Michael Slepian, a graduate student in psychology at Stanford University, has been studying the way poker players communicate the value of their poker hands through non-verbal signals. He tells Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin that they give themselves away, not in their facial expressions, but with hand motions.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Let's talk poker. Dealer, let me see those cards.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "COOL HAND LUKE")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (as character) King-three, you got a four. Queen-deuce gets a five. And a pair of sevens gets a john. And the big ace gets a slap in the face. OK, you still do the talking.
MARTIN: That's a poker game from the movie "Cool Hand Luke." Poker, of course, is a game of deception. You have to play your bet based on the cards you think your opponent has. And if you think they've got good cards, you should probably fold. But there's always a chance the other guy is bluffing.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "COOL HAND LUKE")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (as character) A hand full of nothing. (unintelligible) mom and dad. He beat you with nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: (as character) Sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand.
MARTIN: Well, it turns out, a person's cool, confident hands, as opposed to her tight-lipped poker face, might be the best place to look if you're trying to guess her cards. Which leads us to the research of Mike Slepian. He's a grad student in psychology at Tufts and Stanford Universities. He studies the way our intentions can influence our movements, and he was looking for a real world example.
MIKE SLEPIAN: When people are playing the game of poker, they move chips into the center of the table, and we're like, oh, well, what if how good their poker hand is influences how they move their chips into the center of the table. And if so, can people sort of decode maybe the quality of their poker hand without them, obviously, wanting to repeal their poker hand.
MARTIN: That would be valuable information. So, what did you find out? Can you apply this to poker?
SLEPIAN: So, you can. So, we showed participants videos of professional poker players playing in the World Series of Poker, and participants watched either just players placing bets but only their faces or they watched their whole bodies or they watched just their arms pushing chips into the center of the table. And it turned out that people couldn't do it from just the whole body. They couldn't guess accurately how good a poker hand was. They couldn't do it for their face. In fact, they're a little bit worse than chance suggesting that the facial cues players were sort of admitting were deceptive. But when just looking at the arms, they could tell how good professional poker players' poker hands were.
MARTIN: Wow. The truth is in the arms. Why does that make sense? What is it about our arm movements - and that one in particular, moving chips into the center of a table - that's so revealing?
SLEPIAN: So, it could be if you have a really good hand and you feel confident about that, you might just push the chips into the center of the table just a little bit more smoothly. And actually, we found that if we have participants rate how smoothly is this person putting chips into the center of the table, the smoother they're doing it, the better their poker hands were.
MARTIN: Do you play poker?
SLEPIAN: I actually don't. Maybe I should start.
MARTIN: Mike Slepian is a grad student at Tufts and Stanford Universities.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: This is NPR News.
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Who'd have thunk it? Numark, at a music trade show with a newanother DJ controller for your consideration. This time it has taken its popular Mixtrack console, and doubled down on the number of channels on offer. This now means between the Mixtrack, the Mixtrack II, the Mixtrack Pro II, and this, there's likely a Mixtrack for everyone. Evidently it's a format that works, so it only makes sense to offer a number of options based around the theme. As with other members of the Mixtrack family, the layout is fairly traditional, with two platters plus transport controls flanking a central mixer section. Above each platter is a set of eight MPC-style trigger pads and some rotary controls for FX and filters. If the Quad looks like it's got an extra splash of color compared to its siblings, that's because it has. The pads and platters have have configurable RGB LEDs, which we first saw in the NS7 II (Numark is going strong on the colors generally, it seems). Again, as before there's a built-in audio interface, which is pretty much essential for a controller of this level. And what level is that? Around the $349 one, apparently, whenever it comes to market (no word on that at this point). While you're waiting to find out, however, you might as well scoot over the fold for the hardware impressions.
Australian Badminton Open: Nichaon Jindapon outplays Millicent Wiranto in round-of-16 clash
Thailand?s upcoming shuttler Nichaon Jindapon showed her impressive craft on court when she outplayed Indonesia?s Millicent Wiranto in Women?s Singles round-of-16 at Yonex Australian Open 2013 on Thursday, April 4, in Australia.
The lofty Jindapon, who is fourth seed in Women?s Singles draw of the championship, played to her maximum potential and she easily overpowered her Indonesian rival by taking just 24 minutes.
Jindapon was in smashing form as she played with wonderful speed in the arena and remained successful in winning the match in straight games with a spectacular 21-10 and 21-6 score on the board.
The un-seeded Millicent, on the other hand, failed to continue her winning in the arena as she could not pose even a meagre threat to her Thai rival. She tried to play attacking badminton but committed many unforced errors and lost the match in a one-sided
way.
