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May 08 2012
NCBI ROFL: Scientific proof that milk is better on cereal than water.
Physical properties and microstructural changes during soaking of individual corn and quinoa breakfast flakes.
“The importance of breakfast cereal flakes (BCF) in Western diets deserves an understanding of changes in their mechanical properties and microstructure that occur during soaking in a liquid (that is, milk or water) prior to consumption. The maximum rupture force (RF) of 2 types of breakfast flaked products (BFP)–corn flakes (CF) and quinoa flakes (QF)–were measured directly while immersed in milk with 2% of fat content (milk 2%) or distilled water for different periods of time between 5 and 300 s. Under similar soaking conditions, QF presented higher RF values than CF. Soaked flakes were freeze-dried and their cross section and surface examined by scanning electron microscopy. Three consecutive periods (fast, gradual, and slow reduction of RF) were associated with changes in the microstructure of flakes. These changes were more pronounced in distilled water than in milk 2%, probably because the fat and other solids in milk become deposited on the flakes’ surface hindering liquid infiltration. Structural and textural modifications were primarily ascribable to the plasticizing effect of water that softened the carbohydrate/protein matrix, inducing partial collapse of the porous structure ...
May 01 2012
NCBI ROFL: Imitating mickey mouse can be dangerous.
“Inhaling helium to produce that amusing squeaky voice may not be the innocuous party trick it seems, according to emergency medicine physicians at the Wesley Center for Hyperbaric Medicine in Brisbane, Australia.
Simon Mitchell and colleagues report the case of a previously healthy 27-year-old man who inhaled helium and subsequently developed a stroke with transient blindness and radiographic evidence of cortical infarction. The man had inhaled the gas directly from a pressurized canister; most children who perform the trick—to imitate the voice of Mickey Mouse—inhale the gas from helium-filled balloons.
The patient developed rigidity and lost consciousness within moments of inhaling the helium. On arrival at the emergency room 15 minutes later, he regained consciousness but was found to have complete visual loss and evidence of cortical infarction.
The patient was diagnosed with a cerebral arterial gas embolism occurring after inhaling helium; he was treated with hyperbaric oxygen. His blindness resolved, and there was radiographic evidence of regression of his stroke after four cycles of treatment with hyperbaric oxygen.
The patient in this report had inhaled helium from a high pressure cylinder, causing blood vessels in his lungs to rupture and allowing the gas to gain access to ...
April 19 2012
NCBI ROFL: Wobbling appearance of a face induced by doubled parts.
“An illusion produced by duplicating facial parts, which can cause an unstable feeling for many observers, was investigated. We examined factors that contribute to the unstable feeling. The results suggest that this illusion is specific to face perception, and the unstable feeling may be generated by difficulty in keeping attention directed to either of the duplicated facial parts.”
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Bonus figures from the full text:
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April 17 2012
NCBI ROFL: You don’t need a face to be a good magician.
Social misdirection fails to enhance a magic illusion.
“Visual, multisensory and cognitive illusions in magic performances provide new windows into the psychological and neural principles of perception, attention, and cognition. We investigated a magic effect consisting of a coin “vanish” (i.e., the perceptual disappearance of a coin after a simulated toss from hand to hand). Previous research has shown that magicians can use joint attention cues such as their own gaze direction to strengthen the observers’ perception of magic. Here we presented naïve observers with videos including real and simulated coin tosses to determine if joint attention might enhance the illusory perception of simulated coin tosses. The observers’ eye positions were measured, and their perceptual responses simultaneously recorded via button press. To control for the magician’s use of joint attention cues, we occluded his head in half of the trials. We found that subjects did not direct their gaze at the magician’s face at the time of the coin toss, whether the face was visible or occluded, and that the presence of the magician’s face did not enhance the illusion. Thus, our results show that joint attention is not necessary for the perception of this ...
April 10 2012
NCBI ROFL: Golfers’ putting improves if they think the hole is larger.
Get Me Out of This Slump! Visual Illusions Improve Sports Performance
“Misperceiving a target as bigger could influence [sports] performance in one of three ways. It could disrupt performance because the observer might aim for a location that does not correspond with the target. In this case, the misperception would result in worse performance. However, actions and explicit perceptions may not be influenced by illusions to the same degree… In this case, misperceiving a target as bigger would not affect performance. A final alternative is that misperceiving a target as bigger could enhance performance. Bigger targets feel as if they should be easier to hit, so people may feel more confident when aiming for a bigger target. Given that increased confidence improves performance, a perceptually bigger target may also lead to enhanced performance. Here, we report an experiment in which we tested these possibilities…
Thirty-six participants (19 females, 17 males) putted to two different-sized holes (5.08 cm and 10.16 cm in diameter; both 10 cm in depth). A downward-facing projector displayed a ring of 11 small (3.8 cm in diameter) or 5 large (28 cm) circles around each hole to create an Ebbinghaus illusion. For each ...
