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Widespread panic: Why math anxiety continues to multiply
Miami Herald: One look at math word problems and many students cringe. Even worse, many elementary school teachers seem to have the same reaction. Math anxiety, a fear that first gained recognition as a feminist issue in the 1970s, remains a big problem that psychologists, educators, and parents are trying to crack. A negative emotional reaction to math or even the prospect of solving a problem that has to do with mathematics, math anxiety is now the topic of many books, research papers and seminars. Read the whole story: Miami Herald
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Self-affirmation boosts social confidence:
Toronto Sun: It may sound like another version of "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and, doggone it, people like me," but some Canadian researchers say self-affirmation has real-life social benefits. "Self-affirmation seems to provide a psychological buffer for insecure people, allowing them to put aside social fears and anxieties and behave in more warm and inviting ways," University of Victoria psychologist Danu Anthony Stinson said in a study released this week. Read the whole study: Toronto Sun
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The Unexpected Rewards of ‘Nearby Nature’
The Huffington Post: I live in one of the liveliest neighborhoods of a large city. I've lived in this city for almost all of my adult life, and I love all the urban sights and noises, right down to the sirens. But I also know the many patches of nature hidden away in my city. On those occasions when I need solitude and quiet and respite from the hectic metropolitan pace, I am minutes from streams and woodland. My rural friends don't think of these urban enclaves as real nature, but I disagree. I feel restored when I get out among the oaks, sassafras and yarrow, and when I hear the warblers singing. And new research backs me up on this.
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Speaking and Understanding Speech Share the Same Parts of the Brain
The brain has two big tasks related to speech: making it and understanding it. Psychologists and others who study the brain have debated whether these are really two separate tasks or whether they both use the same regions of the brain. Now, a new study, published in the August issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that speaking and understanding speech share the same parts of the brain, with one difference: we don’t need the brain regions that control the movements of lips, teeth, and so on to understand speech. Most studies of how speech works in the brain focuses on comprehension.
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Statistical Numbing: Why Millions Can Die, and We Don’t Care
Huffington Post: Four year-old Khafran was near death three days ago when he was brought to the refugee camp hospital. He was emaciated, his ribs showing through his taut dry skin. He panted for breath. His desperate eyes bulged. His mother, Alyan, could only sit at his side and watch, helpless, sad beyond comprehension, but herself too malnourished to cry. Doctors are still not sure Khafran can be saved. The famine in the Horn of Africa has left more than 12 million people malnourished, including half of Somalia's population. The UN says 640,000 Somali children are starving, and more than 29,000 children in southern Somalia have starved to death in the last 90 days.
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Why Cleaned Wastewater Stays Dirty In Our Minds
NPR: Brent Haddad studies water in a place where water is often in short supply: California. Haddad is a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. About 14 years ago, he became very interested in the issue of water reuse. At the time, a number of California's local water agencies were proposing a different approach to the state's perennial water problems. They wanted to build plants that would clean local waste water — a.k.a. sewage water — and after that cleaning, make it available as drinking water. But, says Haddad, these proposals were consistently shot down by an unwilling public. Read the whole story: NPR