Jindapon showed a wonderful aggression in the arena from the initial points of first game by building a huge pressure on her lower ranked Indonesian challenger. She was incredibly quick on court and remained in complete control of rallies.
The impressive variations in Jindapon?s strokes helped her to maintain her upper hand against her Indonesian opponent and she remained ahead on the board without facing any trouble.
Until the mid-game break, the confident Jindapon was leading the game with a completely commanding margin on the score board.
Millicent tried to put up strong resistance but remained unable to take charge of rallies and remained struggling in the ending half.
The fourth seeded Jindapon was very calm and composed on court as she did not commit mistakes and wrapped up the first game with a staggering margin of 21-10.
The impressive Thai shuttler did not lose her supremacy at any stage in the first part of second game as she played with confidence and precision.
Jindapon entertained the crowd with her incredible craft that helped her to keep pressure on her opponent who could not find good rhythm.
In the second half of second game, the lofty Jindapon continued her comfortable run and easily wrapped up the second game by a superb margin of 21-6.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard called the inquiry into sexual abuse a "moral moment" for the country and warned of "very uncomfortable truths."
By Duncan Golestani, Correspondent, NBC News
The Catholic Church in Australia is one of several institutions in the country being investigated by a "royal commission" that is looking into allegations of child sex abuse.
At the start of proceedings on Wednesday, the commission's chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, said it was likely that at least 5,000 people would want to give evidence to the government-backed inquiry. It will investigate allegations of abuse and cover-up that could date back decades. The commission will be focusing on religious organizations, state care providers such as orphanages and not-for-profit groups such as the Girl Guides and Scouts.
Groups representing alleged victims of abuse say the proceedings will finally reveal Australia's history of widespread physical and sexual abuse of vulnerable children.
As tearful campaigners gathered outside the court in Melbourne, McClellan said he wanted to hear the personal accounts of those abused and those who may have been witnesses to crimes.
"For the individuals who have been traumatized, giving an account of their experiences and telling their story can be an important part of their own recovery process," he said. "The bearing of witness by another can break the silence over the abuse that a person experienced, in many cases, years ago."
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the commission in November after allegations of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in the Hunter Valley region, north of Sydney. A serving police officer called for a national inquiry, alleging the church had protected pedophile priests and tried to stop investigations.
The Catholic Church has said it will cooperate fully with the commission and has formed a "Truth, Justice and Healing Council." Its head, Francis Sullivan, said in a statement that the church was ready and willing to assist. "It is essential that the Commission's process contribute to the healing of the victims, and that institutions develop best-practice processes to address child sexual abuse."
Giving a sense of the scale of the inquiry, McClellan said the commission might not be able to meet its deadline of late 2015. It has already received around 1,200 telephone calls before starting. The allegations are likely to be so harrowing that staff members will be limited in how much testimony they can listen to each day.
Gillard called it a "moral moment" for the country. She told Australia's ABC News Radio, "When I established this royal commission I understood that it was going to require our whole country to stare some very uncomfortable truths in the face."
By Martyn Herman LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Whether by design, necessity, self-interest or because of all three, nurturing youngsters has become fashionable for England's elite with no expense spared in the hunt for the new Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard. The length and breadth of the country, scouts from top clubs are hoovering up promising footballers barely old enough to tie their bootlaces in a bid to unearth the 30 million pounds ($45.40 million) treasures of the future. ...
Happy Monday! ?Today I thought I would compile a list of great resources to use as a school psychology student. ?My professors have recommended many helpful online resources to my cohort to help with our education as well as for us to reference throughout our careers.? Here are some great websites to check out!
First and foremost, I recommend the NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) website.? Many of us are members and several of us attended the NASP conference in Philadelphia last year.? PCOM pays for our student membership this year, which gives us access to multiple school psychology resources and helps connect us to the professional community in which we will one day be working.? I also recommend following NASP?s Facebook page.? There are daily posts including advice from professionals, current education news, and internship/job postings.?
Joining your local state school psychology association is also a great way to network with professionals in the field, get information on state conferences and workshops, and become involved in state leadership roles.? Many people in my cohort live in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and each state has its own school psychology association.
What Works Clearinghouse is an initiative of the Institute of Education Sciences at the Department of Education that provides quality research on numerous educational programs and policies and their effectiveness. PaTTAN offers a lot of great resources to those in the education field.??PaTTAN provides information about professional training, downloadable instructional materials, and legal information about state and federal laws pertaining to education.? Intervention Central provides RTI (Response to Intervention) resources for academic and behavioral interventions.? There are many free manuals and resources available for download. PCOM also provides many resources for us as students.? Listed below are several pages that I have found useful since beginning my education here.? While our professors do a great job of preparing us for upcoming proficiency assessments, this page has basic information about the program sequence and course descriptions for those who like to see what's coming up next semester or year (like me!). When researching for a project or paper, the Psychology Guide on the library website is easy to use and provides a variety of great articles.? The Psychology liaison librarians are always quick to respond to emails and very helpful if I need to retrieve an article that is not available online. I have visited PCOM?s financial aid website many times.??The website contains information about how to apply for financial aid, financial planning tips, and many other resources regarding the funding of your education and budgeting.? The financial aid office is also very helpful when trying to figure out the student loan situation.