April 03 2012
NCBI ROFL: On Machiavellianism and car salesmen.
Machiavellianism scores and self-rated performance of automobile salespersons.
“Machiavellianism (Mach-B) was positively correlated with self-reported number of vehicles sold and income in two samples of 80 car salespersons. The Mach-B scale showed higher internal consistency and significant relationship with sales performance. The Mach IV scale, used for one of two samples, showed low internal consistency and a nonsignificant relationship with performance. The results provided partial support for earlier findings. Research designed to clarify this finding is required.”
Photo: flickr/ralphpaglia
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March 27 2012
NCBI ROFL: The real reason Nigerian princes use email instead of handwritten spam.
The finer points of lying online: e-mail versus pen and paper.
“The authors present 3 experimental studies that build on moral disengagement theory by exploring lying in online environments. Findings indicate that, when e-mail is compared with pen and paper communication media (both of which are equal in terms of media richness, as both are text only), people are more willing to lie when communicating via e-mail than via pen and paper and feel more justified in doing so. The findings were consistent whether the task assured participants that their lie either would or would not be discovered by their counterparts. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.”
Bonus quote from the full text:
“Next, people tend to be less restrained (and more negative) in e-mail. E-mail giant Google, for example, has recently created a feature allowing users to “unsend” emails within a 5-second window. The need for this tool suggests a tendency toward moreimpetuous decisions in e-mail content, without due consideration”
Photo: flickr/rossgram
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March 20 2012
NCBI ROFL: Darling dollhouse dalliances deemed deserving of dissertation.
Biases in young children’s communication about spatial relations: containment versus proximity.
“Four experiments examined 3- and 4-year-olds’ ability to communicate about containment and proximity relations. One hundred twenty-eight children either described where a miniature mouse was hiding in a dollhouse or they searched for the mouse after the experimenter described where it was hiding. The mouse was always hidden with a small landmark that was either in or next to a large landmark. When describing where the mouse was hiding, children were more likely to successfully disambiguate the small landmark when it was in the large landmark (e.g., under the plant in the dresser) than when it was next to the large landmark (e.g., under the plant next to the dresser). When searching for the mouse, 3-year-olds were faster to initiate their searches when the small landmark was in the large landmark than when it was next to the large landmark. Together, these results suggest that there are informational biases in young children’s spatial communication.”
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March 19 2012
NCBI ROFL: Which brand of ball point pen is best for an emergency airway puncture?
Airflow efficacy of ballpoint pen tubes: a consideration for use in bystander cricothyrotomy.
“OBJECTIVE:To examine the suitability of commonly available ballpoint pens as a substitute emergency tracheostomy tube. METHODS: Commonly available ballpoint pens were examined and compared against two standard cricothyroidotomy sets. The pens were evaluated for dimensions, speed of construction of a temporary tracheostomy tube and airway resistance with differing flow rates. RESULTS: Internal diameters of the pens varied considerably. Time taken to construct a temporary tube ranged from 3 to 170 s, and in the majority of pens the airway resistance increased dramatically as the airflow rate increased. CONCLUSION: Contrary to popular belief, the majority of ballpoint pens appear unsuitable for use as a substitute tracheostomy tube. In this study only two pens fulfilled the criteria for use: the Baron retractable ballpoint and the BIC soft feel Jumbo.”
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March 15 2012
NCBI ROFL: Want to forge a signature in Arabic? Better ask a woman.
The influence of gender on ability to simulate handwritten signatures: a study of Arabic writers.
“This study investigates whether a writer’s gender can be determined from an inspection of simulated signatures written in the Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad. It is generally believed that the penmanship of female writers is superior to male writers. There is also reason to expect that superiority in writing skill might contribute to success in simulating the signatures of other writers. Simulated signatures produced by a large population of male (414) and female (312) Arabic writers were graded, and the results were statistically analyzed. Women were found to have a marginal advantage simulating all elements of the signatures, but there was no statistically significant difference between the genders on any of the elements examined.”
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March 06 2012
NCBI ROFL: I wish I could add “artificial saliva” to this abstract.
Effects of adding fluids to solid foods on muscle activity and number of chewing cycles.
