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Study: Math-anxious parents can hinder children’s math achievement
CBS News: If math makes you anxious, you may now be able to blame your parents. New research published in the Psychological Science, a journal of the Association of Psychology, found that children of math-anxious parents learned less math over the school year than those children of parents who were not math-anxious. The study, led by two University of Chicago psychological scientists, also found that the children of math-anxious parents were more likely to be math-anxious themselves, but only when the math-anxious parents provided frequent help on the child's math homework. Read the whole story: CBS News
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Candy Crush: Study Shows Kids Crave Sugar for Biological Reasons
NBC News: Hearing the familiar jingle of an ice cream truck in the heat of summer may not be the only reason kids constantly crave sweet treats. Children don't just like sugar — they are biologically hard-wired to eat it, according to scientist Julie Mennella, a researcher with the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. "During periods of growth, they're attracted to foods that give us calories. In the past, it was fruits: dates, honey," she said.
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Feeling Small in the Face of Nature Makes People More Generous
Smithsonian: From the majestic towers of Monument Valley to the stars painted on the ceiling of Grand Central Station, awe-inspiring wonders are all around. Sometimes taking a moment to stop and appreciate something like the Grand Canyon or a clear, starry night can make you feel like a tiny part of a massive universe swirling around. And that sensation of being a small speck might actually make you a kinder, more generous person. ... "Our investigation indicates that awe, although often fleeting and hard to describe, serves a vital social function,” said Paul Piff, an assistant professor of psychology and social behavior at UC Irvine, in a statement.
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What’s “Fair” Depends on Where You Come From
The mentality that “you get what you earn” is widely accepted as what is “fair” in most Western societies. But is this concept of distributive justice universally considered fair, or is it a culture-bound phenomenon? Marie Schӓfer and colleagues wanted find out. Their research, recently published in Psychological Science, examined how children in three different societies made merit distributions. The researchers chose to look at German children as a representation of modern Western culture, children from the Samburu African tribe to represent gerontocratic society (rule by elders), and children from the ≠All Hai||om African tribe to represent an egalitarian society.
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‘Inoculating’ Against Road Rage
People’s inability to contain their explosive anger behind the wheel has led to stabbings, beatings, shootings, and fatal crashes. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reported that, "at least 1,500 people a year are seriously injured or killed in senseless traffic disputes." In some cases, road rage is essentially the result of cognitive distortions, and there are promising evidence-based interventions that teach aggressive drivers to recognize that dysfunctional thinking, as researchers Christine Wickens, Robert Mann, and David Wiesenthal pointed out in Current Directions in Psychological Science.
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Fostering Attention for Human Needs
Decades at the forefront of attention research have convinced APS William James Fellow Michael I. Posner that attention can literally save lives: He witnessed a group of smokers reduce their cigarette consumption by 60% after just 2 weeks of mindfulness training. He confirmed an increase in brain activity in areas related to self-control among these study participants. Posner’s Keynote Address kicked off the the 27th APS Annual Convention in New York City, where 5,300 attendees met to discuss cutting-edge research on behavioral development, attention, clinical interventions, and more.
