Psychology

Distracted drivers cause thousands of deaths in car crashes every year. Robert Gray is making driving safer by finding the best ways to bring people's attention back to the road. --by Diane Boudreau

Not everyone who suffers extreme trauma suffers from post-traumatic-stress-disorder. Martha Kent is learning how some people avoid PTSD, and using the same tools to help others overcome it. --by Diane Boudreau

A lack of individual options among ants minimizes their opportunities to make mistakes. As a result, they may be more rational in their decision making than we big-brained humans. --by Margaret Coulombe

What makes some people natural leaders? Business professor Pierre Balthazard believes it's all in their heads, and he's working with neuroscientists to look into the brain and find out how. --by Jessica McCann

So you want to build a better baseball player. How do you proceed? Maybe you'd combine the hitting eye of Alex Rodriguez with the fielding range of Derek Jeter. ASU robotics expert Tom Sugar is building a better ballplayer with a four-wheel drive transmission and a camera with a zoom lens. --by Skip Derra

Growing up as a Mexican-American youth in El Paso, Miguel Arciniega was taught by his father to be un caballero--a gentleman--who takes care of his family and respects his wife. But his peers encouraged him to be a macho man--sexist, violent and unemotional. Now Arciniega is studying gender roles and values among Mexican American men, and has created an academic scale to define what it means to be a gentleman or a macho man. --by Verina Palmer Martin

Major league baseball players like Derek Jeter make actions like catching a fly ball look effortless. But if you want to understand the complexity underlying these moves, try teaching them to a robot. By combining expertise in engineering and psychology, ASU researchers have created Catchbot, a baseball-playing robot. In the process, they have learned a lot about how people perceive and respond to a moving target. --by Skip Derra

Do TV shows like CSI taint jurors' perceptions of forensic evidence? For years, legal professionals and the mass media have claimed that a "CSI effect" is influencing jury trials. But these claims aren't backed up by real data. In fact, new research from ASU indicates that watching CSI doesn't make people any more or less likely to convict. --by Diane Boudreau

More than 15 million Americans care for a family member with a disability or illness, such as Alzheimer's disease. Caregiving exacts a heavy toll. Researchers have found that caregivers are at greater risk for depression, anxiety and physical ailments. The REACH II program is offering some hope for those caring for loved ones with dementia. --by Adelheid Fischer

Some people bounce back well from traumatic events or from life's many defeats, large or small. Others lack the skill. ASU scientists are studying the natural capacity for "resilience" among older Americans. --by Adelheid Fischer