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If a child or adult plays videogames, how does that affect IQ?
The Wall Street Journal: Recent studies linking increases in adults' cognitive performance to playing action videogames have sparked a lot of interest. People who are trained to play fast-paced, unpredictable games tend to score higher in the lab on tests of such skills as spotting a fast-moving target, tracking multiple objects and grasping visual information quickly, according to a research review published in 2008 in Psychology and Aging.
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The perils of ‘bite-size’ science
Short, fast, and frequent: Those 21st-century demands on publication have radically changed the news, politics, and culture—for the better or worse, many say. Now an article in January’s Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, aims a critique at a similar trend in psychological research. The authors, psychologists Marco Bertamini of the University of Liverpool and Marcus Munafò of the University of Bristol, call it “bite-size science”—papers based on one or a few studies and small samples. “We’re not against concision,” says Bertamini. “But there are real risks in this trend toward shorter papers.
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New Research Shows That Life’s Tough Experiences Do Make Us Stronger
Discovery Fit & Health: Often times when life hits us like a ton of bricks it leaves us saying “why me”? And after the event has passed we once again come back to the age old truth that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. In fact, new research may prove this true. Research published in the current issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, has shown that life’s negative experiences do make us more resilient. While constant trauma does cause psychological problems, those who had no trauma at all also had problems. It was those somewhere in the middle, that had some traumatic events, that turned out better.
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Most people want more income equality
Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel: Earlier this fall, the Journal Sentinel reported that 46% of Milwaukee's children live in poverty. More recently, the paper compared similarly sized educational systems in Wisconsin and Finland. Those Finnish kids seem to be doing very well, indeed; Wisconsin - not so good. That the number of children living in poverty in Finland is around 5% should not go unnoticed. Finland has a great deal more economic equality than we do. Yet the plans of Gov. Scott Walker and national Republicans propel us toward more inequality than we have now, already greater than anytime since the 1920s.
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¿Cómo es la cara del jefe perfecto?
Yahoo Espana: Los resultados de una empresa dependen de las características físicas y del rostro de su presidente. Al menos así lo afirma un estudio publicado recientemente por la universidad estadounidense de Milwakee después de analizar la fisonomía de la cara de 55 de los directivos más importantes de la lista Fortune 500. Las conclusiones a las que llegó el equipo de la doctora Elaine Wong, publicadas en la revista científica 'Psychological Science', aseguran que el jefe perfecto debe tener la cara ancha y de forma cuadrada. Read the whole story: Yahoo Espana
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Adversity, Trauma May Boost Mental Toughness
msn Health: New research finds some truth in the old saying that whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger. While extremely harrowing experiences such as being assaulted or surviving a hurricane can cause psychological damage, less drastic life challenges can help you develop psychological resilience, according to Mark Seery of the University at Buffalo. In one study, he and his colleagues found that people who suffered many traumatic events were more distressed in general, but they also found similar problems in people who had not experienced any such adversity. People who had experienced some negative life events had the highest level of mental toughness.
