-
When 2 + 2 = Major Anxiety: Math Performance in Stressful Situations
Imagine you are sitting in the back of a classroom, daydreaming about the weekend. Then, out of nowhere, the teacher calls upon you to come to the front the room and solve a math problem. In front of everyone. If just reading this scenario has given you sweaty palms and an increased heart rate, you are not alone. Many of us have experienced math anxiety and in a new report in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, University of Chicago psychologist Sian L. Beilock examines some recent research looking at why being stressed about math can result in poor performance in solving problems.
-
Conscious vs. Unconscious Thought in Making Complicated Decisions
When faced with a difficult decision, we try to come up with the best choice by carefully considering all of the options, maybe even resorting to lists and lots of sleepless nights. So it may be surprising that recent studies have suggested that the best way to deal with complex decisions is to not think about them at all—that unconscious thought will help us make the best choices. Although this may seem like an appealing strategy, new research in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, cautions that there are limitations in the efficacy of unconscious thought making the best decisions. Duke University researchers John W.
-
The Effect of Parental Education on the Heritability of Children’s Reading Disability
A twin study suggests a significant interaction between parents’ years of education and the heritability of reading disability.
-
Racial Tension in a “Split-Second”
Interracial and interethnic interactions can often be awkward and stressful for members of both majority and minority groups. People bring certain expectations to their interactions with members of different groups—they often expect that these interactions will be awkward and less successful in establishing positive, long-lasting relationships than interactions with members of one’s own racial or ethnic group.
-
Why We Procrastinate and How To Stop
Research suggests that people who thought about a task in abstract terms were more likely to put it off.
-
Using Challenging Concepts to Learn Promotes Understanding of New Material
It’s a question that confronts parents and teachers everywhere- what is the best method of teaching kids new skills? Is it better for children to learn gradually, starting with easy examples and slowly progressing to more challenging problems? Or is it more effective to just dive-in head first with difficult problems, and then move on to easier examples? Although conventional wisdom suggests that the best way to learn a difficult skill is to progress from easier problems to more difficult ones, research examining this issue has resulted in mixed outcomes. University of California, Santa Barbara psychologists Brain J. Spiering and F.
