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Are There Natural Remedies for Cognitive Aging?
The Huffington Post: More than 30 countries now have a life expectancy of 80 or more, a dramatic increase over the last half century. This is good news, but it also brings challenges. The aging brain goes through predictable changes, and as a result, old age is usually accompanied by some cognitive decline, even dementia. Happily, some of the risk factors for mental aging are open to intervention. Diet, exercise and mental activity all play a role in healthy aging, but there are also natural pharmaceuticals that may be of use in staving off decline.
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How Reading Transforms Us
The New York Times: MOST writing seeks to influence you to think or feel how the author wants you to think or feel. The article you are reading now is no exception. We want you to think about certain things in a certain way. But there’s another kind of influence, not typically associated with writing, that works in a different fashion. Here, you don’t try to make people think or feel in any particular way. Instead, you try to get them to be themselves. As parents, for example, we urge our children to discover what will engage them, in a career perhaps, or in a relationship.
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The Myth of Comfort Food
The New York Times: Feeling sad or stressed? Put down that Oreo or bowl of mac ’n’ cheese and brace yourself for another bummer: The emotional healing powers of comfort food may be overrated. True, your mood will probably improve shortly after you eat your favorite high-carb hug, but no more so than if you’d eaten a granola bar — a pleasant enough choice, but hardly a fixture in that calorically elevated “comfort food” category. In a study published in the journal Health Psychology, researchers at the University of Minnesota found that even when you don’t soothe yourself with food, your mood will probably bounce back on its own.
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Why Kids Won’t Quit Technology
The Atlantic: Smartphones, iPads, TVs, computers, video games. Technology is omnipresent, especially for young students. They just can’t get enough; one 2013 study found that college students check their digital devices for non-class purposes 11 times per day on average, and 80 percent of them admitted that the technology was distracting them from class. This has some educators and scientists concerned: Are students distracted because their brains are hard-wired for it after a lifetime of screens? Is there a cultural or behavioral element to the fixation that has infiltrated the classroom?
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Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work; Here’s What Does
New York Magazine: We were told for years, by Oprah and others, that positive thinking was the key to achieving our goals. Now mounting evidence suggests exactly the opposite: that spending a lot of time thinking about your hopes and dreams may make you less likely to put in the work required to actually achieve those dreams. So if positivity is out, what should goal-oriented people replace it with? This week on the "Psychology Podcast" — a newish venture from cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman — New York University psychologist Gabriele Oettingen talked about a four-step plan she's come up with from her years of research.
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The Psychology Behind Impulse Shopping
The Wall Street Journal: Is the impulse buyer an endangered species? As the Wall Street Journal reported, "A new intentionality has taken hold of shopping. Many Americans have the money and the will to spend. But they are time-pressed and deal savvy, visiting stores only when they run out of items like cereal or toilet paper and after doing extensive research on purchases online and with friends. They buy what they came for—and then leave. Those habits threaten more than just gum sales at checkout. Impulse is why stores offer deep discounts on loss leaders, why they put the milk in the back corner and why marketers spend heavily to pile up products in displays at the ends of the aisles.
