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Mind games of the victorious
Reuters: For decades after the first sports psychology lab was established in 1920 in Germany, mental coaches have been the water boys of sports science, viewed by their colleagues as not quite good enough to make the first-string team. That has changed. Virtually every top professional team and elite athlete has a psychologist on speed dial for help conquering the yips - when stress makes crucial muscles jerk and ruins, say, an archery shot - marshal the power of visualization, or just muster the confidence that can mean the difference between medaling or just muddling through.
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Helping others can give you free time: study
New Zealand Herald: If you're always feeling there aren't enough hours in the day, the answer could be to do a favour for someone else, say scientists. Despite the fact it involves giving up some of that precious time, devoting a few hours or even just minutes to others can make us feel as if we actually have more free time, a study claims. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania compared the effects of 'chillaxing', or wasting time, and giving time - for example, writing a letter to a sick child. They found that those who did the latter felt they had more time on their hands, reports the journal Psychological Science. Read the whole story: New Zealand Herald
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How to Find More Time: Give Some Away
LiveScience: Seems there’s never enough time in the day, right? But if you want more time, try giving some away. A new study finds that those who volunteer their time feel they have more of it. “Although it seems counterintuitive to give away any of your time when you feel your time to be scarce, our findings suggest that even spending small pockets of time to help others can make people feel more effective, and like they can do a lot with the limited time they have,” said study leader Cassie Mogilner of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “Giving time makes people feel like they have more time,” Mogilner told LiveScience. Read the whole story: LiveScience
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Olympics: Mind games of the victorious
Otago Daily Times: For decades after the first sports psychology lab was established in 1920 in Germany, mental coaches have been the water boys of sports science, viewed by their colleagues as not quite good enough to make the first-string team. That has changed. Virtually every top professional team and elite athlete has a psychologist on speed dial for help conquering the yips - when stress makes crucial muscles jerk and ruins, say, an archery shot - marshal the power of visualization, or just muster the confidence that can mean the difference between medaling or just muddling through.
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Boost Your Memory By Resting Your Eyes After Learning
Business Insider: A new study suggests that a brief — even just a few minutes — bit of rest after learning something new can greatly improve your ability to remember it. The new study was published in the journal Psychological Science. “Our findings support the view that the formation of new memories is not completed within seconds,” researcher Michaela Dewar said in a statement from the journal. “Indeed our work demonstrates that activities that we are engaged in for the first few minutes after learning new information really affect how well we remember this information after a week.” Read the whole story:
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How To Hate Your Job Less
Prevention: Remember that vocational test in high school that measured your career interests? You know, the one that told you to be an architect (which you then ignored and became a nurse)? Turns out they may have been onto something. How well your personal interests match with your job is a key factor in how happy you are, finds new analysis in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Researchers from Bowling Green State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign examined 60 previous studies to see just how much of a factor your personal interests play in your job happiness, performance, and likelihood you’ll stick with a position.
