Decisions, Delusions & Debacles

To make a decision – any decision – requires a certain amount of confidence in our understanding of the risks and benefits. But overconfidence, and the illusion of control, can add up to bad decisions and big losses, according to UGA psychology professor Adam Goodie.

“Confidence is your subjective probability of getting it right,” he said, “and most people are overconfident most of the time."

Deer Speak

Karl Miller studies the language of deer: not only the sounds they make and hear, but also the sights and scents that taken together form the basis for their communication. Understanding deer behavior and how they perceive their environment may help fine-tune ways deer populations are managed.

“What we’re trying to do with our research is provide information – physiological, behavioral and reproductive – that is helpful in maintaining deer herds,” said Miller, a professor of wildlife ecology and management at the University of Georgia.

Viruses, Vaccines and the “Unstoppable” Ralph Tripp

Ralph Tripp arrives at his University of Georgia lab each day around 6 a.m. The place is deserted at that hour and the phones are silent. He puts on a pot of pekoe black tea, turns on his computer, scans his e-mail and then gets to work. There’s no one around to disturb this scientist in his relentless pursuit of treatments for respiratory illnesses. There’s also no one to catch this occasional practical joker if he’s in the mood to switch the chairs in his coworkers’ offices or replaces boxes of essential office supplies with packets of ketchup.

Building a Better Math Teacher

Why can’t American school kids do math? A 2004 international study of math performance among school children in 11 industrialized countries showed that U.S. students not only are still lagging behind their foreign counterparts, but also may be losing ground.

The study, the third of its kind done since 1995, showed that out of three grade levels – the 4th, 8th and 12th grades – American students ranked no higher than 8th place among their peers in countries that included Australia, Hungary, Japan, Norway and the Russian Federation.

New Primate Found in Africa

On Tanzania’s forested mountain slopes, Carolyn Ehardt and her research team made the find of a lifetime in September 2004. But they were under strict orders to keep mum about discovering Africa’s first new primate species in two decades, the Highland mangabey, until their paper was published in the journal Science eight months later.

Ehardt, a University of Georgia primatologist, unknowingly began to lay the groundwork for her 2004 discovery a decade earlier. She had received support from the U.S. National Science Foundation to assess the feasibility of primate research in the Udzungwas. Her pilot work led to a study of the conservation status of primates and other large mammals and birds of the Udzungwa Mountains; it also indicated a need for basic survey research. For the next seven years, Ehardt and her team of scientists and local assistants traversed the rugged mountain slopes during Tanzania’s dry season, collecting distribution and abundance data on monkeys, other native mammals and birds. At the survey’s completion, Ehardt decided to focus her ensuing research on the Sanje mangabey, the reclusive monkeys that live in troops of 35 to 40 adults and young, and, during daylight hours, clamor about in the tall trees and on the forest floor of the mountain’s steep slopes.