The Defining Feature of Dyslexia
Is Reversing Letters
Humor often reveals our conceptions—and misconceptions—of the world, and few psychological conditions are the butt of as many jokes as dyslexia: "I'm an agnostic dyslexic with insomnia. I lay awake all night trying to work out if there really is a Dog." Or: "Dyslexics of the world, untie!" Read More
From 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio, and Barry L. Beyerstein. Copyright © 2010 by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio, and Barry L. Beyerstein. This material is reproduced with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Newsweek: Why do psychologists reject science? (from Psychological Science in the Public Interest)
By Sharon Begley
Newsweek columnist Sharon Begley discusses a new PSPI report on the current state of clinical psychology and what psychologists can do to steer their field (and their patients) in the right direction.
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Pathways Linking Positive Life Changes After Stress and Physical Health Outcomes (from Current Directions in Psychological Science)
By Julienne E. Bower, Judith Tedlie Moskowitz, and Elissa Epel
Following stressful and traumatic events, many people report positive changes in their lives—known as benefit finding. Studies have suggested that benefit finding may result in better physical health, although the exact nature of that link has been unclear. A new model proposes that benefit finding may cause more efficient responses to future stressors and help decrease exposure to stress hormones that can lead to long-term health problems.
Sweet Future: Fluctuating Blood Glucose Levels Affect Future Discounting (from Psychological Science)
By X.T. Wang and Robert D. Dvorak
Fluctuating blood glucose levels may influence our preferences for future versus current rewards: Volunteers who drank sugar-containing soda were more likely to select receiving larger sums of money at a later date over smaller amounts of money immediately. In contrast, volunteers who drank diet sodas (and thus had lower blood glucose levels) tended to choose receiving smaller amounts of money sooner.
Recent Advances in Understanding Sleep and Sleep Disturbances in Older Adults (from Current Directions in Psychological Science)
By Michael V. Vitiello
Growing older is accompanied by numerous physical changes, and poor sleep has long been considered a side effect of aging. But research shows disrupted sleep does not have to be an inevitable result of getting older. Older adults who are in good health have normal sleep patterns, and continued improvements in treatments, such as cognitive based therapy, may be effective in helping older adults who do suffer from sleep problems.
Attention and Anxiety: Different Attentional Functioning Under State and Trait Anxiety (from Psychological Science)
By Antonia Pilar Pacheco-Unguetti, Alberto Acosta, Alicia Callejas, and Juan Lupiáñez
Anxiety is known to affect attention, but different types of anxiety affect different attentional networks in the brain. Trait anxiety, a chronic tendency to direct attention toward sources of threat, may be related to deficiencies in the executive brain networks involved in conflict resolution and voluntary action control. State anxiety, an increased sense of threat from a situation or stimulus (i.e., fear), may be associated with overactive alerting and orienting attentional networks.
