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Want to Solve a Problem? Don’t Just Use Your Brain, but Your Body Too
When we’ve got a problem to solve, we don't just use our brains but the rest of our bodies, too. The connection, as neurologists know, is not uni-directional. Now there’s evidence from cognitive psychology of the same fact. “Being able to use your body in problem solving alters the way you solve the problems,” says University of Wisconsin psychology professor Martha Alibali. “Body movements are one of the resources we bring to cognitive processes.” These conclusions, of a new study by Alibali and colleagues—Robert C.
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Cultural Pressure Encourages Poor Eating Habits In Immigrants
KQED: People who immigrate to the United States from traditionally healthy cultures usually develop Western disease patterns within one or two generations. Since genetic changes cannot occur this rapidly, environmental factors, particularly diet, are considered to be primary the reason for the shift. While it has been proposed that dietary changes are the result of having access to less healthy foods, new research suggests that poor food choices are often made not from preference but from pressure to fit in as an American.
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Capacity for Commitment May Start in Early Childhood
Yahoo News: The ability of men and women to have staying power and a strong level of commitment in their romantic relationships can be traced back to their early childhood and adolescence, a new study finds. Researchers asked 78 people aged 20 or 21 and their heterosexual partners about their level of commitment to their relationship. The researchers already had data on the participants from when they were aged 2 and 16, including how loving and attentive their mothers were when they were toddlers, and how they dealt with a conflict with a friend as teens.
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Overworked and Underplayed: The Incredible Shrinking Vacation
Huffington Post: As you trudge back to work after a brief glimpse of freedom beyond the office, your thoughts may turn to what it would feel like to have a few more days off from the grind. The end of May used to mark the unofficial start of vacation season, a time when people took road trips, went camping, roamed amusement parks, traveled and explored their world. Today, vacations are little more than a memory for many of us, a theoretical concept that exists only on paper. Some 25 percent of Americans and 31 percent of low-wage earners get no vacation at all anymore, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
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Mind Reading: Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen on Empathy and the Science of Evil
TIME: Cambridge psychology professor and leading autism expert Simon Baron-Cohen is best known for studying the theory that a key problem in autistic disorders is "mind blindness," difficulty understanding the thoughts, feelings and intentions of others. He's also known for positing the "extreme male brain" concept of autism, which suggests that exposure to high levels of testosterone in the womb can cause the brain to focus on systematic knowledge and patterns more than on emotions and connection with others.
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Academics, in New Move, Begin to Work With Wikipedia
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Washington—The call to action was all over the Association for Psychological Science’s annual meeting here this past weekend. “Attention APS Members. Take Charge of Your Science,” fliers shout. Promotional ads in the conference programs urge the society’s 25,000 members to join the APS Wikipedia Initiative and “make sure Wikipedia—the world’s No. 1 online encyclopedia—represents psychology fully and accurately.” And the Wikimedia Foundation, which backs the encyclopedia, was holding editing demonstrations in the middle of the conference exhibit hall. Read more: The Chronicle of Higher Education
