Recent news from The Johns Hopkins University
This section contains regularly updated highlights of the news from around The Johns Hopkins
University. Links to the complete news reports from the nine schools,
the Applied Physics Laboratory and other centers and institutes are to
the left, as are links to help news media contact the Johns Hopkins
communications offices.
Babies who are years away from being able to say “one,” “two,” and “three” actually already have a sense of what counting means, Johns Hopkins University researchers have discovered.
The findings reveal that very early on, years earlier than previously believed, babies who hear counting realize that it’s about quantity.
October 24, 2019 Tags: babies, child development, counting, infants, Jenny Wang, Johns Hopkins University, Lisa Feigenson, number skills
| Category: Psychology
Some older adults without noticeable cognitive problems have a harder time than younger people in separating irrelevant information from what they need to know at a given time, and a new Johns Hopkins University study could explain why.
August 5, 2019 Tags: aging, brain, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Susan M. Courtney, Thomas Hinault
| Category: Medicine and Nursing, Psychology
They’ve never seen animals like hippos and sharks but adults born blind have rich insight into what they look like, a new Johns Hopkins University study found.
May 21, 2019 Tags: animals, blindness, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Judy Kim, language, Marina Bedny, sight, vision
| Category: Psychology
Rewards are necessary for learning, but may actually mask true knowledge, finds a new Johns Hopkins University study with rodents and ferrets.
May 14, 2019 Tags: ainmals, animal research, behavior, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Kishore Kuchibhotla, learning, rewards, rodents
| Category: biology, Psychology
Computers, like those that power self-driving cars, can be tricked into mistaking random scribbles for trains, fences and even school busses. People aren’t supposed to be able to see how those images trip up computers but in a new study, Johns Hopkins University researchers show most people actually can.
March 22, 2019 Tags: adversarial images, artificial intelligence, Chaz Firestone, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, fooling images, Johns Hopkins University, self-driving cars
| Category: Computer Science, Psychology, Technology, Uncategorized
By studying barn owls, scientists at Johns Hopkins University believe they’ve taken an important step toward solving the longstanding mystery of how the brain chooses what most deserves attention.
October 30, 2018 Tags: ADHD, attention, Johns Hopkins University, owls, Shreesh Mysore
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology
At holiday buffets and potlucks people make quick calculations about which dishes to try and how much to take of each. Johns Hopkins University neuroscientists have found a brain region that appears to be strongly connected to these food preference decisions.
October 19, 2018 Tags: brain, David Ottenheimer, food preference, Johns Hopkins University, neuroscience, Patricia H. Janak
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology
Monkeys who learned how to gamble have helped researchers pinpoint an area of the brain key to one’s willingness to make risky decisions.
September 20, 2018 Tags: brain, gambling, Johns Hopkins University, Monkeys, risky behavior, Veit Stuphorn, Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute
| Category: biology, Natural Sciences, Psychology
Johns Hopkins Hurricane Experts Available.
September 11, 2018 Tags: catastrophic flooding, climate change, first responders, Hurricane experts, Johns Hopkins University, Preparedness, response
| Category: Business and Economics, Earth Science, Engineering, Environment, Government and Politics, International Affairs, Medicine and Nursing, Natural Sciences, Psychology, Public Health, Social Sciences, Technology
Dogs are thought to be very aware of people’s emotions, but if a pup’s owner was really upset, would it actually go out of its way to offer help and comfort? Some not only will, a new study found, they’ll overcome obstacles to do it.
July 24, 2018 Tags: crying, Dogs, Emily Sanford, Empathy, Johns Hopkins University, Lassie
| Category: Psychology
Often people think performing in front of others will make them mess up, but a new study led by a Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist found the opposite: being watched makes people do better.
April 20, 2018 Tags: audience, brain, crowd, Johns Hopkins University, neuroscience, performance, Vikram Chib
| Category: Psychology
Johns Hopkins University researchers have developed a way to study the brain of a bat as it flies, recording for the first time what happens as an animal focuses its attention.
April 10, 2018 Tags: bats, brain research, Cynthia F. Moss, Johns Hopkins University, Melville Wohlgemuth, wirelessly record brain activity
| Category: Engineering, Natural Sciences, Psychology, Technology, Uncategorized
Despite seeing it millions of times in pretty much every picture book, every novel, every newspaper and every email, Johns Hopkins University researchers have found people are essentially unaware of the most common version of the lowercase print g.
April 3, 2018 Tags: cognition, fonts, Johns Hopkins University, letter g, looptail g, Michael McCloskey, opentail g, reading
| Category: Psychology, Uncategorized
Johns Hopkins University neuroscientists have found how the brain can detect an object’s value almost as soon as we see it.
