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To pee or not to pee
The Philippine Star: Google has a policy that any food station in their building should not be more than a hundred feet away from its employees. I found that out in an article published in PsychologyToday.com last 2009 entitled “The Brain at Google” by David Rock who visited the Google headquarters and mentally ogled at how Google uses what is known about human nature in running its organization. Of course, there are many things that Google does for its workers that would make you drool — gyms, massage, a hair stylist, among other things. Their founder has a simple philosophy that happy employees will make the best decisions for the company. So far, evidence bears that out.
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People fluent in English ‘easily translate what they hear into Chinese’
Yahoo India: Washington, June 15 (ANI): Chinese people who are fluent in English can translate English words into Chinese automatically and quickly, without thinking about it, a new study has found. Taoli Zhang of the University of Nottingham wanted to study how two different languages interact and are stored in the bilingual brain. "If you read in English, you don't really require your knowledge of Chinese. Do you switch it off?" For the study, Chinese students were shown pairs of words. The first word flashed on the computer screen so quickly that the person didn't realize they'd seen it.
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What Science Tells About Power And Infidelity
NPR: On tonight's All Things Considered, NPR's science correspondent Shankar Vedantam takes on a subject we've been covering quite a bit lately: Powerful people caught up in sex scandals. But Shankar wanted to get at a question that's been the talk around the water cooler: Why does it seem that the one embroiled in a sex scandal is always a person in power and always a guy? Just take a listen to this montage of mea-culpas from leading politicians. Read more and listen at : NPR
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An argument for roughhousing
The Washington Post: With Father’s Day just ahead, two dads are honoring the beloved tradition of roughhousing. Anthony T. DeBenedet and Lawrence J. Cohen have just published "The Art of Roughousing: Good Old-Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs It," (Quirk, May 2011). It’s part how-to, part polemic. Roughhousing, according to the authors who are a doctor and a psychologist, will make kids smart, more likeable, more moral and ethical. It will teach them emotional intelligence, bring them joy and make them fit. Read more: The Washington Post
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Most Americans See Cancer as a Death Sentence
My Heath News Daily: The death rate from cancer has gone down in recent years, but the majority of Americans still view cancer as a death sentence, a new survey says. Of the nearly 7,500 Americans surveyed, more than 61 percent said when they think of cancer, they automatically think of death. The findings are troubling because many types of cancer are preventable or treatable, said study researcher Richard Moser, a research psychologist at the National Cancer Institute. For instance, a healthy diet, frequent exercise and appropriate screening tests can prevent or detect many cancers in their early stages, Moser said.
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Testing Improves Memory
“We’ve known for over 100 years that testing is good for memory,” says Kent State University psychology graduate student Kalif Vaughn. Psychologists have proven in a myriad of experiments that “retrieval practice”—correctly producing a studied item—increases the likelihood that you’ll get it right the next time. “But we didn’t know why.” In the past, many researchers have believed that testing is good for memory, but only for the exact thing you are trying to remember: so-called “target memory.” If you’re asked to recall the Lithuanian equivalent of an English word, say, you will get good at remembering the Lithuanian, but you won’t necessarily remember the English.