I worked at the Office of Student Affairs for a few semesters and the people here rock!? Professional, academic, and personal support is provided.? You can find out more about clubs and organizations offered at PCOM as well as how to get involved in a Federal Work Study job.? Also, if you are ever in need of a sugar boost, the candy bowl is usually full???
Measuring mercury: Common test may overestimate exposure from dental amalgam fillingsPublic release date: 20-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jim Erickson ericksn@umich.edu 734-647-1842 University of Michigan
ANN ARBORA common test used to determine mercury exposure from dental amalgam fillings may significantly overestimate the amount of the toxic metal released from fillings, according to University of Michigan researchers.
Scientists agree that dental amalgam fillings slowly release mercury vapor into the mouth. But both the amount of mercury released and the question of whether this exposure presents a significant health risk remain controversial.
Public health studies often make the assumption that mercury in urine (which is composed mostly of inorganic mercury) can be used to estimate exposure to mercury vapor from amalgam fillings. These same studies often use mercury in hair (which is composed mostly of organic mercury) to estimate exposure to organic mercury from a person's diet.
But a U-M study that measured mercury isotopes in the hair and urine from 12 Michigan dentists found that their urine contained a mix of mercury from two sources: the consumption of fish containing organic mercury and inorganic mercury vapor from the dentists' own amalgam fillings.
"These results challenge the common assumption that mercury in urine is entirely derived from inhaled mercury vapor," said Laura Sherman, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and lead author of a paper in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. A final version of the paper was published online March 20.
"These data suggest that in populations that eat fish but lack occupational exposure to mercury vapor, mercury concentrations in urine may overestimate exposure to mercury vapor from dental amalgams. This is an important consideration for studies seeking to determine the health risks of mercury vapor inhalation from dental amalgams," said U-M biogeochemist Joel D. Blum, a co-author of the paper and a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
The study by Sherman, Blum and their colleagues demonstrates that mercury isotopes can be used to more accurately assess human exposure to the metaland the related health risksthan traditional measurements of mercury concentrations in hair and urine samples. Specifically, isotopes provide a novel chemical tracer that can be used to "fingerprint" both organic mercury from fish and inorganic mercury vapor from dental amalgams.
Mercury is a naturally occurring element, but more than 2,000 tons are emitted into the atmosphere each year from human-generated sources such as coal-fired power plants, small-scale gold-mining operations, metals and cement production, incineration and caustic soda production.
This mercury is deposited onto land and into water, where micro-organisms convert some of it to methylmercury, a highly toxic organic form that builds up in fish and the animals that eat them, including humans. Effects on humans include damage to the central nervous system, heart and immune system. The developing brains of fetuses and young children are especially vulnerable.
Inorganic mercury can also cause central nervous system and kidney damage. Exposure to inorganic mercury occurs primarily through the inhalation of elemental mercury vapor. Industrial workers and gold miners can be at risk, as well as dentists who install mercury amalgam fillingsthough dentists have increasingly switched to resin-based composite fillings and restorations in recent years.
About 80 percent of inhaled mercury vapor is absorbed into the bloodstream in the lungs and transported to the kidneys, where it is excreted in urine. Because the mercury found in urine is almost entirely inorganic, total mercury concentrations in urine are commonly used as an indicator, or biomarker, for exposure to inorganic mercury from dental amalgams.
But the study by Sherman, Blum and their colleagues suggests that urine contains a mix of inorganic mercury from dental amalgams and methylmercury from fish that undergoes a type of chemical breakdown in the body called demethylation. The demethylated mercury from fish contributes significantly to the amount of inorganic mercury in the urine.
The U-M scientists relied on a natural phenomenon called isotopic fractionation to distinguish between the two types of mercury. All atoms of a particular element contain the same number of protons in their nuclei. However, a given element can have various forms, known as isotopes, each with a different number of neutrons in it nucleus.
Mercury has seven stable (nonradioactive) isotopes. During isotopic fractionation, different mercury isotopes react to form new compounds at slightly different rates. The U-M researchers relied on a type of isotopic fractionation called mass-independent fractionation to obtain the chemical fingerprints that enabled them to distinguish between exposure to methylmercury from fish and mercury vapor from dental amalgam fillings.
