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Good Reads: a new study on God and civilization
The Christian Science Monitor: In The New York Times, Yudhijit Bhattacharjee writes on how learning a second language at an early age makes your brain work better. Psychologists once worried that kids who lived in bilingual households faced obstacles that “hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.” Turns out they were right, and that very hindrance turns out to be an advantage. In a 2009 study led by Agnes Kovacs of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, 7-month-old babies exposed to two languages from birth were compared with peers raised with one language.
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Two cheers for multiple-choice tests
The oldest geyser in Yellowstone National Park is: a. Steamboat Geyser b. Old Faithful c. Castle Geyser d. Daisy Geyser We’ve all answered hundreds if not thousands of these multiple-choice questions over the years. We answer them to get our drivers’ licenses, to get into good colleges and grad schools and professional schools. They’re ubiquitous, yet everyone hates them. Educators dismiss them as simplistic, the enemy of complex learning. Students think they’re unfair. And learning experts say they plain don’t work. To be clear, learning experts are questioning the value of these tests as learning tools.
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A Wandering Mind Reveals Mental Processes and Priorities
Odds are you're not going to make it all the way through this article without thinking about something else. In fact, studies have found that our minds are wandering half the time, drifting off to thoughts unrelated to what we're doing — did I remember to turn off the light? What should I have for dinner? A new study investigating the mental processes underlying a wandering mind reports a role for working memory, a sort of a mental workspace that allows you to juggle multiple thoughts simultaneously. Imagine you see your neighbor upon arriving home one day and schedule a lunch date.
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Methodological Innovation: Science’s Unsung Hero
What’s more important to the progress of psychological science: theory or method? Both—and the synergy between the two, says University of Washington psychologist, Anthony G. Greenwald. But there’s a problem: “There’s too much pressure on psychological researchers to publish contributions to theory and not enough to develop more powerful methods,” he says, noting that the pressure is reflected not only in editorial decisions but also in university coursework and PhD programs.
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Study of the Day: ‘Diversity’ Has Become a Useless Concept
The Atlantic: PROBLEM: Initially, diversity pertained to inclusiveness toward historically disadvantaged groups. How far have people strayed from this original denotation? METHODOLOGY: Researchers led by Miguel Unzueta of the University of California, Los Angeles, designed an experiment to look at how people think about diversity today. They recruited 300 people, mostly students and staff members at UCLA, to take an online survey. The subjects saw a profile of a company with various combinations of racial and occupational diversity, and were asked if the company was "diverse" or not and for their thoughts on affirmative action.
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Praise Is Fleeting, but Brickbats We Recall
The New York Times: MY sisters and I have often marveled that the stories we tell over and over about our childhood tend to focus on what went wrong. We talk about the time my older sister got her finger crushed by a train door on a trip in Scandinavia. We recount the time we almost missed the plane to Israel because my younger sister lost her stuffed animal in the airport terminal. Since, fortunately, we’ve had many more pleasant experiences than unhappy ones, I assumed that we were unusual in zeroing in on our negative experiences. But it turns out we’re typical. “This is a general tendency for everyone,” said Clifford Nass, a professor of communication at Stanford University.
