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Dear Valentine, I Hate It When You …
The New York Times: HAVE you decided what to get for your valentine this year? You could try something classic, like chocolates. Or something blingy, like earrings. Or sexy, like lingerie. New research suggests that this may be the most valuable present you’ll ever give. After all, conflict is inevitable in long-term relationships, and the way people navigate it can affect not only their happiness, but their mental and physical health as well. Married couples who are hostile when they fight, for instance, are more likely than gently scrapping spouses to have compromised immune functioning, elevated coronary calcium levels (an early risk factor for heart disease), and slow wound healing.
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Why You Love That Ikea Table, Even If It’s Crooked
NPR: Have you ever spent a couple of hours working on a craft project — or a presentation for work — and then fallen in love with what you've accomplished? Do the colors you've picked for your PowerPoint background pop so beautifully that you just have to sit back and admire your own genius? If so, get in line: You're the latest person to fall victim to the Ikea Effect. The name for this psychological phenomenon derives from the love millions of Americans display toward their self-assembled furniture (or, dare we say it, their badly self-assembled furniture) from the do-it-yourself store with the Scandinavian name.
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Budgets and Biases: Summing Up American Values
The Huffington Post: Our lawmakers may have averted the fiscal cliff on the first of the year, but the threat of sequestration still looms over the nation. If the Congress and the White House cannot agree on the particulars of deficit reduction by March, draconian across-the-board cuts will slash both national security spending and core domestic programs, ranging from education to public health to environmental protection. ... And perhaps psychological judgments as well -- or misjudgments, as new research out of Princeton University suggests.
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Ecco come aumentare il Qi dei bambini (Increasing Children’s IQ)
La Stampa: Olio di pesce, asili di qualità e letture interattive sono la chiave per aumentare l’intelligenza dei bambini. A dirlo, una nuova ricerca pubblicata sulla rivista Perspectives on Psychological Science e proveniente dalla New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Secondo le analisi degli scienziati, alcuni interventi sulla dieta e sull’ambiente del bambino possono effettivamente aumentare il suo QI. Ad esempio, una donna incinta che assuma cibi ricchi in omega 3, e una successiva alimentazione di questo tipo del neonato, aumenterebbe di oltre 3,5 punti il quoziente intellettivo. Read the whole story: La Stampa
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Aging in Brain Found to Hurt Sleep Needed for Memory
The New York Times: Scientists have known for decades that the ability to remember newly learned information declines with age, but it was not clear why. A new study may provide part of the answer. The report, posted online on Sunday by the journal Nature Neuroscience, suggests that structural brain changes occurring naturally over time interfere with sleep quality, which in turn blunts the ability to store memories for the long term. ... The result: improved memory, at least in some studies.
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New Insights From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research and boundary-crossing insights published in Clinical Psychological Science. Suppression-Induced Reduction in the Specificity of Autobiographical Memories Elizabeth Stephens, Amy Braid, and Paula T. Hertel Although research has shown that repeated suppression of memories can lead people to forget them -- something that may be adaptive -- the effect of suppression on autobiographical memories is not well understood. Dysphoric and nondysphoric participants were asked to recall autobiographical memories in response to negative, positive, and neutral cue words and to create a title for each memory.
