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Canadian group studies impact of social networks on mental health
Montreal Gazette: A couple of months ago, Marisa Murray stepped out to grab a bite to eat with a friend. The restaurant they chose was busy, and the table they sat at was shoehorned between two large families. They didn't mind, but as Murray settled in, she found herself paying more attention to the people at the tables beside her than the person at her own. What caught the clinical psychology student's eye was that the families were socializing, but not with each other: Everyone, from the children to the grandparents, was nose deep in an electronic device. "It was so strange. There was no conversation. Within the family, everyone had a cellphone.
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The Best Nanny Money Can Buy
The New York Times: It took Zenaide Muneton 20 seconds to convince me that she was the perfect nanny. Short and dark-haired, she has a goofy, beaming smile and knows how to make everything fun for a little kid. Time to brush your teeth? She shakes her hands and does a pantomimed teeth-brushing dance. Bath time? She pumps her arms up and down in a going-to-the-tub march. After I told her I’d love to hire her, she smiled and thanked me. Then we both laughed, because there is no way I could possibly afford her. As one of New York City’s elite nannies, Muneton commanded around $180,000 a year — plus a Christmas bonus and a $3,000-a-month apartment on Central Park West. I should be her nanny.
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Real Good for Free: The Paradox of Leisure Time
The Huffington Post: I'm pretty busy. Like most people I know, I try to balance a lot of different things: a full-time job, household chores, cooking and meals, regular exercise, time with family and friends. Throw in an occasional bike ride, a movie or museum, maybe even reading a book -- oh, and sleep -- and there aren't many free minutes left in a typical week. Yet I volunteer my time, too. I do this because it's a good cause, but also because it makes me feel good. And somewhat surprisingly, I've never had the sense that this is one more obligation chipping away at my already compressed day.
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Perception and Peak Performance
The New York Times: Like many of us during March Madness, Jessica Witt is a college basketball fan. She is also a professor of psychology at Purdue University. Those interests converged recently at a Purdue basketball game, as she watched fans noisily try to distract the opposing players during free throws. The fans hooted, stomped and waved streamers — but it didn’t seem to have any effect on the outcome. Dr. Witt wondered whether other interventions might. As director of the Action-Modulated Perception Lab at Purdue, she’d previously demonstrated that for successful tennis players and field-goal kickers, the ball or goal looks larger than it does to players not enjoying a hot streak.
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Brains of Kids With Math Anxiety Function Differently, Says Study
ABC: Kids who get the jitters before a math test may actually have different brain functions than kids without math anxiety, according to a new study. Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine recruited about 50 second and third graders and separated them into either a high-math anxiety group or a low-anxiety group based on a standard questionnaire they modified for 7- to 9-year-olds. They scanned the children’s brains while the kids did addition and subtraction problems. They found that children with a high level of math anxiety were slower at solving problems and were less accurate than children with lower math anxiety. Read the whole story: ABC
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Good Reads: a new study on God and civilization
The Christian Science Monitor: In The New York Times, Yudhijit Bhattacharjee writes on how learning a second language at an early age makes your brain work better. Psychologists once worried that kids who lived in bilingual households faced obstacles that “hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.” Turns out they were right, and that very hindrance turns out to be an advantage. In a 2009 study led by Agnes Kovacs of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, 7-month-old babies exposed to two languages from birth were compared with peers raised with one language.
