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To boost memory, shut your eyes and relax
Examiner: Forget brain-training exercises, 12-hour shifts and those long, uninterrupted, caffeine-fueled study binges. When you really need new information to sink in, you can’t skimp on taking breaks, new research suggests. That’s the message from a soon-to-be-published study by psychologists and neuroscientists at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, who asked a small group of normally aging elderly men and women to recall as many details as possible from two stories they were told. Following one of the stories (but not always the same one for all the participants), the men and women were instructed to relax, take a brief break and close their eyes for 10 minutes in a dark room.
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Anche il riposo è utile al cervello (Rest is also useful to the brain)
Corriere della Serra: Sempre di corsa, presi da mille impegni, senza mai un attimo per noi stessi. È la vita degli adulti ma anche, purtroppo, quella di tantissimi bambini sballottati fra scuola, corsi sportivi, lezioni di musica e via dicendo. Ma tutto questo può far male al cervello: lo segnalano alcuni psicologi californiani che, in un numero della rivista Perspectives on Psychological Science, tessono le lodi dei sogni a occhi aperti. Perché, dicono, in quei momenti il cervello non sta poltrendo, anzi: si sta esercitando nella dimenticata, ma utilissima, arte dell'introspezione.
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Smiling Could Help With Stress: Study
Huffington Post: If you're feeling stressed, maybe the best thing you can do is crack a smile. New research shows that smiling -- and especially genuine smiling (where your eyes and mouth muscles are engaged) -- may play a part in lowering heart rate after you've done something stressful. The study will be published in the journal Psychological Science. "The next time you are stuck in traffic or are experiencing some other type of stress, you might try to hold your face in a smile for a moment," study researcher Sarah Pressman, of the University of Kansas, said in a statement.
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To Increase Learning Time, Some Schools Add Days to Academic Year
The New York Times: It was the last Sunday in July, and Bethany and Garvin Phillips were pulling price tags off brand-new backpacks and stuffing them with binders and pencils. While other children around the country readied for beach vacations or the last weeks of summer camp, Bethany, 11, and Garvin, 9, were preparing for the first day of the new school year at Griffith Elementary, just six weeks after the start of their summer vacation. Griffith, one of five schools in the Balsz Elementary School District here, is one of a handful of public schools across the country that has lengthened the school year in an effort to increase learning time.
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One Thing Anyone Can Do to Get Instantly Happier
Reader's Digest: There are quirky New York City moments—for example, commuting on a crowded subway next to a man clipping his fingernails—that, even as a lifelong New Yorker, really get to me. But according to a recent article in the Atlantic a new study titled “Grin and Bear It” in the journal Psychological Science showed that even a forced smile can help relieve everyday stress. Here’s what happened: researchers asked 169 participants to hold chopsticks in their mouths, then told them to hold a variety of expressions including a blank face, a standard smile, and a Duchenne smile (also known as a genuine smile, visible from the muscles around your mouth to your eyes).
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Truth meets the gaffe factory
Chicago Tribune: Does President Barack Obama really believe entrepreneurs "didn't build" their businesses? Does his rival Mitt Romney really "like being able to fire people?" Welcome to summertime, when the fate of political campaigns hangs on silly sound bites. Political gaffes, catnip for heat-seeking media, are showing up increasingly in the form of what I call pseudo gaffes. That's a truthful and seemingly inoffensive statement that, taken out of context, reinforces the worst impressions voters may have about the candidate. Read the whole story: Chicago Tribune
