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‘Be Bold:’ Dacher Keltner highlights the importance of emotion and what it takes to be a leading psychologist.
The Beatles once said, “All you need is love,” but it doesn’t take long living a day in the life of a UC Berkeley student to realize that feelings are a lot more complicated than that. College is a time when having an understanding of your own emotional wellbeing is critical to maintaining a happy life. But when faced with the chronic stress, pressure and competition associated with being a student, mitigating these inflammatory conditions can be a resolutely difficult task. Now factor in midterm season. Needless to say, the emotions we feel play a huge role in our lives, and if we don’t adopt a mindful mentality, they can come to dominate who we are as individuals.
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Narcissism is a Driving Hazard, Research Suggests
The more narcissistic drivers are, the more angry and aggressive they reported becoming on the road.
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People Rationalize Policies as Soon as They Take Effect
Findings from three field studies indicate that people report more favorable opinions about policies and politicians once they become the status quo.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of research articles exploring the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying math achievement, genetic and environmental links with divorce, developmental pathways to literacy, and the temporal dynamics of food choices.
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A Brain Implant Improved Memory, Scientists Report
Scientists have developed a brain implant that noticeably boosted memory in its first serious test run, perhaps offering a promising new strategy to treat dementia, traumatic brain injuries and other conditions that damage memory. The device works like a pacemaker, sending electrical pulses to aid the brain when it is struggling to store new information, but remaining quiet when it senses that the brain is functioning well. In the test, reported Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, the device improved word recall by 15 percent — roughly the amount that Alzheimer’s disease steals over two and half years.
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Talking with—Not Just to—Kids Powers How They Learn Language
Children from the poorer strata of society begin life not only with material disadvantages but cognitive ones. Decades of research have confirmed this, including a famous 1995 finding by psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley: By age four children reared in poverty have heard 30 million fewer words, on average, than their peers from wealthier families. That gap has been linked to shakier language skills at the start of school, which, in turn, predicts weaker academic performance. But the sheer quantity of words a toddler hears is not the most significant influence on language acquisition.
