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Why Do Some People Learn Faster?
Wired: The physicist Niels Bohr once defined an expert as “a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” Bohr’s quip summarizes one of the essential lessons of learning, which is that people learn how to get it right by getting it wrong again and again. Education isn’t magic. Education is the wisdom wrung from failure. A new study, forthcoming in Psychological Science, and led by Jason Moser at Michigan State University, expands on this important concept. The question at the heart of the paper is simple: Why are some people so much more effective at learning from their mistakes? After all, everybody screws up. The important part is what happens next.
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Music-based program helps children develop verbal intelligence: Study
Toronto Sun: Preschool children learning to analyze information and solve problems using language-based reasoning thrive when taught using music, a new Canadian study has found. In the study, 48 children between the ages of four and six took part in computer-based, cognitive training programs that were projected onto a classroom wall. The lessons were delivered by colourful, animated cartoon characters. The children were divided into two groups: One received music-based training while the second group was given visual arts training. Both groups received two hour-long training sessions a day for four weeks, led by instructors from The Royal Conservatory in Toronto.
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Illusory Memories Can Have Salutary Effects
“False memories tend to get a bad rap,” says developmental psychologist Mark L. Howe, of Lancaster University in England. Indeed, remembering events incorrectly or remembering events that didn’t happen can have grave consequences, such as the criminal conviction of an innocent person. “But false memories are a natural outcropping of memory in general. They must have some positive effect, too.” That argument—that memory illusions were evolutionarily adaptive and remain useful for psychological well being and problem-solving—is the subject of an intriguing paper in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.
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Young Children Show Improved Verbal IQ After 20 Days of Exposure to Music-Based Cognitive Training ‘Cartoons’
Canadian scientists who specialize in learning, memory and language in children have found exciting evidence that pre-schoolers can improve their verbal intelligence after only 20 days of classroom instruction using interactive, music-based cognitive training cartoons. The study – conducted at York University by Dr. Sylvain Moreno, who is now with Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute (RRI) – is posted online today in Psychological Science (a journal of the Association for Psychological Science), ahead of print publication in the October issue of the journal.
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Creative types are full of themselves, study confirms
msnbc.com: You might know some extremely creative people who are anything but humble about their talents -- the full-of-himself actor, the self-important artist, the vain musician, the pompous writer or -- possibly most annoying of all -- the insufferable ad agency creative type (think Don Draper from "Mad Men"). A new study reveals there may be a kernel of truth to these cultural stereotypes. The research, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, stopped short of labeling creative types as jerks, but it didn't paint a pretty portrait of some aspects of their personalities, either.
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People say they want to eat healthy, then order junk food
Two faces, double chin “Never mind that some restaurants have started listing calories on their menus,” says Associated Press. “Forget even that we keep saying we want to eat healthy. When Americans eat out, we order burgers and fries anyway. … In a country where more than two-thirds of the population is overweight or obese, food choices are often made on impulse, not intellect.
