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Where Learning STEMs From
The need for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professionals has become critical in the United States. A recent Washington Post article stated there is a shortage of qualified U.S. workers needed to fill openings for high-paying STEM jobs. And this trend, says the Post, “is primarily caused by the lack of women and other minorities pursuing careers in the STEM fields.” APS President Douglas Medin (Northwestern University) and former student Megan Bang (University of Washington) are helping tackle this issue by investigating current approaches to STEM education and determining how culture may affect the way people learn.
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Stopping Temper Tantrums Before They Start
Shoving, punching, and belligerent insults aren’t just for ruffians at biker bars and soccer games. At some point or another, most children throw temper tantrums. But changing the child’s behavior is not the key to stopping these fits — it’s the parents who have to change. “Most of the parenting methods, most of the parenting books, most of the advice is not based on research, and very much of it violates what we actually know,” said APS Fellow Alan Kazdin in this interview with the Today Show. Kazdin, who directs the Yale Parenting Center, said that punishing bad behavior won’t stop tantrums. Instead, parents should be praising good behavior and ignoring the bad.
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Request for Information: Suicide Prevention Research
A Call to Identify Key Methodological Roadblocks and Propose New Paradigms in Suicide Prevention Research The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) announce a newly released Request for Information (RFI): A Call to Identify Key Methodological Roadblocks and Propose New Paradigms in Suicide Prevention Research. The RFI seeks input to identify the types of research tools needed to support rapid advancement in suicide prevention research.
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More fatal accidents among older drivers, report finds
Washington Post: Older drivers are much more likely to die in intersection crashes, and with each passing year the task of making a left turn becomes more challenging, according to a report released Wednesday. The exhaustive compilation of years of research underscores a dispiriting bottom line: The first baby boomers began turning 65 last year, and as more members join the ranks of elderly, their inability to navigate traffic is forecast to result in more highway deaths. Read the whole story: Washington Post
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Solving the mystery of ‘Little Albert’
Macleans: He is one of the most famous babies in history, but until recently his real name was unknown. Almost every undergraduate who takes a psychology course has met “Little Albert,” the pseudonymous infant who was the subject of a famous experiment by John B. Watson (1879-1958). Watson founded the theoretical school of “behaviourism,” which sought to reduce psychology to observable laws, excluding interior mental states altogether, and considered the mind to be infinitely suggestible and plastic.
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Research shows toddlers understand right from wrong at just 19 months
Daily Mail: Children know the difference between right and wrong before they reach the age of two, according to new research published today. Scientists have found that babies aged between 19 and 21 months understand fairness and can apply it in different situations. They say it is the first time that having a sense of fairness has been identified in children at such a young age. Researchers say babies will watch a scene for longer if they think it contains something unfair, so in two experiments the tots were timed on how long they watched a live scenario about fairness. In the first, 19-month-olds saw two giraffe puppets given either a toy each or both toys to one of the giraffes.
