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Better Math Skills Predict Bigger Bank Accounts
Having a head for numbers is an ability that people can bank on—quite literally. Being good with numbers gives people an edge in all kinds of jobs, from investment banking to professional poker. But the ability to quickly and intuitively crunch numbers—a skill called numeracy—doesn’t just give people an edge in math class. New research shows that it can also lead to greater personal wealth. Numeracy skills go beyond the capacity to calculate numbers, extending to other important abilities like reasoning, information processing, and accurately analyzing risk.
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With Food, Similar Substitutes Are Less Satisfying
While people tend to prefer the food option that’s most similar to the item they can’t have, they’re likely to be more satisfied with the option that diverges a bit.
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To Help Students Learn, Engage the Emotions
The New York Times: Before she became a neuroscientist, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang was a seventh-grade science teacher at a school outside Boston. One year, during a period of significant racial and ethnic tension at the school, she struggled to engage her students in a unit on human evolution. After days of apathy and outright resistance to Ms.
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The wealthier you get, the less social you are. Here’s why it matters.
Vox: Rich Americans aren't only getting richer. They're becoming more isolated from the rest of America, too. A recent analysis of survey data from more than 100,000 Americans finds that the rich spend significantly less time socializing than low-income Americans. On average, they spend 6.4 fewer evenings per year in social situations. Rich Americans spend less time socializing with their family and neighbors — although they do spend more time socializing with friends. The study is part of a growing body of research that suggests a yawning gap between what it means to be rich and poor in the United States. ...
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Turns Out You Really Do Think Brilliant Thoughts in the Shower
New York Magazine: The timeline of big moments in human history is littered with sudden, seemingly random realizations. Rene Descartes, for instance, came up with the idea for Cartesian geometry while watching a fly zoom around his bedroom. Paul McCartney wrote “Yesterday” after the fully formed tune plopped itself into his brain (“I woke up one morning with a tune in my head,” he later recalled, “and thought, ‘Hey, I don’t know this tune — or do I?’”) Then there’s the guy who gave the eureka moment its name: Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician who noticed when he settled in for a bath that the density of an object could be measured by the volume of water it displaced.
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Withdrawn Children Show Predictable Brain Activity During Social Interactions
New scientific findings provide insight into the brain activity of socially withdrawn children.
