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Business & technology: Making advances in Florida
Advances are being made in the fields of business, engineering, computer science, agriculture, physical education, astronomy, history, psychology, politics, marine science and music.
History
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Fat Chance
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Heather Parker |
Psychology
An FAU study can help detect autism earlier. |
» Lip Readers
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Watching how infants respond to speech over time could lead to earlier diagnoses of autism. Research by David Lewkowicz, a psychology professor at Florida Atlantic University, and FAU doctoral student Amy Hansen-Tift reveals that when infants enter the “babbling stage” at around 6 months old, they shift their focus of attention from the speaker’s eyes to the speaker’s mouth and continue to do so until about 1 year old, when they begin to shift their gaze back to the speaker’s eyes.
“In other words, infants become lip readers when they first begin producing their speech-like sounds,” says Lewkowicz.
Autistic children, by contrast, are still focused on a speaker’s mouth by 2 years of age. Lewkowicz’s findings suggest that if the shift does not occur by the time an infant is 14 months he may be at risk for developing autism. “If so, this would provide the earliest behavioral confirmation of impending developmental disability and would give clinicians an early start on intervention procedures.”
Michael McCullough |
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A study by Michael McCullough, a psychology professor at the University of Miami, finds that religious people are better able to forgo immediate rewards in order to gain larger rewards in the future. Some 277 students who participated in the study were given a “monetary choice questionnaire” in which they were offered a small immediate monetary reward today or a larger reward later. By a wide margin, more religious students were willing to receive more money later.
Politics
» A Vote for the Voice
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Winners have lower-pitched voices. |