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Schon Zweijährige unterliegen dem Gruppenzwang (Even two year olds are subject to peer pressure)
Die Welt: Wenn Kleinkinder auf dem Spielplatz erfolglos versuchen, auf ein hohes Klettergerüst zu kommen, dann haben sie recht schnell eine Idee, wie das Problem zu lösen ist: einfach mal gucken, wie die anderen Kinder das so machen. Imitation spielt beim Lernen eine wichtige Rolle. Wer gut beobachtet und Verhaltensweisen von anderen kopiert, hat bei Herausforderungen oder Problemen mehr Strategien zur Auswahl. Aber wie ist das, wenn das Kind ganz von sich aus eine Lösung gefunden hat, auf das Klettergerüst zu kommen – und dann aber bemerkt, dass andere Kinder es anders machen?
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Study Investigates Why People Cry When They Are Happy
Gizmodo: Ever cried 'tears of joy' when you were really happy? A Yale study has revealed that tears of joy actually help people overcome strong positive emotions and crying allows them to recover from the situation. Psychologist Oriana Aragon at the Yale University in the US said that when people are overwhelmed with strong positive emotions, they tend to cry, which help them to recover from these strong emotions better. She also said that these expressions help people to restore emotional equilibrium. Read the whole story: Gizmodo
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Will MOOCs be Flukes?
The New Yorker: On July 23rd, 1969, Geoffrey Crowther addressed the inaugural meeting of the Open University, a British institution that had just been created to provide an alternative to traditional higher education. Courses would be conducted by mail and live radio. The basic mission, Crowther declared, was a simple one: to be open to people from all walks of life. “The first, and most urgent task before us is to cater for the many thousands of people, fully capable of a higher education, who, for one reason or another, do not get it, or do not get as much of it as they can turn to advantage, or as they discover, sometimes too late, that they need,” he told his audience.
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Gifted Men and Women Define Success Differently, 40-Year Study Shows
Researchers spent four decades studying a group of mathematically talented adolescents, finding that by mid-life they were extraordinarily accomplished and enjoyed a high level of life satisfaction.Gender, however, played a significant role in how they pursued — and defined — career, family, and success. This conclusion comes from the most recent round of results from the largest scientific study of the profoundly gifted to date, recently published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth is a longitudinal research project conducted at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development.
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Battling Ageism With Subliminal Messages
The Atlantic: Let’s try something. Take a moment and imagine yourself in old age. Not just a more wrinkled version of your face or more gray in your hair, but the bigger stuff, too: What do you do? How do you feel? There’s no shortage of stereotypes to choose from: Are you in the prime of your life, the golden years, dispensing an endless stream of wisdom? Or are you cantankerous, forgetful, fearful of your own decline? In this imaginary scenario, are you spry or wizened? Are you beloved by your family, or are you their burden? The answers to these hypothetical questions matter in very real ways. Read the whole story: The Atlantic
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Playing High-Action Video Games May Speed Up Learning, Studies Say
Education Week: Contrary to the popular stereotype of a distracted teenager lost in Halo or Call of Duty video games, new evidence suggests playing such high-action video games may help students learn and react faster—but not more impulsively. The new findings run counter to recent studies that have linked extensive video game playing to attention-deficit and impulsiveness disorders, stoking concerns that playing highly stimulating video games reduces students’ ability to pay attention in less-stimulating academic settings.
