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To Regift or Not to Regift, That Is the Question
The Huffington Post: I admit it: I'm a chronic regifter. There are few things in life that give me more pleasure than finding a new home for an item that's just taking up space in my house. So one of my kids gets a birthday present she already has? She may see disappointment, but I see opportunity. What's that, honey, you already have one of those? I'm so sorry. Why don't you pass it over to Daddy. Oh, and sweetie, keep the plastic wrap on there. Regifting rules. (In fact, literally so -- yes, there are actual websites devoted to the rules of regifting, efforts to spell out the social norms governing acceptable and unacceptable practices in this area.) Why am I fan?
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Boredom at school: Is stress the cause?
Deseret News: Conventional wisdom tells us kids feel bored at school because they are under-challenged, under-motivated or poorly taught. A 2012 report from the Association for Psychological Science says the classic signals of boredom might be telling a different story, according to an Education Week blog by Sarah D. Sparks. When a child gazes out of a classroom window, fidgets and acts out at school, or heaves a sigh that says "I'm so bored!", the real problem might be outside stressors that can interfere with schoolwork, and even health. "I think teachers should always try to be relevant and interesting, but beyond that, there are other places to look," Sparks was told by John D.
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The Road to Language Learning Is Iconic
Languages are highly complex systems and yet most children seem to acquire language easily, even in the absence of formal instruction. New research on young children’s use of British Sign Language (BSL) sheds light on one mechanism - iconicity - that may play an important role in children's ability to learn language. For spoken and written language, the arbitrary relationship between a word’s form – how it sounds or how it looks on paper – and its meaning is a particularly challenging feature of language acquisition. But one of the first things people notice about sign languages is that signs often represent aspects of meaning in their form.
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New Research On Visual Perception From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research on visual perception from Psychological Science. Inattention Abolishes Binocular Rivalry: Perceptual Evidence Jan W. Brascamp and Randolph Blake Binocular rivalry occurs when a different image is shown to each eye and instead of seeing one image, the viewer shifts between the two images. In this study, researchers examined the effects of attention on binocular rivalry by presenting participants with visually different stimuli in each eye.
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New Insights Into Cognitive Control From Psychological Science
Read about new insights into cognitive control from Psychological Science and Current Directions in Psychological Science. Memory and Cognitive Control in Task Switching Franziska R. Richter and Nick Yeung Although researchers know that cognitive control affects memory and vice versa, the interconnections between these two have only recently been examined. Participants performed a classification task in which they were shown displays that contained task-relevant and task-irrelevant stimuli. Participants then performed a surprise recognition test that evaluated their memory for the previously presented stimuli.
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Taking Early Exits Off Wall Street
The Wall Street Journal: After five years in investment banking, Matt Wolf decided he'd had enough. While the 35-year-old vice president enjoyed his close-knit team of colleagues at Morgan Stanley MS +0.91% in Manhattan, he had reached a breaking point: Too many takeout-fueled late nights, too many canceled trips with his wife and too many judgmental looks at social gatherings. His pay—still generous, but lower than he had expected before the financial crisis—was no longer worth the sacrifices. So last month, he left.