“The production of a sufficient amount of saliva is indispensable for good chewing. In the present study, we examined the hypothesis that adding fluid to a food will facilitate the chewing process, especially for dry foods. The effect might be larger for subjects with relatively low salivary flow rates. Furthermore, adding fluids that contain mucins or alpha-amylase may have a larger facilitating effect on mastication than the addition of water alone. Twenty subjects chewed on melba toast, breakfast cake, carrot, peanut, and Gouda cheese. In addition, they chewed on these foods after different volumes of water, artificial saliva containing mucins, or a solution of alpha-amylase had been added. Muscle activity and number of chewing strokes until swallowing were measured. The salivary flow rates of the subjects were also determined. Adding fluid to the food significantly reduced the number of chewing cycles and total muscular work (i.e. the integrated surface electromyograpy of masseter and temporalis muscles measured bilaterally, summed for all chewing cycles) until swallowing for all foods, except carrot. The largest effects were observed for melba and cake, which are ...
February 17 2012
NCBI ROFL: Study shows reading Twilight makes you more vampiric.
Becoming a vampire without being bitten: the narrative collective-assimilation hypothesis.
“We propose the narrative collective-assimilation hypothesis—that experiencing a narrative leads one to psychologically become a part of the collective described within the narrative. In a test of this hypothesis, participants read passages from either a book about wizards (from the Harry Potter series) or a book about vampires (from the Twilight series). Both implicit and explicit measures revealed that participants who read about wizards psychologically became wizards, whereas those who read about vampires psychologically became vampires. The results also suggested that narrative collective assimilation is psychologically meaningful and relates to the basic human need for connection. Specifically, the tendency to fulfill belongingness needs through group affiliation moderated the extent to which narrative collective assimilation occurred, and narrative collective assimilation led to increases in life satisfaction and positive mood, two primary outcomes of belonging. The implications for the importance of narratives, the need to belong to groups, and social surrogacy are discussed.”
Bonus quote from the full text:
“We next administered an explicit (albeit somewhat indirect) measure of collective assimilation, which we call the Twilight/Harry Potter Narrative Collective-Assimilation Scale. Embedded among filler questions ...
February 15 2012
NCBI ROFL: A squamous cell carcinoma with a Saint Valentine’s Day message.
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February 03 2012
NCBI ROFL: The science of Facebook relationship status: It’s complicated.
It’s Facebook week on NCBI ROFL! All this week we’ll be featuring papers about everyone’s favorite social networking site. Enjoy!
“Are We Facebook Official?” Implications of Dating Partners’ Facebook Use and Profiles for Intimate Relationship Satisfaction.
“Extending previous research on positive and negative correlates of Facebook use for individuals’ outcomes, this study examined male and female dating partners’ (n=58 couples) Facebook use and portrayals of their intimate relationship on the Facebook profile. Confirming hypotheses from compatibility theories of mate selection, partners demonstrated similar Facebook intensity (e.g., usage, connection to Facebook), and were highly likely to portray their relationship on their Facebook profiles in similar ways (i.e., display partnered status and show their partner in profile picture). These Facebook profile choices played a role in the overall functioning of the relationship, with males’ indications of a partnered status linked with higher levels of their own and their partners’ (marginal) relationship satisfaction, and females’ displays of their partner in their profile picture linked with higher levels of their own and their partners’ relationship satisfaction. Finally, male and female reports of having had disagreements over the Facebook relationship status was associated with lower level of females’ but not males’ relationship satisfaction, ...
NCBI ROFL: The “no sh*t, Sherlock” award: Facebook edition.
It’s Facebook week on NCBI ROFL! All this week we’ll be featuring papers about everyone’s favorite social networking site. Enjoy!
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus? Examining Gender Differences in Self-Presentation on Social Networking Sites.
“Psychological research on gender differences in self-presentation has already revealed that women place higher priority on creating a positive self-presentation, while men are less concerned about the image they present in face-to-face (ftf) communication. Nowadays, with the extensive use of new media, self-presentation is no longer so closely tied to ftf situations, but can also take place in the online world. Specifically, social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook or MySpace, offer various features such as profile pictures, groups, and virtual bulletin boards with which users can create elaborated online representations of themselves. What remains open is whether this virtual self-presentation on SNS is subject to gender differences. Based on studies emphasizing gender-related differences in Internet communication and behavior in general, it can be assumed that men and women have different motives regarding their SNS usage as well. A multimethodological study, combining results of an online survey and a content analysis of 106 user profiles, assessed users’ diverse motives ...
January 27 2012
NCBI ROFL: Your rug is so ugly it makes me sick. Literally.
The sickening rug: a repeating static pattern that leads to motion-sickness-like symptoms.