###
In addition to Sherman and Blum, co-authors of the Environmental Science & Technology paper are Alfred Franzblau and Niladri Basu of the U-M School of Public Health. Funding was provided by the John D. MacArthur Professorship to Blum and by a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health training grant and a Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research Grant to Basu.
More about Blum: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/earth/people/faculty/ci.blumjoeld_ci.detail
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Measuring mercury: Common test may overestimate exposure from dental amalgam fillingsPublic release date: 20-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jim Erickson ericksn@umich.edu 734-647-1842 University of Michigan
ANN ARBORA common test used to determine mercury exposure from dental amalgam fillings may significantly overestimate the amount of the toxic metal released from fillings, according to University of Michigan researchers.
Scientists agree that dental amalgam fillings slowly release mercury vapor into the mouth. But both the amount of mercury released and the question of whether this exposure presents a significant health risk remain controversial.
Public health studies often make the assumption that mercury in urine (which is composed mostly of inorganic mercury) can be used to estimate exposure to mercury vapor from amalgam fillings. These same studies often use mercury in hair (which is composed mostly of organic mercury) to estimate exposure to organic mercury from a person's diet.
But a U-M study that measured mercury isotopes in the hair and urine from 12 Michigan dentists found that their urine contained a mix of mercury from two sources: the consumption of fish containing organic mercury and inorganic mercury vapor from the dentists' own amalgam fillings.
"These results challenge the common assumption that mercury in urine is entirely derived from inhaled mercury vapor," said Laura Sherman, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and lead author of a paper in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. A final version of the paper was published online March 20.
"These data suggest that in populations that eat fish but lack occupational exposure to mercury vapor, mercury concentrations in urine may overestimate exposure to mercury vapor from dental amalgams. This is an important consideration for studies seeking to determine the health risks of mercury vapor inhalation from dental amalgams," said U-M biogeochemist Joel D. Blum, a co-author of the paper and a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
The study by Sherman, Blum and their colleagues demonstrates that mercury isotopes can be used to more accurately assess human exposure to the metaland the related health risksthan traditional measurements of mercury concentrations in hair and urine samples. Specifically, isotopes provide a novel chemical tracer that can be used to "fingerprint" both organic mercury from fish and inorganic mercury vapor from dental amalgams.
Mercury is a naturally occurring element, but more than 2,000 tons are emitted into the atmosphere each year from human-generated sources such as coal-fired power plants, small-scale gold-mining operations, metals and cement production, incineration and caustic soda production.
This mercury is deposited onto land and into water, where micro-organisms convert some of it to methylmercury, a highly toxic organic form that builds up in fish and the animals that eat them, including humans. Effects on humans include damage to the central nervous system, heart and immune system. The developing brains of fetuses and young children are especially vulnerable.
Inorganic mercury can also cause central nervous system and kidney damage. Exposure to inorganic mercury occurs primarily through the inhalation of elemental mercury vapor. Industrial workers and gold miners can be at risk, as well as dentists who install mercury amalgam fillingsthough dentists have increasingly switched to resin-based composite fillings and restorations in recent years.
About 80 percent of inhaled mercury vapor is absorbed into the bloodstream in the lungs and transported to the kidneys, where it is excreted in urine. Because the mercury found in urine is almost entirely inorganic, total mercury concentrations in urine are commonly used as an indicator, or biomarker, for exposure to inorganic mercury from dental amalgams.
But the study by Sherman, Blum and their colleagues suggests that urine contains a mix of inorganic mercury from dental amalgams and methylmercury from fish that undergoes a type of chemical breakdown in the body called demethylation. The demethylated mercury from fish contributes significantly to the amount of inorganic mercury in the urine.
The U-M scientists relied on a natural phenomenon called isotopic fractionation to distinguish between the two types of mercury. All atoms of a particular element contain the same number of protons in their nuclei. However, a given element can have various forms, known as isotopes, each with a different number of neutrons in it nucleus.
Mercury has seven stable (nonradioactive) isotopes. During isotopic fractionation, different mercury isotopes react to form new compounds at slightly different rates. The U-M researchers relied on a type of isotopic fractionation called mass-independent fractionation to obtain the chemical fingerprints that enabled them to distinguish between exposure to methylmercury from fish and mercury vapor from dental amalgam fillings.
###
In addition to Sherman and Blum, co-authors of the Environmental Science & Technology paper are Alfred Franzblau and Niladri Basu of the U-M School of Public Health. Funding was provided by the John D. MacArthur Professorship to Blum and by a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health training grant and a Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research Grant to Basu.
More about Blum: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/earth/people/faculty/ci.blumjoeld_ci.detail
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 20-Mar-2013
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