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How to Learn Something New Every Day
Many people consider learning to be an active endeavor, one that takes place in a classroom with a teacher and homework and tests. This intentional form of education is just one way to acquire knowledge. In fact, we absorb new information every day, often unintentionally: the best way to store tomatoes, the quickest way to get to work, the dog’s preferred chew toy. “It’s really important to give ourselves credit for the massive amount of information we learn without realizing it,” says cognitive scientist Pooja Agarwal, an assistant professor at the Berklee College of Music. There is a distinction between committing facts to memory and learning.
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People Generalize Expectations of Pain to Conceptually Related Tasks
Avoiding experiences associated with pain can be an adaptive behavior, but generalized avoidance can become problematic, even potentially culminating in disability.
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Gratitude, Reflection at the 2023 APS Awards Ceremony
“You don’t get to this stage without the help of a lot of people,” said Eduardo Salas, one of 19 honorees of the 2023 APS Awards Program.
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Feeling Younger Than Your Age May Be Good for Your Health
Odds are the age you feel does not match up with the number of candles you blow out on your birthday cake. Middle-aged and older adults tend to feel younger than their chronological age, research shows. Many adults feel a few years to decades younger, and this may be a good thing. A younger subjective age is correlated with better overall health and can serve as a “biopsychosocial marker” predictive of healthy aging beyond chronological age, studies show. This perception of youth is, in one sense, a denial of reality.
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Useful Feedback, More Than Praise, Helps Students Flourish
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” This proverb has become a cliché, but it remains a useful shorthand for self-sufficiency. If you want someone to succeed independently, give them the tools to do so. Within the realm of education, this principle can inform the ways that teachers give feedback. For instance, it is often easier and quicker for educators to simply correct a student’s work.
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Your Most Ambivalent Relationships Are the Most Toxic
It’s been two decades, but I still feel jittery when I think of an old boss of mine. One day she nominated me for an award for service to the organization. Then she threatened to fire me for raising a concern about a colleague being mistreated. “If you ever speak up out of turn again,” she said, “I’ll have you fired.” I walked on eggshells until the day she quit. We often think about relationships on a spectrum from positive to negative. We gravitate toward loving family members, caring classmates and supportive mentors. We do our best to avoid the cruel uncle, the playground bully and the jerk boss. But the most toxic relationships aren’t the purely negative ones.
