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Breaking Through the Silence
“New technology has dramatically improved the quality of hearing aids in the past decade,” said Stephanie Weiss in a recent Washington Post article. “But some say an old technology could have the most profound impact in the decade to come on millions of people with hearing loss.” One possible solution to this problem: The Loop. Weiss interviewed APS Fellow, and loop advocate, David G. Myers. “Just as WiFi connects people to the Web in wired places, hearing loops — simple wires that circle a room or part of a room — can connect many hearing aids and cochlear implants directly to sound systems,” Myers told Weiss. “I visited Scotland shortly after getting new hearing aids back in 1999.
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Fourth International Congress on Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection
The Fourth International Congress on Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection (ICIAR) will be held in Chandigarh, India January 10-13, 2013. For more information visit: http://www.isipar2013.com/
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Math Anxiety Is (Literally) in Your Head
Math can be a fun, logic puzzle for some people. But for others, doing math is a headache-inducing experience. Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have recently shown that people who experience math anxiety may have brains that are wired a little differently from those who don’t, and this difference in brain activity may be what’s making people sweat over equations. Math anxiety is an under-studied phenomenon, which still lacks formally established diagnostic criteria.
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Growing Over Showing in Math Education
In case you missed it, the cameras were rolling at the APS 23rd Annual Convention in Washington, DC. Watch Matthew G. Mandelbaum from Fordham University present his poster session research on “Mastery, Need for Cognition, and Self-Efficacy Promote Long-Term Math Achievement in Adolescent Females.” Mandelbaum’s research shows that “growing” is better than “showing” when it comes to learning math.
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The Perils of Trying to Unlearn
There are tons of studies about how to improve learning, but what happens when we want to unlearn is less clear. Research on learning by association goes back to Pavlov’s famous experiments in which he taught a dog to expect food at the sound of a bell, but scientists have found that getting a dog — or human — to forget an association once they’ve learned it is really hard. A new paper published in Perspectives on Psychological Science describes how scientists have attempted to change associations.
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No Bad Luck This Friday Unless You Think it Will Happen
Have you watched the movie Friday the 13th? Scary, isn’t it? Well, perhaps not quite as scary as the infamous Rebecca Black song, “Friday” - but close enough. If you are one of those who carries around a rabbit's foot and strokes it all day long for good luck or makes a wish after blowing away a fallen eyelash – then you are probably in the midst of bolting your doors, turning on all the lights and hiding under the comforting warmth of your comforter. Tomorrow just so happens to be Friday the 13th and if you have friggatriskaidekaphobia – it’s simply not a day to be trifled with. Frigga what you say? And yes, attempting to say it can just as well be as terrifying as its definition.