-
When to Let Children Quit
The Wall Street Journal: Your son hates the flute. He says he has and always will hate the flute. You are a strong and resolute parent. You wheedle, cajole, bribe and threaten him into practicing every day. He gets pretty good. He does a recital; he’s in the band. Many years later, on the brink of adolescence, your son comes to you and says: “I want to quit the flute.” What’s a parent to do? Quitting isn’t a notion that sits well with most people. The emphasis on achievement and hard work, not to mention countless hours spent ferrying little ones to expensive practices, has made it particularly loathsome to parents.
-
‘Belonging’ can help keep talented female students in STEM classes
National Science Foundation: Many women working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) have faced a common experience at some point during their college days -- they walked into a classroom and found that they were among a small handful of women in the class, or even the only one. That kind of experience has the potential to make a talented, motivated student feel out-of-place, and compel her to search for more inclusive academic environments, according to Nilanjana Dasgupta, a psychology researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
-
Probing the Moist Crevices of Word Aversion
Scientific American: Warning: this article contains a word that you might find offensive. In fact, some readers might find it so deeply unsettling that they might begin to wonder about the cause of their aversion. What is it about this word that generates such a visceral experience of revulsion and discomfort? Is it something about the particular combination of sounds it forces us to utter? Maybe something about the conceptual associations that it evokes? What proportion of the population also feels this way? Is this only true of certain kinds of people and not others?
-
Can Mindfulness Fill Corporate America With Better, Happier Workers?
Pacific Standard: This simple breathing exercise — you’ve probably tried some version of it at the start of an exercise class or workshop — is at the core of many mindfulness programs. Looking at what various advocates mean by mindfulness, Erik Dane, a Rice University researcher who studies cognition in the workplace, writes that it boils down to a psychological state involving full attention to whatever is happening, both inside and outside a person, right now.
-
Can Slowing Down Help You Be More Creative?
NPR: Despite being a self-described 'pre-crastinator, psychologist Adam Grant says those who slow down — even procrastinate — tend to be more creative, original thinkers. Read the whole story: NPR
-
New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Backward Semantic Inhibition in Toddlers Janette Chow, Anne M. Aimola Davies, Luis J. Fuentes, and Kim Plunkett Studies in adults have suggested that backward inhibition, or inhibition of an initial stimulus, occurs when the next stimulus belongs to a different category of semantic representation (e.g., switching from the word "dog" to the word "sea"). Backward inhibition leads to inhibition not only of the previously attended item (dog) but also of new items semantically related to the previous item (e.g., cat).
