Psychology Cognitive psychology

Researchers at The University of Osaka developed an eight-week training program that teaches CBT by encouraging graduate students to apply CBT techniques to their own experiences and reflect on the process. In a preliminary study of 29 trainees, the program showed high satisfaction, low adverse events, and perceived benefits in CBT understanding, self-awareness, and reflective skills. The approach may provide a promising new model for training mental health professionals.

Assessing the toll of elongated working hours in community-dwelling, middle-aged adults

Researchers from The University of Osaka compared psychological ratings of various words from humans and large language models (LLMs) along different dimensions in order to compare the ways in which they conceptualize words. Human and LLM ratings aligned closely for some attributes (such as concreteness) but diverged significantly for others (such as iconicity). This work reveals which linguistic features may be reliably estimated using LLMs.

In today’s highly competitive society, many parents insist their children learn more and learn faster in order to “win at the starting line”. A recent study by the Department of Psychology at Lingnan University examining the relationship between stress and creativity has found that different types of stress, such as competition, noise, confined environments, and engaging in challenging tasks, may actually reduce children’s creative performance, but adolescents and adults tend to show more innovative ability under moderate competitive pressure. The research findings have been published in top-tier international academic journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, and provide important insights in workplace management strategies, and for the education sector and creative industries.

A virtual reality experiment suggests that fear, pain, and expectations shaped by prior experiences can disrupt the mind’s grip on the body.

SUTD researchers had set out to test the effect of bilingualism in mitigating cognitive decline in older adults. The team developed and conducted a novel game-based cognitive training programme and found that older adults who played in dual-language mode improved their cognitive skills more than those who played in single-language mode.

Research achievement through an Undergraduate Group Research Program (UGRP) was published in an international scientific journal. The finding is expected to lay a foundation for the development of a new personality test method that can complement the existing psychology test.