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Why Delaying Gratification is Smart: A Neural Link Between Intelligence and Self-control
If you had a choice between receiving $1,000 right now or $4,000 ten years from now, which would you pick? Psychologists use the term “delay discounting” to describe our inability to resist the temptation of a smaller immediate reward in lieu of receiving a larger reward at a later date. Discounting future rewards too much is a form of impulsivity, and an important way in which we can neglect to exert self-control. Previous research suggests that higher intelligence is related to better self-control, but the reasons for this link are unknown. Psychologists Noah A. Shamosh and Jeremy R.
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Sticks and Stones: A New Study on Social and Physical Pain
We all know the famous saying: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” but is this proverb actually true? According to some researchers, words may pack a harder punch that we realize. Psychologists Zhansheng Chen and Kipling D. Williams of Purdue University, Julie Fitness of Macquarie University, and Nicola C. Newton of the University of New South Wales found that the pain of physical events may fade with time, while the pain of social occurrences can be re-instantiated through memory retrievals. The researchers set up four experiments to demonstrate this finding.
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New Study Shows False Memories Affect Behavior
Do you know someone who claims to remember their first day of kindergarten? Or a trip they took as a toddler? While some people may be able to recall trivial details from the past, laboratory research shows that the human memory can be remarkably fragile and even inventive. In fact, people can easily create false memories of their past and a new study shows that such memories can have long-term effects on our behavior. Psychologists Elke Geraerts of the University of St. Andrews and Maastricht University, Daniel Bernstein of Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the University of Washington, Harald Merckelbach, Christel Linders, and Linsey Raymaekers of Maastricht University, and Elizabeth F.
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In Money Matters, Patience can Profit
Whether it’s waking up at the crack of dawn to go to the gym or breaking the bank to pay for college and graduate school, most of us pay small prices in hopes for a big payoff in the future. But not everyone is as focused on the future as gym rats and students. How can some of us see a particular tradeoff as advantageous, while others of us see precisely the same deal as foolish? The reason may be due to what researchers call “temporal discounting,” a tendency to consider events in the distant future less important than events in the near future. In other words, if something is way off in the distance, it’s very difficult to keep its importance front and center in the mind.
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New Study Explains why the Future is More Important than the Past
With all due respect to History teachers, people generally give events that have yet to come more value than those that have already happened. This way of thinking is far from illogical; the future is never certain and can always change while the past remains the same. But some new experiments shows that people tend to place more value on events in the future, even when it’s completely irrational.
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Study Finds That Sleep Selectively Preserves Emotional Memories
As poets, songwriters and authors have described, our memories range from misty water-colored recollections to vividly detailed images of the times of our lives. Now, a study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Boston College offers new insights into the specific components of emotional memories, suggesting that sleep plays a key role in determining what we remember – and what we forget.
