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Smart Teenage Brains May Get Some Extra Learning Time
NPR: John Hewitt is a neuroscientist who studies the biology of intelligence. He's also a parent. Over the years, Hewitt has periodically drawn upon his scientific knowledge in making parenting decisions. "I'm a father of four children myself and I never worried too much about the environments that I was providing for my children because I thought, well, it would all work out in the end anyway — aren't the genes especially powerful?" Hewitt says. ... What Hewitt, director of the Institute for Behavioral Genetics at the University of Colorado, is talking about is a new understanding of the interplay between your genetic inheritance and how you learn from the environment.
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Warning of Potential Side Effects of a Product Can Increase Its Sales
Drug ads often warn of serious side effects, from nausea and bleeding to blindness, even death. New research suggests that, rather than scaring consumers away, these warnings can improve consumers’ opinions and increase product sales when there is a delay between seeing the ad and deciding to buy or consume the product. “Messages that warn consumers about potentially harmful side effects — presumably with the intent to nudge them to act more cautiously — can ironically backfire,” says psychological scientist Ziv Carmon of INSEAD in Singapore.
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What to Remember Before a Job Interview
It’s easy to feel nervous and awkward when applying for a new job. Unless you’re already working and a potential employer is trying to poach you, you’re essentially at the mercy of a recruiter looking at your résumé and talking with you about your qualifications. That can instill a profound sense of vulnerability. But new research has identified a possible strategy that can help job candidates improve their confidence and communication skills during the interview process. An international team of scientists recently found that you can more effectively impress recruiters by merely recalling a time when you felt powerful.
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Some Parts of Memory Still Developing Deep Into Childhood
Young Children Have Difficulty When Elements of Memory Overlap Memory for not only what happened, but where and when something happened, undergoes substantial development even after the age of 7, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study suggests that this kind "episodic memory" takes longer to develop than often assumed. The findings indicate that young children may have no problem with remembering certain simple events or facts. But, in some cases, they may have difficulty placing them in the right place, time or context.
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An Honest Wage: Dollars, Hours, And Ethics
The Huffington Post: In the nation's capital this month, Mayor Vincent Gray vetoed legislation that would have forced large retailers to pay more than the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. Gray was under pressure from Wal-Mart, which threatened not to expand operations in Washington if the so-called "living wage" bill were passed. Passionate debate on the issue has dominated the local news for months. This debate took me back to when I was a young man, working in a thread factory for $1.60 an hour. That was the minimum wage at the time, just raised from $1.40 the year before. I was a student, living on nothing, so I didn't need a living wage.
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To Help a Shy Child, Listen
The New York Times: Toward the end of the summer, I was seeing a middle-school girl for a physical. The notes from a clinic visit last spring said she was a good student but didn’t talk enough in class. So I asked her: Is this still a problem for you? I’m shy, she said. I’m just shy. Should I have turned to her mother and suggested — a counselor? An academic evaluation? Should I have probed further? How do you feel in school, do you have some friends, is anybody bullying you? Or should I have said: Lots of people are shy. It’s one of the healthy, normal styles of being human. ...
