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The Workplace Benefits of Being Out of Touch
The New York Times: MOST people I know feel too connected — not to family or friends, but to electronic devices like smartphones and computers. They feel a need to check e-mails, texts and social networks almost constantly on the off chance that an emergency has popped up in the last five minutes that they absolutely, positively have to address. Most people I know also would like to feel less connected to those devices.
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What Should You Look For In A Marriage Partner?
Business Insider: How do you know who to marry? Should you just trust your feelings or pick the person who "looks good on paper"? Luckily, science has answers for us: Find someone who you idealize and who idealizes you. (I've posted about the benefits delusion has on love before.) If you're already cynical about the person by the time you hit the altar, you're in trouble: This study examined the long-term consequences of idealization in marriage, using both daily diary and questionnaire data collected from a sample of 168 newlywed couples who participated in a 4-wave, 13-year longitudinal study of marriage. Read the whole story: Business Insider
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Want more kids to take calculus? Convince mom first
CNN: Math and science educators across the country spend their summers learning how to make calculus more engaging and biology more relevant, but there's a problem: What if high schoolers never even signed up for those classes? What if a tough ninth grade algebra class meant they hopped off the high-tech train, and couldn't find a way back on later? What if nobody answered when kids asked, "But I'm not going to be a chemist - why do I need this?" For all the reasons teens find to stop taking math, science and technology classes, a study published online in the journal "Psychological Science" found a relatively simple way to make them continue: Convince their parents first.
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Not All Meditation Types Are One-Size-Fits-All, Study Suggests
The Huffington Post: If you aren't enjoying your meditation practice, a small new study suggests a possible reason why: You aren't doing the method that's right for you. Researchers from the San Francisco State University Institute for Holistic Health Studies found that not all people prefer the same kind of meditation practices. The study suggests that the best way for someone to actually stick with a meditation practice might be to pick the kind that he or she feels most comfortable with, compared with the trendiest type of the moment.
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The Cost Of Free Doughnuts
NPR: If you think about every other price in the world — a dollar, $12.99 — free stands out. Free has the power to make us do completely irrational things. It can drive us to break rules, and take risks we never thought possible. It can make us feel savvy and smug and exhilarated. Take Benjamin Joffe-Walt, brother of our own Chana Joffe-Walt. In 1995, he was 15 years old when British Airlines started offering international flights from his hometown of Philadelphia. The airline gave away free tickets to the first 100 people who showed up at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday. Read the whole story: NPR
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about new research published in Psychological Science examining the factors that influence early literacy. The Causal Role of Phoneme Awareness and Letter-Sound Knowledge in Learning to Read: Combining Intervention Studies With Mediation Analyses Charles Hulme, Claudine Bowyer-Crane, Julia M. Carroll, Fiona J. Duff, and Margaret J. Snowling Although researchers know that phoneme awareness and letter-sound knowledge are predictors of children's ability to learn to read, they are still unsure what the causal mechanism for this relationship is.
