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Reducing Anxiety With a Smartphone App
Playing a science-based mobile gaming app for 25 minutes can reduce anxiety in stressed individuals, according to research published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study suggests that “gamifying” a scientifically-supported intervention could offer measurable mental health and behavioral benefits for people with relatively high levels of anxiety. “Millions of people suffering from psychological distress fail to seek or receive mental health services.
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Is It Easier to Keep Resolutions for Lent or New Year’s?
Discovery News: As Christians around the world attend Ash Wednesday services today, many will also mark the 46-day period of Lent by resolving to give something up. While it’s unknown how many Christians successfully make it to Easter without chocolate or wine or forgetting to floss, they probably have an edge up on those who make New Year’s resolutions, experts said. “Everything’s working in your favor for Lent,” said Tim Pychyl, a psychology professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
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The Brooding Mind: Making the Worst of Ambiguity
Imagine yourself at your 10-year high school reunion, a long anticipated get-together for you and all your old friends. You haven’t seen many of them since graduation day, and naturally everyone is comparing notes on the lives they have lived since then. This puts you in a reflective mood, but not in a good way. Life has been unkind to you—compared to the lives of your friends, who have all been spared your travails. For days after the reunion, you can’t focus on anything but your difficulties, and the unfairness of it all. If you’re a brooder, that is. Someone else might have the same reunion experience, yet come away with a very different interpretation.
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Discovering the Roots of Memory
The Atlantic: As a 95-year-old psychologist, Brenda Milner still remembers the “bad old days” of frontal lobotomies as a treatment for psychosis. In fact, her research provided some of the first evidence showing why such invasive brain operations could be harmful. Milner, who teaches and conducts research at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University in Quebec, is perhaps most known for her work with Henry Molaison, a patient formerly known as H.M.
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The Art of the Staredown
Fox Sports: Nobody can quite remember when staredowns became a major part of the UFC's hype machine. Back in 2001, shortly after Zuffa bought the company, opposing fighters weren’t even required to stand in front of each other after weighing in. Some would shake hands, others would walk off to a neutral corner of the stage before parting for fight night. Most times, the main event fighters would come out first and the proceedings would make their way backwards. It was an event with no focus, no build and no crescendo. If there was a single turning point, it probably came at UFC 40, when Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock took things to their logical conclusion.
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Shortstop Psychology: The Mystery of the Yips
The Huffington Post: Henry Skrimshander is a shortstop and the star of Chad Harbach's lyrical novel The Art of Fielding. Henry plays for the fictional Westish College, and his flawless defensive play is attracting the attention of major league scouts. But just as he is about to break the NCAA record for error-free games, he forgets how to throw. Just like that, and for no apparent reason, even the simplest routine toss to the first baseman becomes impossible. Henry has a case of the "yips" -- a well-documented syndrome that has ended real-life major league careers.
