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Speed Reading Promises Are Too Good to Be True, Scientists Find
There is little scientific evidence to suggest that speed reading offers a shortcut to understanding lots of text.
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Here’s proof you’ll be spending more money in 2016
Wired: Digital wallets have long been considered to be an ideal of modern life. Apple Pay, Android Pay and the other, similar, platforms available in 2016 will mean that we will deal less with cash -- we will be freer, more flexible, spend less time on managing our money, and have a much clearer understanding on what we spend our money on. A sort of utopian era of technological bliss. The queue at Starbucks will be shorter. We won't have to wait to sign the credit-card receipt at the end of a nice dinner. We won't miss the Tube while trying to top up our Oyster cards. And that is just the start.
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Valuing your time over money may be linked to happiness
CNN: Would you prefer a more expensive apartment with a shorter commute or a less expensive apartment with a long commute? That's one of the many real world questions researchers at the University of British Columbia asked more than 4,600 participants in the latest study on happiness. The questions aim to get to the heart of what people value more: time or money. New research that was collected over a year and a half and published by the Society of Personality and Social Psychology suggests valuing your time rather than pursuing money may be linked to greater happiness. Read the whole story: CNN
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Long Before Learning ABCs, Tots Recognize Words Are Symbols
ABC: Celebrate your child's scribbles. A novel experiment shows that even before learning their ABCs, youngsters start to recognize that a written word symbolizes language in a way a drawing doesn't — a developmental step on the path to reading. Researchers used a puppet, line drawings and simple vocabulary to find that children as young as 3 are beginning to grasp that nuanced concept. "Children at this very early age really know a lot more than we had previously thought," said developmental psychologist Rebecca Treiman of Washington University in St. Louis, who co-authored the study. ...
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Why David Bowie Was So Loved: The Science of Nonconformity
Live Science: In the aftermath of David Bowie's death at age 69 from cancer, a re-occurring theme has appeared in tributes to the famously idiosyncratic performer: his importance to those who felt like misfits. ... Subsequently, the apes continued their tried-and-true method of getting treats from the box. But 2-year-olds switched their method 50 percent of the time, researchers reported in the journal Psychological Science. The toddlers were more likely to copy others' behavior when their peers were watching them play than when alone.
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Children’s Lies Are a Sign of Cognitive Progress
The Wall Street Journal: Child-rearing trends might seem to blow with the wind, but most adults would agree that preschool children who have learned to talk shouldn’t lie. But learning to lie, it turns out, is an important part of learning in general—and something to consider apart from fibbing’s ethical implications. The ability to bend the truth is a developmental milestone, much like walking and talking. Research led by Kang Lee, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, shows that lying begins early in precocious children. Among verbal 2-year-olds, 30% try to pull the wool over their parents’ eyes at some point. At age 3, 50% regularly try it.
