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Different Sports Require Different Motivation
Scientific American: The link between thought and performance on a test, stage or in sports has been shown in many studies. Think positively and repeat phrases like “I can do it”, and you’re likely to do better. But a new study breaks down various types of motivational thinking, referred to as self-talk, for various types of sports. And it finds that different kinds of motivation have different effects. Researchers analyzed the use of self-talk in 32 sports-related psychology studies. And they found that, for fine motor skills like improving your swimming stroke, instructional self-talk works best, as in repeating specific phrases like “elbow-up” in our head.
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Bruisers make the best friends: Study finds tough guys are really softies at heart
The Daily Mail: Tough guys are really softies at heart, a study suggests. Psychologists found that men with a more aggressive appearance – typically those with wider faces – were more likely to sacrifice themselves to help friends or colleagues. The researchers, at the University of St Andrews, gave students money to play a game in which they could either enrich themselves or risk their cash to assist their group. Read the whole story: The Daily Mail
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Rethinking Rage in the Middle East
In September of last year, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas petitioned the United Nations for full membership in the world body. For many Palestinians, this event was a potent and long-overdue symbol of their statehood, a cause for celebration. For many Jewish Israelis, the Palestinians’ bid was a betrayal of the spirit of ongoing peace negotiations in the region. For many others around the world, it was just one more flash point in the seemingly endless and intractable conflict between Israel and Palestine. The event sparked intense emotions, from righteous resentment to hateful rage, and these emotions did indeed threaten the halting peace negotiations.
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Psychology Greener Than Thou
The Wall Street Journal: Organic-food advocates, often seen as insufferably smug and even depicted that way in TV comedies like "Portlandia," won't find a new study reassuring. Sixty-two participants either looked at pictures of fruits and vegetables labeled as organic, comfort foods such as ice cream and brownies, or foods that don't fit neatly into a category (rice, beans). They rated these foods' desirability. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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Memory, Judgment, and Neuroeconomics—Insights from Current Directions in Psychological Science
Current Directions in Psychological Science, a publication of the Association for Psychological Science, offers a unique perspective on developments taking place across the many different areas of psychological science. New reports from the June issue of the journal examine how people retrieve memories from their minds, a new model of how working memory works, how we judge each other’s personalities, and a multi-disciplinary field of study that merges behavior and economics. Retrieval-Based Learning: Active Retrieval Promotes Meaningful Learning Scientists who study learning tend to investigate how memories are formed during learning. But Jeffrey D.
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Scientists Find Learning Is Not ‘Hard-Wired’
Education Week: Neuroscience exploded into the education conversation more than 20 years ago, in step with the evolution of personal computers and the rise of the Internet, and policymakers hoped medical discoveries could likewise help doctors and teachers understand the "hard wiring" of the brain. That conception of how the brain works, exacerbated by the difficulty in translating research from lab to classroom, spawned a generation of neuro-myths and snake-oil pitches—from programs to improve cross-hemisphere brain communication to teaching practices aimed at "auditory" or "visual" learners.
