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Do Video Games Make You Smarter? Maybe Not.
Forbes: Video game players like to think that their hobby has benefits beyond entertainment –that even though they appear to be sitting and staring at a screen, they’re actually fine tuning reflexes, developing problem-solving abilities, and improving visual acuity. It’s a compelling idea, and it has some science behind it. Over the past ten years, a number of studies have shown that video game players often outperform non-gamers on measures of perception and cognition, and that video game practice can enhance those abilities. But a new study suggests the jury is still out on video games. In a paper recently published as Do Action Video Games Improve Perception and Cognition?
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Finding happiness in being unhappy
Deccan Herald: Recent research suggests that happiness may not be bliss; people who strive for happiness may end up being worse off. Says June Gruber of Yale University, who published the research findings on Perspectives on Psychological Science: “Doing things with the expectation that these ought to make you happy can lead to disappointment and decreased happiness.” Conversely, being unhappy shouldn’t be thought of as a universally bad thing.Should such research gain wide credence, happiness therapists and reams of literature on ‘being happy’ would become redundant.
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Confronting Meaninglessness
You’ve just finished an amazing dinner at your favorite restaurant and you are ready to put on your comfy pajamas and slip into sweet slumber. You arrive at your doorstep and find the front door ajar. Your heart beats wildly in your chest and you peer in, only to discover that your house has been ransacked. According to author Alexa Tullett, “There's more than one way to interpret this event. You could see it as an indication that there's a bad apple in your neighborhood, and in this case you would only feel comforted if that person was arrested.
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How to Recognize a Psychopath
Huffington Post: Hannibal Lecter is arguably the world's most famous psychopath. I know -- he's not real. Still, the anti-hero of "The Silence of the Lambs" embodies the chilling constellation of traits generally associated with this rare mental disorder. A highly-intelligent physician and psychiatrist, Lecter is superficially charming, even urbane -- at least when he's not cannibalizing his innocent victims. He is rarely emotional, and despite the brutality of his crimes, he shows absolutely no evidence of empathy or a guilty conscience. That's what makes psychopaths so mysterious and incomprehensible -- the lack of normal human feeling.
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Mental approach can cut prejudice
Yahoo! UK & Ireland: Mental simulation can help reduce prejudice and discrimination by promoting tolerance among different social groups, according to psychologists. Research of mental simulation has found a long tradition of it achieving changes in all sorts of behaviour, such as in athletes who have boosted performances by imagining themselves running faster. It is also said to be responsible for helping students gain better results in the classroom, by imagining themselves working harder and for longer when they study. According to psychologists at the University of Kent, mental simulation can also be adopted for use in organisations to promote greater tolerance for social diversity.
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¡Cuidado con las madres lactantes!
Univision: Las madres lactantes protegen a sus bebés y a sí mismas más agresivamente que las madres que alimentan a sus bebés con biberón o las mujeres que no tienen hijos, afirman investigadores. El estudio, en que participaron 18 madres lactantes, 17 mujeres que alimentaban a sus hijos con biberón y 20 mujeres que no eran madres, halló que la agresión en las madres lactantes se asocia con una presión arterial reducida.
