Our cheatin' brain: The brain's clever way of showing us the world as a whole
....Boundary extension is a mistake that we often make when recalling a view of a scene -- we will insist that the boundaries of an image stretched out farther than what we actually saw. Results of a new study indicate that boundary extension occurs when a scene is interrupted for as little as 42 milliseconds (quicker than an eye blink!) and even when volunteers know exactly what is being tested....


New Study Explores Social Comparison in Early Childhood
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2008/rhodes.cfm
...These results indicate that when preschoolers see that they have performed more poorly than a peer of the other gender—even just one time—there are lasting negative consequences on behavior and self-concept. The authors conclude that “these findings have implications for the origins of social comparisons, category-based reasoning, and the development of gender stereotypes and achievement motivation.”...


Baby Talk: The Roots of the Early Vocabulary in Infants’ Learning From Speech
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2008/swingley.cfm
...Recent research has shown that during infancy, babies learn not only individual speech sounds but also the auditory forms of words; that is, babies are not only aware of the pieces that make up a word, but they are aware of the entire word. These auditory forms of words allow children to increase their vocabulary and help them to eventually develop grammar...

Study of learning disabled mice shows balance in the brain is key
...A new study in the Oct. 31 issue of Cell, a Cell Press journal, has revealed the molecular and cellular underpinnings of one of the most common, single gene causes for learning disability in humans. The findings made in learning disabled mice offer new insight into what happens in the brain when we learn and remember...