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The Challenges of Debunking ESP
The Wall Street Journal: Earlier this year, a major psychology journal published a paper suggesting that there was some evidence for “pre-cognition,” a form of ESP. Stuart Ritchie, a doctoral student at the University of Edinburgh, is part of a team that tried, but failed, to replicate those results. Here, he tells the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Tom Bartlett about the difficulties he’s had getting the results published. Several journals told the team they wouldn’t publish a study that did no more than disprove a previous study. (This is an example of what researchers call “publication bias” — positive results get published, negative ones don’t.
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What to Expect from Retailers This Holiday Season
U.S. News & World Report: So far, most signs point to a very merry holiday season for retailers and shoppers alike. Early numbers from the National Retail Federation (NRF) show that shoppers spent almost $400 apiece on Black Friday weekend, up from $365 last year. Surveys also indicate that the spending will continue through December; the NRF expects overall holiday sales to increase 2.8 percent over last year. That doesn't necessarily mean that people feel more optimistic about their financial lives—many don't—but they're finding a way to shop anyway.
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Ser bilingüe es saludable
Yahoo Argentina: Hay gente que juega al Sudoku o hace crucigramas para mantener en estado sus neuronas. Otra que memoriza poemas que luego recita como quien repite una rutina de ejercicios aeróbicos para que los kilos no se acumulen, y que lo hace para ejercitar su cerebro. Y también hay un gran número de personas que prefiere aprender un segundo idioma, y no solo para acceder a un mejor puesto de trabajo o poder comunicarse al viajar al extranjero, sino para mantener en línea su mente. La ciencia ha descubierto los beneficios que aporta el estudio de otra lengua a la hora de aceitar la memoria.
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National Pride Brings Happiness—But What You’re Proud of Matters
Research shows that feeling good about your country also makes you feel good about your own life—and many people take that as good news. But Matthew Wright, a political scientist at American University, and Tim Reeskens, a sociologist from Catholic University in Belgium, suspected that the positive findings about nationalism weren’t telling the whole story. “It’s fine to say pride in your country makes you happy,” says Wright. “But what kind of pride are we talking about?
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Impatient? Then Your Credit Probably Stinks
TIME: Were you sitting and drumming your fingers while waiting for this page to load? Do you think instant coffee takes too long? If you’re impatient, more than just your blood pressure will suffer: You’re also liable to have poor credit, according to a new study. Stephan Meier and Charles Sprenger, professors at Columbia University and Stanford University, respectively, collaborated on research that will be published in the Journal of Psychological Science next month. The key finding of their paper, “Time Discounting Predicts Creditworthiness,” is that people who demand instant gratification pay for their gotta-have-it-now attitude in the form of lower FICO scores.
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How to Save an Unproductive Day in 25 Minutes
The Wall Street Journal: How often have you had a work day when, as mid-afternoon races toward late-afternoon, you realize that you haven't really gotten anything done? Painfully often, if you're like many of the professionals we talked to for a recent study on everyday work life through Harvard Business School. Not only do unproductive days like this detract from the success of your projects, your team and your organization; they can endanger your own well-being. We discovered that nothing makes people feel happier and more engaged at work than making meaningful progress on something they care about. We call that the progress principle.
