neuroscience

Dr. Tali Sharot just released her book, The Optimism Bias; A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain. The optimism bias is the inclination to overestimate the likelihood of encountering positive events in the future and to underestimate the likelihood of experiencing negative events. The book is a neuroscientist’s contribution to an increased understanding of the biological basis of optimism.

The 23rd Annual American Psychological Science convention took place May 25-29th in Washington, DC. The theme was Convergence: Connecting Levels of Analysis in Psychological Science. This first of two reports on the conference covers the keynote speech by neuroscientist, Giacomo Rizzolatti, discoverer of the mirror neuron system, and James Pennebaker’s work on language use.