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Senior Moment? Ageist Stereotypes Can Hurt — Or Help — Older Adults’ Memory
Of the many negative stereotypes that exist about older adults, the most common is that they are forgetful, senile, and prone to so-called “senior moments.” In fact, while cognitive processes tend to decline with age, new research reveals that simply reminding older adults about ageist ideas actually exacerbates their memory problems. The new findings are forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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Do You Wanna Know a Secret?
The New York Times: The revelation that the National Security Agency has been secretly amassing huge amounts of data about Americans’ phone and Internet use has sparked a lively debate about the proper role of secret information in a free and open society. The crux of the debate is whether the value of secret information justifies the sacrifice of personal privacy. If secret information yields valuable intelligence that can be used to protect Americans, the reasoning goes, then it is worth sacrificing privacy for security. But there is a major problem with evaluating information labeled “secret”: people tend to inflate the value of “secret” information simply because it is secret.
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Getting Kids to Eat Their Veggies: A New Approach to an Age-Old Problem
Every parent has a different strategy for trying to get his or her kid to eat more vegetables, from growing vegetables together as a family to banning treats until the dinner plate is clean. New research suggests that teaching young children an overarching, conceptual framework for nutrition may do the trick. The new findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, show that a conceptual framework encourages children to understand why eating a variety of foods is ideal and also causes them to eat more vegetables by choice.
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The Cold Truth About “Heating Up” on the Court
It might seem as though some players are on a streak, with their chances of success getting better with every shot they take. But the data suggest otherwise.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science. Features of Planned Hand Actions Influence Identification of Graspable Objects Daniel N. Bub, Michael E. J. Masson, and Terry Lin Research has shown that motor cortical brain regions are activated when people attend to graspable objects. Participants viewed pictures of a left or right hand in a vertical or horizontal grasping position before being asked to identify an object with its handle facing to the left or right.
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Developing a Clinical Decision Support System
A Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) is an application that analyzes complex patient data to help healthcare providers make better clinical decisions. While these tools have been successfully used to reduce medical errors and improve healthcare efficiency, they have not always been embraced by providers. David Albert of Columbia University describes the development of a CDSS designed to help dentists and dental hygienists provide tobacco cessation counseling in the dental office.