February 8, 2018 Tags: brain, Ed Connor, Johns Hopkins University, value, Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute
| Category: Medicine and Nursing, Natural Sciences, Psychology
Any athlete who’s made it to the Olympics has speed or strength or whatever physical skills it takes to lead the world in their sport. But Johns Hopkins University scientists say those who ultimately bring home gold have also honed the mind of a medalist.
February 6, 2018 Tags: balance, brain, brain science, choking under pressure, Christopher Fetsch, figure skating, Johns Hopkins University, Kathleen Cullen, Olympics, Orientation, skiing, snowboarding, Vikram Chib
| Category: Engineering, Medicine and Nursing, Psychology, Uncategorized
When we try to stop a body movement at the last second, perhaps to keep ourselves from stepping on what we just realized was ice, we can’t always do it — and Johns Hopkins University neuroscientists have figured out why.
December 7, 2017 Tags: brain, brain science, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, inhibit movement, Johns Hopkins University, movement, neuroscience, stop, Susan M. Courtney
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology
Even when people are hard at work, pictures of cookies, pizza and ice cream can distract them — and these junk food images are almost twice as distracting as health food pictures, concludes a new Johns Hopkins University study, which also found that after a few bites of candy, people found junk food no more interesting than kale.
October 26, 2017 Tags: brain, brain science, Corbin Cunningham, food, healthy food, high-calorie, high-fat, Howard Egeth, Johns Hopkins University, junk food
| Category: Psychology
One of the two brain-training methods most scientists use in research is significantly better in improving memory and attention, Johns Hopkins University researchers found. It also results in more significant changes in brain activity.
October 17, 2017 Tags: attention, brain, Brain training, cognition, Johns Hopkins University, Kara Blacker, Krieger School of Art and Sciences, memory, neuroscience, Susan Courtney, working memory
| Category: biology, Natural Sciences, Psychology
Though scientists know children with strong spatial thinking skills have an edge in science, technology, engineering and math, and that those skills are teachable, no one has formally infused them into a working elementary curriculum. With a $1.4 million federal grant, Johns Hopkins University researchers will co-develop and test such a program for third-grade science classes.
July 19, 2017 Tags: Amy Shelton, elementary education, Johns Hopkins University, Kelly Fisher, Kristin Gagnier, Prince George's County Public Schools, Science of Learning Institute, spatial thinking, STEM, third grade
| Category: Education/K-12, Psychology
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation has committed $150 million to Johns Hopkins University to forge new ways to address the deterioration of civic engagement worldwide.
June 22, 2017 Tags: Agora Institute, Beverly Wendland, Krieger School of Art and Sciences, Rising to the Challenge, Ronald J. Daniels, Stavros Niarchos Foundation
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Arts and Humanities, Fundraising, Giving, Government and Politics, Homewood Campus News, Institutional News, Psychology, Public Health, Social Sciences
When trying to be heard over noise, humans and animals raise their voices. It’s a split-second feat, from ear to brain to vocalization, and Johns Hopkins University researchers are the first to measure just how fast it happens in bats: 30 milliseconds. That’s 10 times faster than the blink of an eye, a record for audio-vocal response.
June 6, 2017 Tags: auditory, bats, brain, brain science, Cynthia F. Moss, hearing, Johns Hopkins University, Lombard effect, vocalization
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology
Chronically ill, low-income women who thought they were dying, experienced a sharp reduction in domestic violence after getting access to a life-saving treatment, a Johns Hopkins University-led study found.
March 8, 2017 Tags: domestic violence, economics, HAART, Nicholas W. Papageorge, women's health
| Category: Business and Economics, Psychology, Social Sciences
As Superman flies over the city, people on the ground famously suppose they see a bird, then a plane, and then finally realize it’s a superhero. But they haven’t just spotted the Man of Steel – they’ve experienced the ideal conditions to create a very strong memory of him.
Johns Hopkins University cognitive psychologists are the first to link human’s long-term visual memory with how things move. The key, they found, lies in whether we can visually track an object. When people see Superman, they don’t think they’re seeing a bird, a plane and a superhero. They know it’s just one thing – even though the distance, lighting and angle change how he looks.
March 6, 2017 Tags: brain, cognitive psychology, Johns Hopkins University, Jonathan Flombaum, machine learning, vision
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology
Human babies and even animals have a basic number sense that many believe evolves from seeing the world and trying to quantify all the sights. But vision has nothing to do with it – Johns Hopkins University neuroscientists have found that the brain network behind numerical reasoning is identical in blind and sighted people.
September 20, 2016 Tags: blindness, brain, Johns Hopkins, Marina Bedny, Math, visual cortex
| Category: Psychology
Bats’ use of echolocation to detect, track and catch prey is well documented. But this Johns Hopkins team is the first to show how the relatively mysterious head and ear movements factor into the hunt.
September 7, 2016 Tags: bats, Cynthia F. Moss, echolocation, hunting, Johns Hopkins University, Melville J. Wohlgemuth, waggles
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology
