
What ‘drives’ curiosity research?
Scientists have been studying curiosity since the 19th century, but combining techniques from several fields now makes it possible for the first time to study it with full scientific rigor, according to the authors of a new paper.

Harry Reis honored with career award
Psychology professor Harry Reis has been awarded the 2015 Career Contribution Award by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). The award honors scholars who have made major theoretical, methodological, or empirical contributions to the field.

Polish Film Festival explores universal themes of struggle, hope
This year’s Polish Film Festival, put on by the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies, features stories of elusive happiness, personal struggles, history, and murder.

Data mining Instagram feeds can point to teenage drinking patterns
By extracting information from Instagram images and hashtags, computer science researchers have shown they can expose patterns of underage drinking more cheaply and faster than conventional surveys.

Can we unconsciously ‘hear’ distance?
Because sound travels much more slowly than light, we can often see distant events before we hear them. That is why we can count the seconds between a lightning flash and its accompanying thunder. Now researchers in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences have shown that our brains can also detect and process sound delays that are too short to be noticed consciously, and that we use that information to fine tune what our eyes see when estimating distance.

The Sundance Kid Is Beautiful
Multidisciplinary artist Christopher Knowles rehearses in Todd Theatre. The Sundance Kid is Beautiful presents Knowles’s work in a staged performance environment that incorporates many of his diverse approaches, including dance, sculpture, music, and poetry.

A Halloween dance/theater event: When the Souls Rise
University of Rochester’s Program of Dance and Movement’s presents When the Souls Rise, an original production that celebrates Halloween through dance, music, and drama. This is the first time the show will be performed at a university.

New book novelizes rise and fall of Rochester’s infamous mediums
Rochester Knockings: A Novel of the Fox Sisters, a new book published by the University’s Open Letter Press, details the rise and fall of the infamous 12 and 15-year-old mediums who convinced the world they could communicate with dead.

Author Jacinda Townsend to receive 2015 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction
The award is being given for Townsend’s debut novel Saint Monkey, which was named by The Root as one of the 15 best works published by black authors in 2014.

Visual artist Christopher Knowles to give solo performance
The University’s Humanities Project will present a solo performance of The Sundance Kid is Beautiful, a rarely shown work by visual artist Christopher Knowles. Knowles is often regarded as being an outsider whose work is explained through his autism.