Social Sciences

Smells trigger memories but can memories trigger smell, and what does this imply for the way memories are stored? A UCL study of the smell gateway in the brain has found that the memory of an event is scattered across sensory parts of the brain, suggesting that advertising aimed at triggering memories of golden beaches and soft sand could well enhance your desire to book a seaside holiday.

By reversing the premise used in Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, UCL researchers establish

People are not drawn to religion just because of a fear of death or any other single reason, according to a new comprehensive, psychological theory of religion.

There are actually 16 basic human psychological needs that motivate people to seek meaning through religion, said Steven Reiss, author of the new theory and professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University.

These basic human needs – which include honor, idealism, curiosity and acceptance – can explain why cert

Specialist individual music lessons could hugely benefit children with autism, according to researchers Dr Pamela Heaton and Dr Francesca Happe at the University of London. The study, which was funded by ESRC, suggests that many children with this disorder have outstanding abilities in tone recognition. “A lot of work has been done on musical savants with exceptional musical memory and rarely found absolute pitch ability” says Dr Pamela Heaton who led the research. “But our research shows that even c

How the news is presented, not the news itself, is putting young adult audiences off, say Central Michigan University media researchers David Weinstock and Timothy Boudreau. Their survey of 244 college students, ages 18 to 25, examines the students’ wartime media uses, preferences and attitudes about news media. The students were surveyed April 21-24, 2003, as U.S. forces were struggling to restore order in Baghdad. The researchers offer the following observations:

Youth interest in the wa

Music’s ability to make us feel chirpy, sad, excited or just plain bored can be accurately predicted by only a few of its basic elements, an Australian scientist has discovered.

“Among other things, loudness, tempo and pitch have a measurable impact on people’s emotional response to music,” says University of NSW music psychologist, Dr Emery Schubert.

His is the first study of its kind to mathematically quantify the emotional impact of music. Sixty-seven subjects listene

Celebrities who spend thousands of pounds perfecting their smile are making image-conscious young adults worry about the health of their teeth, research carried out in Britain and Australia suggests.

Even though statistics show younger generations enjoy better oral health than ever, a study by an international team of researchers led by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and the University of Adelaide in Australia, has revealed they are more likely to complain about problems with th