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How Being Grateful Can Change Your Life
Fast Company: Keeping track of what you are grateful for may sound like like something Oprah Winfrey suggested decades ago. But today, several new studies suggest that practicing gratitude isn’t just for the Pollyannas of the world. Here are three benefits to being grateful: Gratitude is about focusing on other people, says Dr. Jo-Ann Tsang, a psychology professor at Baylor University, who led a study which will appear in the July 2014 issue of the journal Personality and Individual Differences. “Previous research that we and others have done finds that people are motivated to help people that help them--and to help others as well.
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Why students using laptops learn less in class even when they really are taking notes
The Washington Post: Are you one of those old-school types who insists that kids learn better when they leave the laptops at home and take lecture notes in longhand? If so, you’re right. There’s new evidence to prove it, and it’s unsettling because so many students aren’t really taught longhand anymore. According to a new study based on a series of lab-based experiments comparing how much students learned after listening to the same lectures, there’s no contest. Handwriters learn better, hands down. The ones who took their notes in longhand demonstrated in tests that they got more out of the lectures than the typists. Read the whole story: The Washington Post
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Doing This and That: Are You a ‘Precrastinator’?
The Huffington Post: This morning, while the coffee was brewing, I walked out my back door, strolled to my mailbox at the curb, and strolled back. Along the way, I picked up not only yesterday's mail, but also the daily paper, which had been tossed on the lawn, and an empty garbage can. I put the garbage can back where it belongs, near the garage, and brought the mail and paper inside. I did this without a glitch, effortlessly. Or so it seemed. Of course, it was not effortless. I had to lift and walk and carry and lift again, and so forth. I also had to plan. Should I walk all the way to the mailbox, get the mail, then pick up the paper? Or grab the garbage can on the way to the curb?
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Thinking of Requesting a Specific Teacher for Your Child? Think Twice
The New York Times: There are really two questions here, so I will address them in order. First question: How hard should you push to ensure your daughter is assigned to the teacher you feel is best for her? School administrators had much to say on this topic. Most responded that “it never hurts to ask,” and encouraged parents with a preference to let administrators know about their preferences early in the process.
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People in Rich Countries Are More Stressed Out
LiveScience: Although people who live in wealthy countries, including the United States, are generally more satisfied with their lives than people who live in poorer countries, they may experience more worry and anger than residents of poorer countries, according to a new study. The higher stress level that typically comes with living in an affluent country might explain why these negative emotions seem to be more common in people living in richer nations. "Life [in an affluent country] is more fast-paced, and there are just so many things that you have to do," said study author Louis Tay, an assistant professor of psychology at Purdue University. Read the whole story: LiveScience
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Making Tasks More Difficult May Help Overrule Office Distractions
Maybe there’s a guy who likes to yak about last night’s episode of Game of Thrones, or a woman who likes to take phone calls on speaker. Whether you’re in an 80s era “cube farm” or a modern open office, working in the midst of a sea of noisy distractions can prove particularly challenging. So how can you better focus on the task at hand? You might want to make the task a little bit more difficult, according to a new study from Swedish researcher Niklas Halin and colleagues. Previous research has highlighted two distinct factors that influence distractibility: task difficulty and working memory capacity.
