6 proven science solutions for the problems of daily irritants Bashny.Net

Ever song stuck in your head, or boring meeting at work? There is a solution!

Scientists are working to alleviate those maddening, irritating and just unpleasant things that can turn your everyday life into hell. And just in time!

1. Eavesdropping on mobile conversations telefonu

Problem. Why is it so easy - and it causes irritation - immerse yourself in other people's conversations on the mobile phone, no matter how we tried to resist? Cognitive scientists dubbed this phenomenon "halfalog» (halfalogue, or "polurazgovor") and began to study why this is so terrible. In one experiment, volunteers play a simple computer game - like mouse prosecution point - while listening to the monologues, dialogues and halfalogov. People who heard halfalogi, have shown themselves the worst.



Scientists have suggested that the reason is that these polubesedy eat more of our attention as we try to gather them bit by bit. "When the brain hears it, he millisecond milliseconds builds expectations that he will hear next - explains study co-author Michael Spivey, a professor of cognitive science at the University of California at Merced. - When these expectations are not met, it is damaging to the smooth operation of the human mind ».

Scientific decision. Fortunately, the company producing cell phones are concerned about the massive irritation caused by their products, and engineers are now working on technology that will reduce the noise. Some phones «Samsung», for example, have a "whisper mode" earlier generation that uses a hypersensitive microphone so you can talk quietly and be much smaller than distract people around you. While this feature is not so common - or perfected - the majority of industries are working on ways to make less annoying chatter.



Prompt decision. Team Spivey found an alternative (albeit somewhat dubious) solution: because studies have shown that the dialogues less energy our brain than halfalogi, you can return some peace of mind, politely asking chatty cell phone users play during a call in speaker so you We could hear both sides. Rather, such a request would be met with strange looks, and (hopefully) dead silence.

2. The song stuck in golove

Problem. If you obsessively humming «Poker Face» over the past 17 hours, it means that you are bitten "ear worm," says James Kellaris, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati and author of the study "A critical analysis of" ear worms ": additional material on the phenomenon of the song stuck in my head ».

In the paper he writes: "Just as some biochemical agents (histamine) have physical properties that may cause itching, a few pieces of music may have properties that excite an unusual reaction in the brain - cognitive itch. The only way to "scratch" - to repeat it mentally tune. This repetition actually aggravate itch, because of what the mental repetition becomes largely involuntary, and the individual feels trapped in a loop or feedback loop ».



Callers Madness songs - simple, repetitive and contain some inconsistencies - a little strange element - and the most suitable candidates for the role they are «Macarena», «I Love You» Barney (Barney) and «Whoomp! (There It Is) ». "But only half of the answer lies in the song - says Kellaris. - Features listeners also contribute to the phenomenon of "ear worm". Musicians are more prone to this than the general population, possibly due to the high impact of music on their experience and repetition in rehearsals. It was also found that women are more sensitive than men. And when the "ear worm" greeted reaction "When it finally stop?" He delayed even longer. Studies have shown that men seem better at just ignore it than to wait until it goes over. " In general, the probability of catching "ear worm" increases when we are tired, exposed to stress or weakened by something else.

Scientific decision. The best cure for "ear worm" - this is what Kellaris calls "tune-eraser." "" Melody eraser "destroys" ear worm "through a combination of abstraction and replacement, - says Kellaris. - The brain can handle only so much one time, so if it is engaged in processing "tune-eraser", it limits its ability to maintain the "ear worm" ».

Prompt decision. Take your iPod and listen to a new, less annoying song three or four times in a row. Of course, if your "Melody eraser" too easy to remember, you have a chance of replacing one "ear worm" on the other. "It is a risk, - recognizes Kellaris. - Ideally, "Melody eraser" should be something more complex and less repetitive than the "ear worm" to prevent its settlement in your head. Again ».

3. whiny deti

Problem. What can distract more than screeching of circular saws, slow sound of a fingernail on a blackboard or a nuclear explosion? This shrill crying screaming child or the incessant howling infant. Rosemary Chang, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz, asked subjects to solve mathematical problems to the accompaniment of various annoying background noise. Screaming children took the prize for the most distracting noise.

Prompt decision. Chang suggested that the weeping and whining - a form accompanying vocalizations, which developed as a way to attract the attention of parents and ensure the survival (or at least getting toys "Power Rangers" in the store). And parents inadvertently encourage their children, responding to their own form of vocalization called syusyukanem - wrenching melody, otherwise known as sophomoric. They endlessly can stimulate each other. So when the children were old enough to make suggestions, stop saying "gu-gu».



Scientific decision. And what about older children? "The way to get a teenager to stop endlessly ask to take your ride" Volvo ", - says Welsh inventor Howard Stapleton - is to knock out fire with fire." At the age of 12 years old Stapleton he was with his father at the factory where he worked, and he was shocked that the adults did not bother pitched hum of the assembly line. He found that they gradually lost the ability to hear high frequencies.

Therefore Stapleton developed a device called the "Mosquito", published pitched raspy sound that humans can hear only the age of 24 years. It sold 10,000 units worldwide mainly in retail for those who like to keep unruly teenagers from going to cry.

4. Long-term operating vstrechi

Problem. Already 15 hours of the day, your blood sugar low, and you are trapped in a marathon session that refuses to end. God ... but not even one presentation «PowerPoint»!

Scientific decision. Although you almost can not do anything to escape from this personal hell, scientists have identified a method that can make your pastime more bearable: grab a pen and start drawing! This may seem counter-productive solution, but removal scrawl helps to concentrate, according to Jackie Andrade, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Plymouth (England), and author of the study "What makes a painting?", Published in the journal "Applied Cognitive Psychology».



Those subjects who painted during buzzing teleconference remembered much more material than not draw. By assumption Andrade, drawing geometric figures and strange animals less distracting, something, what you were doing would otherwise - daydreaming.

"Studies show that reverie takes a lot of mental energy. Once the process has started, it becomes difficult to get back on track - says Andrade. - Simple exercise, such as a drawing, can take a power cord to distract you, but there is much to overshadow the main task in which you are trying to concentrate. " She also points out that the drawing supplements the meeting is particularly good, as opposed to sending SMS in secret, which requires the use of extra resources for verbal processing.

Prompt decision. So we need to draw? "It is best to simple repetitive automatic scribbles - says Andrade. - Create a work of art would be too absorbing ».

5. Spam



Problem. In 2004, one of the founders of «Microsoft» Bill Gates declared that "after two years from that moment on, the spam problem would be solved." But now it is 70% of all e-mail that we receive.

Recently, a group of analysts spam from the University of California at San Diego and the University of California at Berkeley attempted to solve this problem, klyunuv the bait and bought that spread spammers. Having accumulated a mountain of "Levitra" and fake watches «Rolex», they have an opportunity to outline a complete picture of the ecosystem spam.

For one typical message domain is registered in Russia, the server computer is in China, and the proxy server - in Brazil. When the purchase is made, the buyer is redirected from a computer in Turkey in the bank in Azerbaijan, and then get their goods manufacturing in India. What has been the weak link in the chain?



Scientific decision. "If some of these links have only one, which could be destroyed, which would have the greatest impact?" - Asks Stefan Savage, a professor of computer science and computer engineering at the University of California at San Diego. His team found that 95% of spam, which they have received, is used in all three banks - in Azerbaijan, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Russia - to carry out their dirty work.

Savage convinced that the most effective solution would be to convince the American banks to add to the black list of some customers of those institutions. "So we could demonetized the industry" - said Savage, adding that they are in talks with various companies to translate their theory into practice.



Prompt decision. In 2001, the year Vipul Ved Prakash Software has created the world's first universal spam filter. It is called «Cloudmark DesktopOne» and allows the user to mark a message as spam, and thus does not allow to send it to others. The program is not perfect - spammers are constantly changing e-mail addresses and domain names. But now that the spam filter are 1, 6 billion people, and it is more effective than filters «Yahoo!» and «AOL».

6. Rain throughout your otpuska

Problem. Your two-week trip to Cancun, Mexico, could be amazing ... if the rain did not go every day. Awful, the weather reports do not give a forecast for the six months ahead, but in fact they can hardly say whether rain tomorrow. The problem is that meteorologists say that the models used for weather forecasting, cumbersome and dependent on a huge number of variables. If the humidity, wind direction and barometric pressure changes by 1%, the forecast for the entire collapse.

Scientific decision. In the 1990s, meteorologist Bill Kirk was the captain of the US Air Force for six months and tried to predict the date when it would be best to conduct flight training. Tired of the traditional weather patterns and their flimsy vision for the future, he developed his own algorithm: a combination of Gaussian mathematical theories, weather cycles and statistical weather data, covering the last 115 years - the data that meteorologists are rare.



The result was a new method of weather forecasting, predicting the weather for year in advance. In our time, Kirk helps customers such as «Walmart», «Target» and «Kohl» plan inventory, based on weather conditions. And the accuracy of his weekly annual forecast of 76% - is higher than the accuracy of the ten-day forecast «Weather Channel», is only 71%.

Prompt decision. In September of 2010, Kirk launched a free website Weathertrends360.com, to help us all to make the schedule of activities for which the weather can be a deciding factor.

via factroom.ru