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Thinking Abstractly May Help to Boost Self-Control
Many of the long term goals people strive for — like losing weight — require us to use self-control and forgo immediate gratification. And yet denying our immediate desires in order to reap future benefits
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Not just for Olympians: Mental strategy can help weekend athletes perform, or at least enjoy
The Washington Post: NEW YORK — Now that you’ve been watching the world’s top athletes compete in London, you may be inspired to go out and pursue your own sport at, um, less than an Olympic level. But even without their talent or practice regimens, you can take a lesson from what Olympians know: The mental game matters, too. Experts say even weekend warriors can benefit from the kinds of mental strategies elite athletes follow, things like following a routine or adopting a mantra to guide you through crucial movements. Megan Rapinoe has a routine at the Olympics.
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A Simple Trick to Improve Your Memory: ‘Wakeful Resting’
The Wall Street Journal: Just in case you don’t have any stroboscopic shades on hand, here’s a more homely way to improve your memory. Researchers, across two experiments, had groups of healthy elderly participants listen to two stories, with instructions to pay close attention to details, as they’d be asked about them later. Some of the participants, after hearing the stories, “were asked to rest quietly with their eyes closed in the darkened testing room for 10 min[utes] while the experimenter left ‘to prepare the next test.’” Others proceeded directly to a task in which they tried to spot the differences in two similar images.
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6 Foreign Languages Kids Should Learn
Parents Magazine: A growing number of parents are enrolling their babies, toddlers, and preschoolers in foreign-language classes -- and the numbers are expected to rise. "The popularity of such shows as Dora the Explorer, which teaches Spanish, and Ni Hao Kai-lan, which teaches Mandarin Chinese, suggests that parents want to be more proactive in jump-starting foreign language education for their children," says Yani A. Peyton, a bilingual mother of twins and the director of Fun with Foreign Language (funwithforeignlanguage.com) in Bel Air, MD. This should come as no surprise, since numerous studies show that speaking a second language boosts cognitive, memory, and listening skills.
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Smiling May Reduce Stress
LiveScience: Feeling good often causes us to smile, but can smiling cause us to feel good? New research suggests it might. "Age old adages, such as 'grin and bear it' have suggested smiling to be not only an important nonverbal indicator of happiness but also wishfully promotes smiling as a panacea for life's stressful events," researcher Tara Kraft, with the University of Kansas, said in a statement. "We wanted to examine whether these adages had scientific merit; whether smiling could have real health-relevant benefits." Read the whole story: LiveScience
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Sourire est bon pour le coeur (Smiling is good for the heart)
Slate: Et si un sourire, même forcé, permettait de réduire son stress? Les docteurs Tara Kraft et Sarah Pressman de l'université du Kansas ont décidé de se pencher sur la question. Dans Psychological Science, elles expliquent leur étude. Les scientifiques ont recruté 169 étudiants sans leur expliquer le but réel de l’expérience, afin de ne pas fausser les résultats. En premier lieu, les chercheuses ont demandé aux personnes de mettre des baguettes dans la bouche afin de simuler une expression faciale précise.
