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Professor in the School of Psychology of Georgia Tech taught his students about stress and happiness
During the Covid-19 pandemic, various aspects of life —how we work, study, and play—have changed. To deal with the stress caused by the pandemic, people are now likely to try to find something that enables them to be happier. This summer, Eric Schumacher, professor in the School of Psychology, taught a course about managing stress and searching for happiness. Students were encouraged to discuss ways to overcome disappointment, have better study habits, and improve their general well-being.
tapping into calmWhile the fan-less Tokyo Olympics isn’t shaping up to be the joyless games some predicted it might be, the games have been a little more subdued than usual. Out of concern for rising Covid-19 cases, spectators were banned from the usually bustling venues and stadiums of the Olympics at the eleventh hour, putting pressure on coaches and teammates to supply even more supportive cheering than usual. Bruce Walker, professor in the Schools of Psychology and Interactive Computing, gives his take on how that may impact athletes and the competition.
Society for Human Resource ManagementLooking at someone's eyes can give you a glimpse into their emotional state. You may be able to rdiscern whether they are happy, sad, or angry. Little did we know that eyes may also be the window to intelligence, and could possibly tell you about someone’s IQ. A study from researchers in the School of Psychology found that people with large pupils may be more intelligent than those with smaller pupils. A lot depends on the right lighting conditions, as mentioned in the study conducted by graduate researcher Jason Tsukahara, and Professor Randall Engle, principal investigator in the Attention and Working Memory Lab.
traffic emissionsThe eyes are the mirror of the soul, and the pupils could be the mirror of the intelligence, according to a recent scientific study. Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology finds a correlation between the basal size of the pupils and the degree of intelligence of a person. According to the researchers, the size of this part of the eye is directly related to a part of the brain called the locus ceruleus. The researchers, from the School of Psychology, are Professor Randall Engle, and graduate student Jason Tsukahara.
Bike ChallengeGeorgia Tech President Angel Cabrera is one of 25 leaders in science, publishing, and research named to the U.S. Research Advisory Council by Springer Nature, publishers of Nature and Scientific American. This new body will meet annually in a roundtable workshop format with members drawn from institutions, funders, policy makers and research-driven organizations. They will advise Springer Nature on research culture, and how research contributes to a better and more equitable society. Cabrera received his M.S. and Ph.D. from Georgia Tech's School of Psychology, and began his duties as President of the Institute in September 2019. He also holds a telecommunications engineering degree (B.S. and M.S. in computer and electrical engineering) from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. He has published extensively in academic journals, and has been featured or quoted in leading media around the world.
Online MS in Cybersecurity
New findings in a study by researchers from Georgia Tech and Emory University could point the way to a therapeutic treatment for Alzheimer's with the potential to slow the incurable disease's advance. The study, published this month in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, examined whether a technique of flickering lights and sound - which has been found to reduce Alzheimer's in mice - was viable to try with humans. Qiliang He, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Psychology, is first author for the study.
Georgia Tech, Emory researchers advance possible light and sound treatment of Alzheimer'sBut only under the right lighting conditions, adds the authors of the study, both from the School of Psychology: professor Randall Engle and graduate student Jason Tsukahara. They gave reasoning, memory, and attention tests to volunteers and found that as well as being linked to arousal and exhaustion, pupil dilation can be used to understand the individual differences in intelligence, discovering that the larger the pupils, the higher the intelligence — except in the brightest lighting conditions. The study says this could be due to people with larger pupils having better results regulation of brain activity in a region linked to intelligence and memory. (Coverage of this study also appears in MSN Australia.)
leadership searchIn a paper published in early May at CHI 2021 — the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems — Georgia Tech researchers hypothesized that hearing the heartbeat of another person would increase the listener’s empathic connection with that person. Lead investigator Mike Winters, a recent Georgia Tech Ph.D. graduate of the School of Music, had also worked with School of Psychology Professor Bruce Walker in the latter's Sonification Lab. (Walker is also with the School of Interactive Computing.)
Nano RiskAs studies show that the stress of the Covid-19 pandemic significantly contributes to rising alcohol consumption, two alumni of the Georgia Institute of Technology's College of Engineering now offer an increasingly popular solution to curb or eliminate alcohol abuse: a sobriety app called Reframe. Kimberly French, assistant professor in the School of Psychology, explains how feelings of isolation, with limited remote options for seeking help, caused a spike in alcohol abuse during the pandemic.
target localizationIt's what we should have told our middle school teachers when they caught us staring off into space in class: Daydreaming can be "a powerful mental health tool," according to this Popular Science story. The argument is backed up by a 2019 study led by School of Psychology researchers who noted that participants improved work performance and emotional states thanks to some mind wandering.
VLSI symposium
