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Md. couponing expert teaches the art and science of saving through clipping
The Washington Post: “Do y’all know what the Clipper is?” Kimberly Pepper-Hoctor asked her class one recent night in a library meeting room about an hour south of Washington. A woman sitting near the front stirred her purse and extracted the latest edition of the Clipper, a direct-mail magazine loaded with coupons. She held it up for the 24 other mostly middle-age women who had come to learn as much as they could about paying as little as possible for their groceries and other household goods. “I like you,” Pepper-Hoctor told her new teacher’s pet, who smiled broadly.
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Study: Tweens aim for fame above all else
CNN: What do tweens value most? If you are thinking honesty or self-acceptance think again. What they value above everything else, according to a new study from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), is fame. Other individualistic values, such as financial success and physical fitness are also high on the wish list. The study, published in the Journal of Psychology Research on Cyberspace, found children aged 9 to 11 now hold “fame” as their No. 1value. Fame ranked 15th in 1997. This raises red flags for researchers, who say the shift in values over the last 10 years may have a negative effect on the future goals and accomplishments of American youth.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Who Took the “x” Out of Expectancy-Value Theory? A Psychological Mystery, a Substantive-Methodological Synergy, and a Cross-National Generalization Benjamin Nagengast, Herbert W. Marsh, L. Francesca Scalas, Man Xu, Kit-Tai Hau, and Ulrich Trautwein The dominant theory used for predicting human motivation is expectancy-value theory (EVT), in which people respond to novel information by forming beliefs, assigning values based on the beliefs, and creating an expectation based on those beliefs and values.
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The Four Loko Effect?
In the fall of 2010, 17 students at New Jersey’s Ramapo College, along with six of their friends, were hospitalized for severe alcohol intoxication after a night of partying. Soon after, a similar event occurred at Central Washington State College, where nine students became ill and required hospitalization. One student reportedly had a blood alcohol level of .3 percent, dangerously high. The culprit in both these cases was identified as Four Loko, a caffeinated, fruit-flavored malt beverage that had been on the market since 2005. Ramapo immediately banned the drink from campus, as did the state of Washington.
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Flagging up bias
The Economist: FLAGS are powerful symbols. They appear on ships, parliaments, schools, lapels and even—sometimes—underwear. Exactly what effect they have on people’s behaviour, though, is seldom a topic of scientific inquiry. Melissa Ferguson of Cornell University is trying to change that. In 2007 she and her colleagues conducted a study in Israel. They found that those who had had subliminal exposure to their country’s flag before being asked their political views expressed more moderate opinions about the Palestinian conflict than did those who were not shown the flag.
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Pet theraphy: gli animali domestici migliorano davvero la salute?
Yourself Italia: Una nuova ricerca sfata la credenza comune secondo la quale avere un animale domestico porta ad una vita più felice, più sana e più lunga. Secondo Harold Herzog, professore di psicologia alla Western Carolina University e autore di un recente studio in materia, queste credenze non sono necessariamente false, ma non sono mai state dimostrate.
