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Everything You Thought You Knew About Learning Is Wrong
Wired: Taking notes during class? Topic-focused study? A consistent learning environment? All are exactly opposite the best strategies for learning. Really, I recently had the good fortune to interview Robert Bjork, director of the UCLA Learning and Forgetting Lab, distinguished professor of psychology, and massively renowned expert on packing things in your brain in a way that keeps them from leaking out. And it turns out that everything I thought I knew about learning is wrong. Here’s what he said. First, think about how you attack a pile of study material.
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Applied Neuroscience, the Six-String Method
The New York Times: At 13, an age when most boys want to learn the guitar, Gary Marcus, decided he wanted to be a scientist. Twenty-five years later he had become one of the country’s best known cognitive psychologists, with major papers and three general-interest books on the workings of the human mind and a position running New York University’s Center for Language and Music. And he wanted to play the guitar. For any adult learning an instrument or a new language is terrifying. For a cognitive scientist, it can also be downright depressing.
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We Feel Hurt Even When Strangers Ignore Us, Study Shows
Huffington Post: No one likes feeling left out, and a new study shows that even being ignored by a stranger hurts. The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, is based on the idea that people need to feel connected to be happy, and that a person can be negatively affected when even a stranger doesn't acknowledge his or her presence, researchers said. To test this idea, researchers from Purdue University, Ohio University and the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata in Argentina conducted a study that involved making eye contact with passers-by. Read the full story: Huffington Post
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Mother’s love can prevent illness in middle age
The Telegraph: Experts say that a mum who nurtures and cares for her kids can set them up in good health right, even if they've grown up in grinding poverty. Research has already proven that kids who grow up in poor areas are more likely to suffer from chronic illness in adulthood, but US researchers were puzzled why some children bucked this trend. A closer look at adults who'd come from a deprived background revealed that a stressful childhood increased the chances of a kid suffering illnesses such as diabetes, a stroke or high blood pressure later in life. Read the full story: The Telegraph
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Senior Citizens Extending Health and Wellness with Video Games
Yahoo News: To promote staying sharp and remaining active as you age, http://www.SeniorsGuideOnline.com is encouraging seniors to play video games. Research and studies show that video games on the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 rank high in strengthening senior health and physical abilities. Video games are not just for kids anymore and there is a new generation of gamers who are having fun while staying young – Senior Citizens. Seniors have become one of the strongest and enthusiastic users of the Nintendo Wii. Currently many Independent Living, Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing Home have a TV, if not an entire room dedicated to the Nintendo Wii and its activity games.
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The Pupils are the Windows to the Mind
The eyes are the window into the soul—or at least the mind, according to a new paper published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Measuring the diameter of the pupil, the part of the eye that changes size to let in more light, can show what a person is paying attention to. Pupillometry, as it’s called, has been used in social psychology, clinical psychology, humans, animals, children, infants—and it should be used even more, the authors say. The pupil is best known for changing size in reaction to light.
