Br ief
18 MONITOR ON PSYCHOLOGY • JANUARY 2014
IN
less open to new experiences than those
without the disorder. The results also
indicate that individuals with ASD have a
significant level of understanding of their
own personalities (Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, in press).
n People with autism spectrum
disorder perform better on certain
detail-oriented tasks than those
without the disorder, finds research
led by Carnegie Mellon University
scientists. The researchers evaluated
13 study participants with ASD as they
took part in a luggage-screening task,
where they were asked to identify bags
with suspicious objects in them and
reject bags without suspicious objects.
Compared with 13 participants
without the disorder, those with
ASD were faster at eliminating non-suspicious bags, and their efficiency at
this task improved through the study’s
320 trials. The control participants’
performance stayed the same or
worsened throughout the study, which
the authors suggest may be due to a
loss of focus (Journal of Autism and
Developmental Disorders, October).
n Eye contact during early infancy
may be a key to identifying autism
early, according to a study led by
Emory University researchers. The
scientists followed infants from
birth to age 3, using eye-tracking
equipment to measure the children’s
eye movements as they watched videos
of their caregivers, testing the children
10 different times between 2 months
and 24 months of age. The researchers
found that infants later diagnosed with
autism focused on their caregiver’s
eyes only about half as long as their
typically developing peers. This drop
in eye-looking began between 2
and 6 months of age and continued
throughout the study (Nature, online
Nov. 6).
n Playing video games may be good
for your brain, finds a study led by
scientists at the Max Planck Institute for
Human Development. The researchers
asked 23 adults with a median age of
25 to play “Super Mario 64” for 30
minutes a day for two months. A control
group did not play video games at all.
Examining the brains of the two groups
via MRI before and after the trial, the
researchers found that the gaming group
showed a rise in gray matter in the right
hippocampus, right prefrontal cortex
and the cerebellum — areas of the
brain responsible for spatial navigation,
memory formation, strategic planning
and fine motor skills in the hands
(Molecular Psychiatry, online Oct. 29).
n Our ability to resist cheating or
lying appears to decline over the course
of a day, according to research led by
a Harvard University scientist. In one
study, researchers asked college-age
participants to look at various patterns
of dots on a computer and identify
whether more dots were displayed
on the left or right side of the screen.
The participants received money
based on which side of the screen they
determined had more dots — and were
paid 10 times the amount for selecting
the right over the left. The researchers
found that participants tested between
8 a.m. and noon were less likely to cheat
— selecting the right side, even if there
were unmistakably more dots on the left
— than participants tested from noon
to 6 p.m. (Psychological Science, online
Oct. 28).
n Sunlight may lower the prevalence
of attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder, finds a study led by a
psychologist at Utretcht University
in the Netherlands. The researchers
mapped the number of ADHD
diagnoses across the United States and
in nine other countries and compared
those rates with the intensity of sunlight
those regions receive year-round.
Regions with the most sun, such as
Arizona, California and Colorado,
had rates of ADHD diagnoses that
were about half as high as regions that
received the least sunlight, such as
much of the northeastern United States
(Biological Psychiatry, Oct. 15).
n People seem more attractive in
a group than they do when they’re
alone, according to research led by
University of California, San Diego,
psychologists. In five experiments with
130 undergraduates, the scientists
showed participants pictures of 100
people — half in a group portrait with
two other people and the other half
cropped to show the person alone. The
participants rated both female and
male subjects as more attractive in the
group shot than when alone. In several
other experiments, the scientists found
that the pictures didn’t need to be from
a cohesive group portrait to obtain
this effect. When participants were
asked to rate the attractiveness of one
person out of a collage of four, nine
and 16 pictures, the “group” picture
