis Jacobs co-writes, consults for international paleo video" »
Popular culture's image of the 21st-century woman is tall, large-breasted, narrow-hipped and ultra-slender. Like cultural standards of beauty throughout history, today's "thin ideal" is unattainable for most women; for many, it also can be destructive.
Katherine Presnell, assistant professor of psychology, is helping at-risk teens challenge this ideal with the Body Project, an eating disorder prevention program that she helped develop with psychology professor Eric Stice at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned her doctorate in 2005.
Continue reading "Psychological discomfort discourages eating disorders" »
According to the National Research Council in 2006, women earned 44.7 percent of the doctorates awarded in the biological sciences between 1993 and 2004. Yet women comprised only 30.2 percent of the assistant professors at the top 50 U.S. universities.
Continue reading "Gender gap at top U.S. universities for women scientists" »
