Tag: Social Interaction

Play it Forward: Lasting Effects of Pretend Play in Early Childhood

sarah JonasFeature Expert

As the school year revs up, a renowned child developmental psychologist highlights the robust benefits of pretend play on cognitive, social, and emotional development in children and cautions how “learning through play” has changed with the demands of contemporary society. Given natural selection’s shaping of childhood for the acquisition and refinement of species-adapted social-cognitive skills – much through pretend play – he says it’s unfortunate that modern culture is ignoring the evolved wisdom of how best to educate young children.

Growth from Adversity: How Older Adults Bounced Back from COVID-19 Pandemic

sarah JonasResearch Results

The study highlights the remarkable resilience of older adults (median age 86) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Disruptions to their routines led many to discover new hobbies like gardening and painting and explore virtual activities such as online yoga.

Automated social presence in AI: Avoiding consumer psychological tensions to improve service value

sarah JonasResearch Alert

Abstract Consumers are increasingly embracing robots and AI. This has led them to suffer psychological tensions in their AI experiences (e.g., data capture, classification, delegation and social experiences). This exploratory research proposes that AI with higher perceived automated presence (sense…

Everyday social interactions predict language development in infants

sarah JonasResearch Results

In a study published April 8 in Current Biology, University of Washington researchers found that when the adult talked and played socially with a 5-month-old baby, the baby’s brain activity particularly increased in regions responsible for attention — and the level of this type of activity predicted enhanced language development at later ages.

Study Uncovers How Blind and Visually Impaired Individuals Navigate Social Challenges

sarah JonasResearch Results

A recent study highlights the range of uncomfortable situations people living with blindness or visual impairment encounter due to interpersonal communication challenges, and outlines strategies people with visual impairment use to navigate these situations.

Unusual visual examination of objects may indicate later autism diagnosis in infants

sarah JonasResearch Results

Unusual visual inspection of objects in infants may precede the development of the social symptoms characteristic of autism syndrome disorder, a UC Davis Health study has found.

Beam me up: researchers use “behavioral teleporting” to study social interactions

sarah JonasResearch Results

A novel approach to getting physically separated fish to interact with each other, led to insights about what kinds of cues influence social behavior. “Behavioral teleporting” transfers the complete inventory of behaviors and actions (ethogram) of a live zebrafish onto a remotely located robotic replica

Sculptor designs, builds ‘interactive contraptions’ from everyday materials to simulate human connections

sarah JonasFeature

Even in isolation, Stacey Holloway can hold a hand, receive a swift kiss on the cheek or give a high-five. She can offer a nose rub, just like the ones she shares with her mother. She just does them all alone — that is, if you don’t count the kinetic, prosthetic models she created to help.