“The nauseogenic properties of a patterned rug that reputedly caused motion-sickness-like symptoms in those who viewed it was the topic of this study. Naive observers viewed a 1:1 scale image of the black-and-white patterned rug and a homogeneous gray region of equivalent luminance in a counterbalanced within-subjects design. After 5 min of viewing, symptoms were assessed with the simulator sickness questionnaire (SSQ), yielding a total SSQ score and sub-scores for nausea, oculomotor symptoms, and disorientation. All four scores were significantly higher in the rug condition. Observers also reported significantly more self-motion perception in the rug condition, even though they were seated during the experiment. Results are consistent with findings that suggest that neurologically normal individuals who view a repeating static pattern can experience unpleasant symptoms, some of which are similar to motion sickness.”
Bonus quote from the full text:
“Bottom line: be careful what you buy. You might have to look at it for a while and
it might just make you feel sick.”
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January 26 2012
NCBI ROFL: Does it take one to know one? Endorsement of conspiracy theories is influenced by personal willingness to conspire.
“We advance a new account of why people endorse conspiracy theories, arguing that individuals use the social-cognitive tool of projection when making social judgements about others. In two studies, we found that individuals were more likely to endorse conspiracy theories if they thought they would be willing, personally, to participate in the alleged conspiracies. Study 1 established an association between conspiracy beliefs and personal willingness to conspire, which fully mediated a relationship between Machiavellianism and conspiracy beliefs. In Study 2, participants primed with their own morality were less inclined than controls to endorse conspiracy theories – a finding fully mediated by personal willingness to conspire. These results suggest that some people think ‘they conspired’ because they think ‘I would conspire’.”
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Photo: flickr/kyz
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January 23 2012
NCBI ROFL: Science brings hope for your ugly baby.
You must have been a beautiful baby: ratings of infant facial attractiveness fail to predict ratings of adult attractiveness.
“Facial attractiveness has been studied extensively, but little research has examined the stability of facial attractiveness of individuals across different stages of development. We conducted a study examining the relationship between facial attractiveness in infants (age 24 months and under) and the same individuals as young adults (age 16-18 years)using infant and adult photographs from high school yearbooks. Contrary to expectations, independent raters’ assessments of infant facial attractiveness did not correlate with adult facial attractiveness. These results are discussed in terms of the adaptive function of heightened attractiveness in infancy, which likely evolved to elicit and maintain parental care.”
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Photo: flickr/daveynin
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January 20 2012
NCBI ROFL: Apparently, jumping with a weighted vest or springs attached to your shoes is hard.
Effects of loading on maximum vertical jumps: Selective effects of weight and inertia.
“A novel loading method was applied to explore selective effects of externally added weight (W), weight and inertia (W+I), and inertia (I) on maximum counter-movement jumps (CMJ) performed with arm swing. Externally applied extended rubber bands and/or loaded vest added W, W+I, and I corresponding to 10-40% of subjects’ body mass. As expected, an increase in magnitude of all types of load was associated with an increase in ground reaction forces (GRF), as well as with a decrease in both the jumping performance and power output. However, of more importance could be that discernible differences among the effects of W, W+I, and I were recorded despite a relatively narrow loading range. In particular, an increase in W was associated with the minimal changes in movement kinematic pattern and smallest reduction of jumping performance, while also allowing for the highest power output. Conversely, W+I was associated with the highest ground reaction forces. Finally, the lowest maxima of GRF and power were associated with I. Although further research is apparently needed, the obtained finding could be of potential importance not only for understanding ...
January 17 2012
NCBI ROFL: How to improve your human random number generator.
Doing better by getting worse: posthypnotic amnesia improves random number generation.
“Although forgetting is often regarded as a deficit that we need to control to optimize cognitive functioning, it can have beneficial effects in a number of contexts. We examined whether disrupting memory for previous numerical responses would attenuate repetition avoidance (the tendency to avoid repeating the same number) during random number generation and thereby improve the randomness of responses. Low suggestible and low dissociative and high dissociative highly suggestible individuals completed a random number generation task in a control condition, following a posthypnotic amnesia suggestion to forget previous numerical responses, and in a second control condition following the cancellation of the suggestion. High dissociative highly suggestible participants displayed a selective increase in repetitions during posthypnotic amnesia, with equivalent repetition frequency to a random system, whereas the other two groups exhibited repetition avoidance across conditions. Our results demonstrate that temporarily disrupting memory for previous numerical responses improves random number generation.”
Photo: flickr/garryknight
Thanks to bboybutzemann for today’s ROFL!
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