Quirky Science

Pupil size shows reliability of decisions

PHOTO COURTESY: SCIENCE DAILY

The precision with which people make decisions can be predicted by measuring pupil size before they are presented with any information about the decision, according to a new study published in PLOS Computational Biology this week.
The study, conducted by Peter Murphy and colleagues at Leiden University, showed that spontaneous, moment-to-moment fluctuations in pupil size predicted how a selection of participants varied in their successful decision making.
A larger pupil size indicated poorer upcoming task performance, due to more variability in the decisions made once the relevant information was presented. The authors also found that certain individuals who had the largest pupils overall also tended to be the least consistent in their decisions.

Human faces are so variable because we evolved to look unique

Photo Courtesy: UC Berkeley

The amazing variety of human faces—far greater than that of most other animals— is the result of evolutionary pressure to make each of us unique and easily recognisable, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, scientists.
Our highly visual social interactions are almost certainly the driver of this evolutionary trend, writes behavioural ecologist Michael J. Sheehan, a postdoctoral fellow in UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Many animals use smell or vocalisation to identify individuals, making distinctive facial features unimportant, especially for animals that roam after dark, he writes. But humans are different.
"Our study now shows that humans have been selected to be unique and easily recognizable.”
The study appeared   in the online journal Nature Communications.

Photo Courtesy: University of Washington

Reflected smartphone transmissions enable gesture control

Mobile phones have become second-nature for many of us.
What's coming next is the ability to interact with our devices not just with touchscreens, but through gestures in the space around the phone. Some smartphones are starting to incorporate 3-D gesture sensing based on cameras, for example, but cameras consume significant battery power and require a clear view of the user's hands.
University of Washington engineers have developed a new form of low-power wireless sensing technology that could soon contribute to this growing field by letting users "train" their smartphones to recognise and respond to specific hand gestures near the phone.
The technology uses the phone's wireless transmissions to sense nearby gestures, so it works when a device is out of sight in a pocket or bag and could easily be built into future smartphones and tablets.

Growing up poor affects adults' sense of control, impulsiveness

Growing up poor can influence people's sense of control and in turn may lead them to more impulsive decision-making and quickly give up on challenging tasks in uncertain situations, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
"Two people with different childhood backgrounds are likely to respond to uncertainty in different ways, even if as adults they have a similar socioeconomic status (SES),” writes lead author Chiraag Mittal, MS, a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota. “We found that adults who grew up poor were more inclined to consider difficult and uncertain living conditions as beyond their control, while those from affluent backgrounds found them to be within their control. This leads to different reactions to the same situation.”