Exacting demands and unfinished tasks at work lead to work-related thoughts cropping up during free time. Those who want to prevent burnout have to learn to draw boundaries. As recent investigations in an Austrian-Slovenian research project show, the problem particularly affects people given to negative thought patterns. Continue reading “The work-related impact of negative thinking”
Research groups in Graz are exploring the effectiveness of daily training for people who have lost their sense of smell. The training is linked to microorganisms in the nose and to brain networks that process the incoming signals. The first positive news: the researchers were able to prove that olfactory training is fundamentally successful. Continue reading “Training can help recover from lost sense of smell”
With the advent of the Corona pandemic, social distancing has become the order of the day. At the same time, the lockdown is very stressful for many people. A team of researchers from Vienna and Zurich is investigating how stress relates to social behaviour and how the latter develops. This is the first project to […] Continue reading “Does stress make us more helpful?”
Tests commonly used to examine creativity rarely relate to daily life, which is why they have only limited suitability for exploring creative processes in everyday situations. Researchers from Graz and Cologne have now developed special test tasks for soccer players that can also be applied in a neuroscience laboratory. Continue reading “Creativity in soccer now measurable”
A research team from Graz simulated creative thought processes using a computer and investigated the role played by creativity in the way people use digital media. First results indicate that those who think outside the box get more out of the web, even though personalised search recommendations make access to new information more difficult. Continue reading “Escaping the (mental) echo chamber”
Is there such a thing as objective morality? And what do philosophical laypeople think about this idea? These are questions explored by the philosopher Thomas Pölzler from Graz. At the College of Charleston, Schrödinger fellow Pölzler produced exciting results on this issue, implemented new research ideas and, last but not least, learned a great deal […] Continue reading “Now tell me, how do you feel about morality?”