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Relatively Speaking: Researchers Identify Principles That Shape Kinship Categories Across Languages
Different languages refer to family relationships in different ways. CMU's Charles Kemp shows that kinship categories across languages reflect general principles of communication. Read more. Watch a video. |
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Brain Research Shows Visual Perception System Unconsciously Affects Our Preferences
New research from the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC) shows that the brain's visual perception system automatically and unconsciously guides decision-making through valence perception. The research team, which includes CNBC co-director Michael J. Tarr, has launched an NSF-supported start-up to apply the findings to the online video market. Read more. Watch a video. |
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Dietrich College News: April 2012
Features this month include Yueming Yu’s university teaching award, the relaunch of Sigma Tau Delta, new faculty books in English and Psychology and much more. Read Dietrich College News. |
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CMU Research Helps Provide Insight Into Genetic Makeup of Autism
Statistics Professor Kathyrn Roeder's work helped to identify three genes that affect a child's risk for autism. The findings provide a clear path forward for genetics research into the underpinning of autism. Read more. |
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How Stress Influences Disease: Study Reveals Inflammation as the Culprit
Until now, it has not been clear exactly how stress influences disease and health. Psychology Professor Sheldon Cohen has found that chronic psychological stress is associated with the body losing its ability to regulate the inflammatory response. Read more. |
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Two Dietrich College Students Selected Public Policy & International Affairs Fellows
Juniors Christian Aponte and Nicole Hamilton have received Public Policy & International Affairs Fellowships. They will attend summer institutes at a top-ranked university to sharpen the students' quantitative, analytic and communication skills. Read more. |
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Unlocking Autism's Mysteries
CMU's Marcel Just uses new brain imaging and computer modeling to predict autistic brain activity and behavior.
The predictions will provide scientists with clear targets for autism intervention and treatment therapies. Read more. Watch a video. |
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Visual Attention: How The Brain Works To Select What We (Want To) See
For the first time, a team led by CMU neuroscientists has identified how different neural regions communicate to determine what to visually pay attention to and what to ignore. This finding is a major discovery for visual cognition and will guide future research into visual and attention deficit disorders. Read more. |
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Obituary: Alumnus Jeffrey Zaslow, Co-Author of “The Last Lecture”
Best-selling author, longtime Wall Street Journal columnist and Carnegie Mellon alumnus Jeffrey Zaslow (DC'80) died Friday, Feb. 10 from injuries suffered in an automobile accident in northern Michigan. He was 53. Read more. |
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Susan G. Polansky Reappointed Head of Modern Languages Department
During her first term, Polansky, a teaching professor of Hispanic studies, worked to broaden the department’s global education initiatives. Her reappointment is effective July 1, 2012. Read more. |
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Fall 2011 Dietrich College Dean's List
The Dietrich College faculty and staff congratulate the DC, SHS and BHA undergraduates who earned a place on the Fall 2011 Dean's List. View the full list (pdf). |
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Center for the Arts in Society Launches New Media Initiative
CMU's Center for the Arts in Society is launching a new initiative to explore the role that new media — digital, networked, computer-mediated and social media — now play in social life, cultural politics and political mobilizations. Read more.
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The Illusion of Courage: Why We Chicken Out
Whether it's investing in stocks, bungee jumping or public speaking, why do we often plan to take risks but then "chicken out" when the moment of truth arrives? New research from George Loewenstein explains why people mispredict their behavior in embarrassing situations. Read more.
