Princeton University's neuroscientists recently received a $4 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to research how the human brain helps us navigate daily distractions to achieve long-term goals. Between 1987, when the John Templeton Foundation was first established, and 2010, the organization has contributed and granted $627 million to groups and projects that require funding to answer life's big questions.

"The grant will enable Princeton researchers to design experiments that are much closer to what goes on in the real world," said project leader Jonathan Cohen.

The Princeton plans to use the funds to perform brain imaging studies and experiments to develop new computational models of cognitive processes and control. Specifically, the study aims to look at five questions - how humans exert self-control, differentiate between short- and long-term goals and prioritize tasks accordingly, plan for things and store those agendas as memories, balance learning behaviors with those that will help them reach long-term aspirations and improve the methods that are currently available to see how people think.

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