Social Sciences

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Cancer Patients’ Care Requires More Than Written Instructions

The depth and breadth of post-diagnosis care for cancer patients often depends on the resources available to them. But a new paper in the journal PLoS One by UC Merced Professor Nancy Burke shows that care — and how effective it is — also depends on understanding and addressing cultural differences

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Study: Infants Recognize Surprise in Others Before Age 2

Infants as young as 20 months of age expect adults to display surprise when discovering a false belief, according to a new study from UC Merced Professor Rose Scott. Previous research suggested that children younger than 4 years old could not recognize when people held beliefs different from their

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New UC Grant Enables Deeper, Broader Valley Fever Research

Researchers at UC Merced are playing key roles in the new UC Valley Fever Research Initiative, studying how the Valley fever fungus, Coccidioides immitis, causes disease in its mammalian hosts, and identifying the genes involved in this process. School of Natural Sciences professors Clarissa Nobile

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Cognitive Scientist Earns Early Career Impact Award

UC Merced Professor Rick Dale is a recipient of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences ( FABBS) Early Career Impact Award from the Society for Computers in Psychology. Dale, a cognitive scientist in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, studies how our bodies

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Study: Early High-Altitude Settlers Were Hunter-Gatherers, Not Farmers

A new paper by UC Merced Professor Mark Aldenderfer begins to settle a longstanding debate over when people began permanently occupying higher elevations of the Tibetan Plateau, and shows communities did not have to be based around agriculture and domesticated animals to be permanent. “Permanent

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Professor’s Himalayan Archaeological Finds Documented on ‘NOVA’

Join UC Merced Professor Mark Aldenderfer as he and his colleagues explore the world’s highest cave tombs, revealing new details about the lives of the people who settled the Himalaya, in the season premiere of “NOVA” on PBS. In “Secrets of the Sky Tombs,” archaeologist Aldenderfer and fellow

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Professor Named ‘Rising Star’ in Quantitative Psychology

UC Merced Psychology Professor Sarah Depaoli has been recognized as a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science (APS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of scientific psychology and its representation at the national and international level. According to the APS

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Relax: Benefits of Leisure Go Beyond the Moment

Doing the things you enjoy can be good for your health, according to a new study by Professor Matthew Zawadzki, a health psychologist with the University of California, Merced. The study, published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, shows that leisure activity can provide immediate stress relief

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Discover Magazine Features Archaeologist’s Cave Research

Most archaeologists have to dig in the field, but Professor Holley Moyes digs deeper than most. Her research takes her more than 400 feet into the Belize underground, where ancient Maya caves hold evidence of rituals to appease gods of fertility and rain. That research is the cover story in Discover

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Scholarship Helps UC Merced Senior Fulfill Dream of Studying Abroad

Lorraine Sturdevant always wanted to explore other countries, but finances were always an obstacle. But winning a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship allowed her to take her first journey outside North America. She spent the summer studying in Thailand, an adventure that wouldn’t have been