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Winners of 2012 Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Awards Announced
The awards program, founded and directed by English Professor Jim Daniels, encourages high school and college students to explore their personal experiences with race and discrimination through poetry and prose. Read more. (Links to each winning piece and select students reading their entires are available.) |
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Professor Terrance Hayes Appointed to President Obama's National Student Poets Program
English Professor Terrance Hayes has been chosen to serve as a panelist for President Barack Obama's new National Student Poets Program. Hayes has also been named a 2011 United States Artists Fellow. Read more. |
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Learning and Behavior: How Instruction Influences Experience
Until now, most psychology and neural imaging research have focused on how humans learn behavior through trial and error. However, CMU neuroscientists Matthew M. Walsh and John R. Anderson have found that this view is incomplete. Read more. |
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Obituary: Emeritus Professor of English David Demarest
Emeritus Professor of English, author and activist David Demarest, longtime editor of the faculty and staff publication titled “Focus,” died Oct. 15 at the age of 79. Read more. |
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Carnegie Mellon University Press Publishes First Book Celebrating Flight 93 Temporary Memorial
"An Uncommon Field," a new book of photography and prose published by CMU Press, celebrates what came to be known as the Flight 93 Temporary Memorial through the eyes of Richard Snodgrass, a Pittsburgh-based photographer and author. Read more. |
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Researchers Outline Ways To Advance Scientific Thinking Based on Cognitive and Developmental Psychology
In a new paper published in "Science," CMU's David Klahr and Jamie Jirout use psychology research to outline ways to advance the science of science instruction. Read more. |
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New Brain Imaging Research Reveals Why Autistic Individuals Confuse Pronouns
The cause - impaired communication between brain areas - further supports neuroscientist Marcel Just's theory that frontal-posterior underconnectivity causes autism and disrupts concept of "self." Read more. |
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Obituary: Philosophy Professor Horacio Arló-Costa
A renowned logician and philosopher, Horacio Arló-Costa's innovative research crossed many different fields, including formal epistemology, artificial intelligence, behavioral decision research and cognitive neuroscience. He died July 14 at age 54.
Read more. |
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John Lehoczky and George Loewenstein Named University Professors
H&SS Dean John Lehoczky and Social & Decision Sciences Professor George Loewenstein are amoung four professors who have earned the highest
faculty distinction at Carnegie Mellon. Read more. |
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Neuroscientists Uncover
Neural Mechanisms of Object Recognition
Certain brain injuries can cause people to lose the ability to visually recognize objects — for example, confusing a harmonica for a cash register. New research describes the functional neuroanatomy of object agnosia and suggests that damage to the part of the brain critical for object recognition can have a widespread impact on remote parts of the cortex.
Read more. Watch a video.
NY Times article. |
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CMU Announces Winners of Inaugural Rothberg Research Awards in Human Brain Imaging
New research awards made possible by CMU alumnus and trustee Jonathan M. Rothberg, founder of four genetics companies aimed at improving human health, will enable CMU scientists to make more important neural discoveries. Read more... |
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Paul Fischbeck: Shutting Down U.S. Nuclear Plants Would Have Daunting Effect
On Economy and Environment
New research shows that shifting from nuclear to other types of power plants could affect the reliability of the electricity supply, electricity costs, air pollution, carbon emissions, and the reliance on fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. Read more... |
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CMU Researchers Uncover How the Brain Processes Faces
Marlene Behrmann, David Plaut and Adrian Nestor have discovered that an entire network of cortical areas work together to identify faces. Their findings will change the future of neural visual perception research and allow scientists to use this discovery to develop targeted remedies for disorders such as face blindness. Read more... |
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Language Learning: Researchers Use Video Games To Crack the Speech Code
When we speak, our enunciation and pronunciation of words and syllables fluctuates and varies from person to person. Given this, how do infants decode all of the spoken sounds they hear to learn words and meanings? CMU's Lori Holt and Sung-Joo Lim used video game training with a mock “alien” language to discover that listeners quickly recognize word-like units. Read more... |
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CMU's Classroom Salon: Social Media for Education
Taking their cue from social media, educators at CMU have developed a social networking application called Classroom Salon that engages students in online learning communities that effectively tap the collective intelligence of groups. Read more... |
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Crossing the Line: What Constitutes Torture?
