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Curiosity Leads Us to Seek Out Unpleasant, Even Painful, Outcomes
Curiosity is a powerful motivator, leading us to make important discoveries and explore the unknown. But new research shows that our curiosity is sometimes so powerful that it leads us to choose potentially painful and unpleasant outcomes that have no apparent benefits, even when we have the ability to avoid these outcomes altogether. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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Some Jobs May Help Prevent Cognitive Decline
Even years after retirement, a mentally stimulating career may be keeping people’s minds active and memories sharp. As people age, cognitive skills like memory and information processing speed tend to decline. But a large body of research suggests that this decline isn’t necessarily inevitable.
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Spending That Fits Personality Can Boost Well-Being
Money could buy happiness if your purchases fit your personality, a study shows.
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Speaking Two Languages for the Price of One
In everyday conversation, bilingual speakers often switch between languages mid-sentence with apparent ease, despite the fact that many studies suggest that language-switching should slow them down. New research suggests that consistency may allow bilingual speakers to avoid the costs that come with switching between languages, essentially allowing them to use two languages for the price of one. The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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Can Handwriting Make You Smarter?
The Wall Street Journal: Laptops and organizer apps make pen and paper seem antique, but handwriting appears to focus classroom attention and boost learning in a way that typing notes on a keyboard does not, new studies suggest. Students who took handwritten notes generally outperformed students who typed their notes via computer, researchers at Princeton University and the University of California at Los Angeles found. Compared with those who type their notes, people who write them out in longhand appear to learn better, retain information longer, and more readily grasp new ideas, according to experiments by other researchers who also compared note-taking techniques.
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No Spanking, No Time-Out, No Problems
The Atlantic: Say you have a problem child. If it’s a toddler, maybe he smacks his siblings. Or she refuses to put on her shoes as the clock ticks down to your morning meeting at work. If it’s a teenager, maybe he peppers you with obscenities during your all-too-frequent arguments. The answer is to punish them, right? Not so, says Alan Kazdin, director of the Yale Parenting Center. Punishment might make you feel better, but it won’t change the kid’s behavior. Instead, he advocates for a radical technique in which parents positively reinforce the behavior they do want to see until the negative behavior eventually goes away. Read the whole story: The Atlantic
