Story Archives of 'Psychology'

Most actors will tell you that drama is easy - that the hardest thing to do well is comedy.

Humor lives in the moment and the more you take it apart, the less humorous it becomes. But despite the fact that jokes have been around for thousands of years, there has never really been a scholarly understanding of this art form. In his new book, "Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes," author Jim Holt examines the origins of this art form and how it has evolved over the centuries.

Jim is a contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and a collector of jokes. He joins Word of Mouth with more on the history and evolution of the joke.

(Photo by berlintapes)

We know communication technology is changing how we talk to each other. Currently 340 million people worldwide have instant messaging accounts, 24 million are on Facebook, and more than 1 trillion text messages were sent globally in 2005. Wth those numbers come changes in the way we write, read, and even listen to language.

Teachers from grammar school on up are wondering how tech-savvy kids who communicate with smily and winky faces will learn to write. High school teachers complain that kids can’t compose essays anymore. And college professors worry about a sea of distracted faces hiding behind laptop computers.

Naomi S. Baron, professor of linguistics at American University, has spent a decade researching how technology has influenced our reading, speaking, writing and listening behaviors. She joins Word of Mouth to dicuss her new book, "Always On: Language In An Online and Mobile World," and what will become of written culture.

Also, we hear about a machine to teach toddlers foreign languages, invented by a group of researchers at the University of California-San Diego. Reporter Molly Bently visited Ruby the Robot and her students for the BBC program Science in Action.

(Photo by QwirkSilver/Kristine)

On today's show, we take a look at your brain. Specifically, your brain at that maddening moment when you run into an old acquaintance, but just can’t place their name. Ben? Bob? Brian? You’ve got the “b” part, but the rest just seems to stick on the tip of your tongue. Science editor and writer Jonah Lehrer, became fascinated with this phenomenon, and he stopped by our studio to tell us more.

We also look at the possible links between childhood poverty and brain development. Dr. Martha Farah, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, studies how the stress of growing up in a lower socio-economic status may be damaging to how the brain develops, and is providing new insight into the age-old question of why poverty persists.

And we hear a story from public radio station KQED's QUEST about researchers at Stanford University using complex brain imaging to study how we make financial decisions. They’re finding that emotions play a pretty big role in everyday purchases. Andrea Kissic visited the lab to see what the scientists are coming up with.

(Photo by Piper Falk)

The number of people diagnosed with autism has grown tremendously in the past few decades. In the 1970s the rate of autism was about one in 10,000. Now it's about one in 150. But the question of whether autism is indeed spreading is contentious. In fact, so is almost every aspect of the disorder.

Most agree autism is genetic, while some believe it's caused by environmental toxins, especially vaccines. And a third camp believes people with autism should be accepted, and should in fact be proud of being different. They refer to themselves as the "neurodiversity movement."

Andrew Solomon recently wrote about the push for autism rights in New York Magazine, and he joined Word of Mouth to discuss the movement to see autism as a positive identity, not a disability.

(Photo by Norma Desmond)

Lots of women have meaningful and personal connections with their hairdressers.

A new campaign to curb domestic violence is looking to take advantage of those relationships by training hair stylists to look for signs of domestic abuse.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein has the story.