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Using Just 10% of Your Brain? Think Again
The Wall Street Journal: Pop quiz: Which of these statements is false? 1. We use only 10% of our brain. 2. Environments rich in stimuli improve the brains of preschool children. 3. Individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style, whether auditory, visual or kinesthetic. If you picked the first one, congratulations. The idea that we use only 10% of our brain is patently false. Yet it so permeates popular culture that, among psychologists and neuroscientists, it is known as the "10% myth." Contrary to popular belief, the entire brain is put to use—unused neurons die and unused circuits atrophy.
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Why War Helps, Rather than Harms, Some With PTSD
TIME: War is often the trigger for mental illness, but the latest research reveals some unexpected effects of combat on post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Feeling at home at war may seem like an oxymoron, but it has been reported for as long as wars have been. Now, research involving veterans of the war in Afghanistan suggests for the first time that some soldiers suffering from symptoms of PTSD before deployment improve during or after their combat duty. And another new study suggests that the size of a particular brain region— the amygdala— may predict which soldiers are at highest risk for the disorder.
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Avere la “testa fra le nuvole” stimola la creatività (Having the “head in the clouds” stimulates creativity)
La Stampa: Sognare a occhi aperti non è più da considerare un “male” ma, secondo un nuovo studio, è sintomo di creatività. Al contrario di quanto avviene in chi invece sta, per così dire, con i piedi per terra Sognare a occhi aperti, avere la testa fra le nuvole… tutti modi per definire una situazione che si è sempre considerata sbagliata e da evitare – specie tra i banchi di scuola. Da sempre infatti si è tenuto più in grande considerazione chi ha i cosiddetti piedi per terra – tanto per usare un altro modo di dire.
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Academic ‘Dream Team’ Helped Obama’s Effort
The New York Times: Late last year Matthew Barzun, an official with the Obama campaign, called Craig Fox, a psychologist in Los Angeles, and invited him to a political planning meeting in Chicago, according to two people who attended the session. “He said, ‘Bring the whole group; let’s hear what you have to say,’ ” recalled Dr. Fox, a behavioral economist at the University of California, Los Angeles. So began an effort by a team of social scientists to help their favored candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Some members of the team had consulted with the Obama campaign in the 2008 cycle, but the meeting in January signaled a different direction.
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Brainy Babies – Research Explores Infants’ Skills and Abilities
Infants seem to develop at an astoundingly rapid pace, learning new things and acquiring new skills every day. And research suggests that the abilities that infants demonstrate early on can shape the development of skills later in life, in childhood and beyond. Read about the latest research on infant development published in the November 2012 issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. How Do You Learn to Walk? Thousands of Steps and Dozens of Falls per Day Karen E. Adolph, Whitney G. Cole, Meghana Komati, Jessie S. Garciaguirre, Daryaneh Badaly, Jesse M. Lingeman, Gladys L. Y. Chan, and Rachel B. Sotsky How do babies learn to walk?
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The Shame of the Alcoholic
This month in Cleveland, a woman was caught swerving her car onto a sidewalk, illegally passing a school bus full of children. A judge sentenced her to stand on the street corner wearing a sign that read: “Only an idiot would drive around a school bus.” In Arlington, Texas, a billboard features mug shots of suspected johns, with the words: “This could be you.” Arlington is one of many American communities going out of their way to publicly humiliate men who buy sex, while other towns are similarly targeting shoplifters and drunk drivers. And it’s not just judges: Parents around the country are also forcing their kids to wear signs—like “I am a thief”—to shame them into moral action.