A new study co-authored by George Loewenstein suggests that the inability to empathize with those suffering pain may prohibit one's ability to identify torturous acts. Read more... |
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Baruch Fischhoff Warned of Nuclear Industry's Communication Problem
Conflicting reports and leadership responses about what exactly is going on with Japan’s nuclear reactors and the threats the leaks pose to the population have cast a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the situation. In 2009, Fischhoff wrote an opinion piece outlining the industry’s communication problem and how to solve it. Read more... |
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Video: CMU Scans Temple Grandin's Brain for Autism Research
In this clip from the Science Channel's "Ingenious Minds" series, Marcel Just and Tim Keller scan the brain of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who is a leading advocate for autism studies and volunteer for cutting-edge research. Just and Keller use advanced MRI-based diffusion imaging to understand how autistic brains are different and what causes the disease. Watch the video. |
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Ethicist Outlines Ways To Improve Risk/Benefit Estimates in New Drug Trials
It's all too familiar: researchers announce the discovery of a new drug that eradicates disease in animals. Then, a few years later, the drug bombs in human trials. CMU's Alex John London argues that this pattern of boom and bust may be related to the way researchers predict outcomes of their work in early stages of drug development. Read more... |
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Creative Writing Student Wins Henry Luce Foundation Scholarship
Mackenzie Evan Smith was one of 18 students and young professionals chosen to participate in the Luce Scholars Program, an initiative that enables students to increase their knowledge and awareness of Asia by living and working in an Asian country of their choice. Read more... |
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2011 CMU International Film Festival Focuses on Immigration Issues
Sponsored by CMU’s Humanities Center, the Heinz Endowments and PNC Bank, "Faces of Migration" will feature 15 award-winning independent films and will run March 17 - April 10 with a special preview on March 2. Read more... |
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Psychology’s Sharon Carver Wins Top H&SS Teaching Award
Sharon Carver, teaching professor of psychology and director of the Carnegie Mellon University Children’s School, has been named the winner of the 2010-2011 Elliott Dunlap Smith Award for Distinguished Teaching and Educational Service in H&SS. Read more... |
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CMU Receives $1.2 Million NIH Grant To Develop Ethics, Policy Recommendations for Post-Conflict, Post-Disaster DNA ID Practices
Forensic DNA profiling has become a standard tool in the search for missing people in the aftermath of mass violence and disaster, but until now there has been very little effort to identify and analyze the major ethical and policy challenges associated with this new use of genetic technology.
Read more... |
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Steven Klepper Awarded Prestigious
Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research
Klepper, the Hamerschlag Professor of Economics and Social Sciences, is honored for his contributions to understanding the evolution of new industries.
Read more... |
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Michael J. Tarr Receives Professorship
For His Interdisciplinary Contributions to Neuroscience
As part of an unprecedented effort by the university to combine CMU's strengths in a variety of disciplines to shape the future of brain research, Michael J. Tarr was named the George A. and Helen Dunham Cowan Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience. Read more... |
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Kiron K. Skinner on WikiLeaks
Skinner, a renowned expert in international relations and U.S. foreign policy, recently wrote two opinion pieces on the leaked documents for CNN.com:
WikiLeaks no favor to historians.
Leaked documents can't tell the whole story. |
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Obituary: Robyn Dawes
Robyn Dawes, the Charles J. Queenan Jr. University Professor of Psychology within the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, helped establish the field of behavioral decision research and made a significant impact in several areas of psychological sciences. Professor Dawes died Dec. 14 at age 74. Read more... |
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Thought for Food: New Research Shows
Imagining Food Consumption Reduces Actual Consumption
A new study led by Carey Morewedge shows that when you imagine eating a certain food, it reduces your actual consumption of that food. This landmark discovery changes the decades-old assumption that thinking about something desirable increases cravings for it and its consumption. Read more... |
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Terrance Hayes Wins Coveted National Book Award for "Lighthead"
Creative Writing Professor Terrance Hayes received the top U.S. poetry prize at the "Oscars of the Literary World." Hayes is the first CMU professor to win a National Book Award. Full article. Video of Hayes reading from "Lighthead." Q&A with Hayes. "Terrance Hayes Day" in Pittsburgh |
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Psychology's Legendary John R. Anderson Named Franklin Institute Laureate
John R. Anderson will be awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science for the development of the first large-scale computational theory of the process by which humans perceive, learn and reason, and its application to computer tutoring systems. Read more... |
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Julie Downs Receives $7.4M Grant To Create New Video
Aimed At Reducing Risky Sexual Behavior Among Teens
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded a grant to Social and Decision Sciences' Julie Downs to create a sequel DVD aimed at reducing risky sexual behavior, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancies among adolescent females. Downs’ first interactive video, “What Could You Do?” was shown to increase abstinence for teenage girls. Read more... |
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Statistics Department Creates Human Histogram Of Heights To Honor World Statistics Day
Led by the Undergraduate Student Advisory Committee, members of the CMU campus community formed a human histogram of heights on Oct. 20, 2010. Full article. Multimedia: GigaPan Video Photos |
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H&SS is on Twitter
Stay up-to-date with everything going on in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences on Twitter. Visit twitter.com/CMU_HSS. |
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