5 October 2012 Last updated at 06:36

Cute animal pictures may improve concentration

Look at the cute dog above for a few moments before you read this... Do you feel like you can concentrate better now?

Well, scientists in Japan reckon that seeing pictures of sweet-looking animals may help to improve your focus.

They found that people who were shown pictures of cute baby animals did better in experiments than people shown not-so-cute ones.

The first test was an Operation-style board game task, the second involved looking for numbers on grids.

There was also a third experiment, where people had to identify a letter that flashed quickly on a screen.

The cute group's performance did not improve in this test, which suggests cute animals only have an effect on concentration and not mental ability.

Japanese people are known for their love of cute things

The study was done by a team at Hiroshima University in Japan.

Japanese people are well known for their love of cute things, such as Hello Kitty and Pokemon, which are nicknamed "Kawaii" in the country.