A new study conducted by researchers from the Department of General Psychology at the University of Padua and the University of Bergamo, published in “Psychological Research”, demonstrated that the placebo effect—induced by inactive “flickering” glasses—significantly improves reading abilities in
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is learning more than just words—it’s picking up on our feelings, too. In this study, multimodal large language models were tested to see if they could match human emotional reactions to a variety of visual scenes. The AI ratings correlated surprisingly well with the
Plants, often perceived as static and passive organisms, are in fact capable of movement, communication, and complex social interactions. The Mind(the)Plant laboratory, based at the Department of General Psychology at the University of Padua, investigates precisely these phenomena, with a particular
Can we accurately process what happens in the space around us, even when our mind is overloaded? In a recent study carried out by Maria Silvia Saccani and collaborators, more than 180 participants took part in two online experiments to address this question. Since potential asymmetries in spatial
In everyday life, we are constantly required to manage multiple tasks at once. Stimulus-rich environments force us to process diverse streams of information in parallel, putting our cognitive resources to the test. However, the natural cognitive decline associated with aging can reduce the ability
