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Not-so-abstract art
Science News: People who scoff that a child could have painted a splotchy, abstract piece of modern art see more in such creations than they realize. When forced to choose a favorite between a painting
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Bitter Judgments
The Wall Street Journal: Downing a bitter drink makes people more likely to express moral disapproval, according to a new study. Researchers had 57 undergraduates rate their moral distaste for several arguably distasteful acts, including
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Why Arguing Improves Students’ Reasoning Skills
TIME: American educators agreed last year that argumentative reasoning should be taught in schools when those in most states adopted the new Common Core State Standards, a state-led effort to establish educational benchmarks to prepare
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The Hidden Risks of Opting for the Familiar
When people are under pressure, they often try to surround themselves with things that are familiar. A study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that this is true
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Why Argue? Helping Students See the Point
Read the comments on any website and you may despair at Americans’ inability to argue well. Thankfully, educators now name argumentive reasoning as one of the basics students should leave school with. But what are
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From Bitter to Wrong: Conscience of a Conservative
Fans of the old sitcom Seinfeld will recall Mr. Bookman, the well-named New York Public Library investigator who relentlessly pursues Jerry for failing to return a library book that he checked out two decades before.