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Athlete rituals a theater of the bizarre
Deutsche Welle: Michael Phelps may be known for winning a record 22 Olympic medals. What's less known is that whenever he gets ready to race, he walks to the starting block, takes off his headphones that have been blasting Michael Jackson, and swings his arms three times. Before tennis player Serena Williams won gold in women's singles, she took her shower sandals to the court, tied her shoelaces in a specific way and bounced the ball five times, as she has in every competition for more than 15 years. She also wore the same pair of socks she had been wearing throughout the Olympics, like she does at every tournament. Athletes are often a superstitious lot.
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Can You Guess These Athletes’ Nationalities?
Slate: Watching the Summer Olympics can be confusing; there are people of more nationalities in one place than you’d see in a Coke commercial. Depending on the sport, it can be hard to tell where the athletes are from (there’s not a lot of flag space on a Speedo). One minute you’re cheering for what you think is an American hero, the next she’s waving a Union Jack over her head and belting out “God Save the Queen.” But several decades of research suggests there are subtle ways to pick an American athlete out of a crowd based on just a smile or a wave. ...
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New Research on Language From Psychological Science
Read about new research on language published in Psychological Science and Current Directions in Psychological Science. Semantic Priming From Crowded Words Su-Ling Yeh, Sheng He, and Patrick Cavanagh Research has shown that visual crowding impairs word recognition. Because semantic processing occurs after word recognition, it follows that crowding should also eliminate semantic priming effects (i.e., when exposure to a word influences later responses to semantically similar target words). In this study, participants saw Chinese prime words presented with four nonwords flanking them (crowded condition) or by themselves (isolated condition).
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Games to Sharpen the Brain
The Wall Street Journal: If two start-ups have their way, videogames might cure more than just boredom. They could also be used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Akili Interactive Labs Inc. of Boston, formed by start-up-creating firm PureTech Ventures, and San Francisco company Brain Plasticity Inc. are seeking Food and Drug Administration approval for a videogame treatment they hope clinicians will turn to before prescribing medicines for ADHD. The disorder, whose symptoms include difficulty paying attention and remaining focused, affects 9% of adolescents and 4.1% of adults in the U.S., according to the American Psychiatric Association.
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Sex In Movies Pushes Kids To Have Sex Earlier
Forbes: Parents, you may want to hide the remote from your teens while you read this. Or at least make sure you’ve set the parental controls on your cable box. Kids who watch movies with more sex scenes tend to lose their virginity at a younger age, have more sexual partners and report less condom use, according to a new study from Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. The article, “Greater Exposure to Sexual Content in Popular Movies Predicts Earlier Sexual Debut and Increased Risk Taking,” was published in the journal Psychological Science, and uses data from a six-year longitudinal study of American adolescents from June 2003 to October 2009. Read the whole story: Forbes
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Why Bronze Medalists Are Happier Than Silver Winners
Scientific American: In 1892, psychologist William James wrote these words in this foundational book, The Principles of Psychology. James’s observation echoes a sentiment that is well known in psychology: a person’s achievements matter less than how that person subjectively perceives those achievements. For example, you might be thrilled over a 5% raise at work until you learn that your colleague down the hall earned a 10% raise. But is there ever a case when the individual with the 5% raise is happier with his or her outcome than the person with the 10% raise?
