Right-handed typing more favorable

Right-handed typing more favorable

http://www.livescience.com/18901-qwerty-keyboard-hand.html

Researchers from University College London and New School for Social
Research in New York have studied how people respond to words based
on having letters on the right or left hand side of the qwerty keyboard.
Volunteers rated their feelings on English, Dutch, and Spanish words.
They found no matter what the language or if the volunteer was right
or left handed, people had more positive feelings about words that
mainly involved the right side of the keyboard, even with made up words.

Researchers thought this may be due to the left hand having to work
harder on the qwerty keyboard because it’s responsible for 15 letters
while the right only has 11. They stated this research is helpful for
people responsible for naming new products, brands and companies to
choose the ‘right’ name.

This doesn’t seem like a very important topic for scientists to spend their
time investigating, but merchandising is a multimillion dollar business.
Taking advantage of every tool for your product is a smart idea. My name has
only 2 letters out of 8 on the left side so people should respond positively
to my name.

Music and the Brain: 1 Way Music Affects the Body

Probably the most important thing music can do for you is, believe it or not, restore lost senses and abilities that were inhibited by a stroke or brain damage. People who have had brain damage and are unable to talk are strangely able to sing. This eventually restores their ability to talk normally.

Fear alters perception

Fear alters perception
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120222204241.html
In this report, researchers from Ohio State University found that
the more afraid a person is of a spider, the more the perceived
size of the spider is enlarged. The researchers exposed 57
people who self-identified as having a spider phobia to a live
tarantula on 5 different occasions over a period of 8 weeks.
The tarantulas varied in size from 1 to 6 inches and the person
was asked to approach the tank and guide the spider around
with an 8 inch probe. The participants were asked to rate how
afraid they were feeling on a scale of 0-100 as an index of
subjective units of distress. They also rated their specific fear
of spiders, any panic symptoms, and thoughts about fear reduction
on future spider encounters. Then they estimated the size of the
spiders by drawing a single line on an index card without being
able to see the spider. An analysis showed that the higher ratings
of distress were associated with higher over-estimates on
tarantula size. The study was published in the Journal of
Anxiety Disorders.
The researchers are trying to study why phorias persist
and to identify predictors of relapse to better judge when
treatment is completed. It seems like gradually confronting
your fear is a good way to treat a phobia. If you avoid your
fear, you don't get a chance to learn that it really isn't as
bad as you thought.