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‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ explores brain processes
USA Today: Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow is not only a best seller, it's making many best-books-of-the-year lists, including those from The New York Times and Amazon. It entered USA TODAY's list at No. 28 on Nov. 3 and, after eight weeks, is No. 45. Kahneman, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize for economics, is a psychologist and Princeton professor. Despite the author's academic pedigree, Thinking is aimed at the lay reader. The book, with 190,000 copies in print, explores how the brain processes information both rationally and through intuition. Read the whole story: USA Today
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Savio Wong
Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong http://www.ied.edu.hk/ps/view.php?m=646&secid=1701 What does your research focus on? My research focuses on examining body and brain interaction and its role in decision making. My studies integrate psychophysiological measurements with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the cortical modulation of the autonomic nervous system during decision making. Recently, I expanded my research into educational neuroscience. My recent study examines the role of education in shaping the development of the neural substrate that is involved in decision making.
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Essi Viding
University College London, UK www.ucl.ac.uk/psychlangsci/staff/cehp-staff/e_viding What does your research focus on? My research focuses on understanding different developmental pathways to persistent antisocial behavior. I have a particular interest in a subgroup of children who not only have behavioral problems, but also have callous-unemotional traits. What drew you to this line of research? Why is it exciting to you? It is puzzling to meet children with callous-unemotional traits. They seem to lack empathy for others and do not appear to care much about social affiliation. I want to understand what makes them that way and what could be done to help their social integration.
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Self-affirmation May Break Down Resistance to Medical Screening
People resist medical screening, or don’t call back for the results, because they don’t want to know they’re sick or at risk for a disease. But many illnesses, such as HIV/AIDS and cancer, have a far a better prognosis if they’re caught early. How can health care providers break down that resistance? Have people think about what they value most, finds a new study by University of Florida psychologists Jennifer L. Howell and James A. Shepperd. “If you can get people to refocus their attention from a threat to their overall sense of wellbeing, they are less likely to avoid threatening information,” says Howell.
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The Goldilocks Principle of Stress: Too Little Is Almost As Bad as Too Much
TIME: A life free of stress and adversity sounds blissful. But, in fact, the happiest and healthiest people are those who have had at least some early exposure to negative experiences, according to a new research review. Despite the popular notion, stress isn’t all bad. In fact, low to moderate amounts of stress are necessary for healthy growth. What’s harmful is large doses of uncontrollable stress — experiencing a natural disaster, for instance, or living in extreme poverty — particularly in early life. Also harmful, it turns out, is having experienced no stress at all.
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Behavior experts: Some tricks can make it easier to go Christmas shopping when money is tight
The Washington Post: Trying to apply will power “should be your last resort,” he said. Much better is to stay away from the mall in the first place, “and it will be much easier to exert self-control.” It might be preferable to shop on the Internet so you’re not surrounded by buyers, although the convenience of online shopping holds its own temptations, he said. If you do go to a mall, commit yourself beforehand to a hard limit on spending, Loewenstein recommends. “Generally, people tend to be a lot more tempted when there is some kind of uncertainty about whether you’re going to get whatever it is you’re tempted by,” he said.
