Have you ever walked into a room, stared at the wall and forgot why you went in there? What failed you was your working memory. You were supposed to store the plan of what you were going to do next in your working memory until you retrieved that pencil or glass of juice. We all differ in the amount of information that we can keep in…
Working Memory and School Performance
Lifetime Newsletter January 2013
5 Big Discoveries About Parenting in 2012
Here’s the summary of what seemed to be the bigger findings to emerge about ‘bringing up baby’ in 2012. No. 1: As freedom wanes in children, so does creativity According to Kyung Hee Kim, a professor at the College of William and Mary, all aspects of creativity are in decline for kids, the biggest being in the measure called Creative Elaboration – which assesses the ability to…
Which Study Strategies Make The Grade?
Students everywhere, put down those highlighters and pick up some flashcards! Some of the most popular study strategies — such as highlighting and even rereading — don’t show much promise for improving student learning, according to a new report published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. In the report, John Dunlosky of Kent State University and a team of…
The 12 Cognitive Biases That Prevent You From Being Rational (Part 2)
Humans are subject to cognitive biases, those annoying glitches in our thinking that cause us to make questionable decisions and reach erroneous conclusions. Here are the most common and pernicious cognitive biases that you need to know about. Status-Quo Bias We humans tend to be apprehensive of change, which often leads us to make choices that guarantee that things remain the same, or change as…
The 12 Cognitive Biases That Prevent You From Being Rational (Part 1)
A cognitive bias is a genuine deficiency or limitation in our thinking — a flaw in judgment that arises from errors of memory, social attribution, and miscalculations (such as statistical errors or a false sense of probability). Some social psychologists believe our cognitive biases help us process information more efficiently, especially in dangerous situations. Still, they lead us to make grave mistakes. We may be…
How Successful People Approach A New Year
Want to come out ahead in 2013? Here are the resolutions the most successful people make and then keep for both business goals and personal gain. 1. Spend more time on your not-to-do list. 2. Do what’s essential first, then email second. 3. Not make excuses. Not cheat. Not waste time. 4. Books are important. 5. Take time to do something slower than you normally…
New Year’s Resolutions – How To Keep Your 2013 Resolutions
13 New Year’s Resolutions – and How to Keep Them 1. Lose the Weight From wearing a pedometer to surrounding yourself with the color blue, there are all kinds of small changes that can help you finally drop those extra pounds. Make a commitment that 2013 will be the year you get rid of what’s weighing you down. 2. Get Organized If your home is…
The Psychology of Gift Giving: Unique and Expensive or Ordinary but Useful?
The holiday shopping season is almost upon us. Gift giving: What do you get someone? Will they like it? What will they give you? Will you like it? Quite frankly, the whole process can be fun but exhausting. Gifts can be tokens of social relationships, ways that we transmit impressions and feelings to one another. If you boil down the above questions, you are really…
Understanding How Children Develop Empathy
The capacity to notice the distress of others, and to be moved by it, can be a critical component of what is called prosocial behavior, actions that benefit others: individuals, groups or society as a whole. Dr. Eisenberg, a professor of psychology at Arizona State University, draws a distinction between empathy and sympathy: Empathy is experiencing the same emotion or highly similar emotion to what the other…