Another NYT “Your Brain on Computers” dispatch: Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime “Almost certainly, downtime lets the brain go over experiences it’s had, solidify them and turn them into permanent long-term memories,” said Loren Frank, assistant professor in the department of physiology at the university, where he specializes in learning and memory. He […]
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Some ASU psychologists have taken it upon themselves to update the Maslow hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s pyramid describes human motivations from the most basic to the most advanced. According to experts, Maslow’s time-tested pyramid, first proposed in the 1940s, needed to be updated to reflect the last 50 years of research…The bottom four levels of
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Yoga, meditation, pets, nature, and 15 other mood helpers. Meditation Can Improve Brain Function (PsychCentral) 15 Ways to Help Treat Depression Naturally (WebMD) New study finds new connection between yoga and mood (ScienceDaily) Do Pets Help with Depression and Stress? (WebMD)
What is it About 20-Somethings? asks the NYT. We’re in the thick of what one sociologist calls “the changing timetable for adulthood.” Sociologists traditionally define the “transition to adulthood” as marked by five milestones: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child. In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent
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An essay from the Wilson Quarterly (via aldaily.com): [W]e live now in a climate in which friends appear dispensable. While most of us wouldn’t last long outside the intricate web of interdependence that supplies all our physical needs—imagine no electricity, money, or sewers—we’ve come to demand of ourselves truly radical levels of emotional self-sufficiency…
ScienceDaily: Integrative body-mind training (IBMT) meditation found to boost brain connectivity Just 11 hours of learning a meditation technique induces positive structural changes in brain connectivity by boosting efficiency in a part of the brain that helps a person regulate behavior in accordance with their goals, researchers report…
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NYT’s Unplugged Challenge–series of articles and video from participants. The latest article profiles research into how plugged-in life affects attention: Echoing other researchers, Mr. Strayer says that understanding how attention works could help in the treatment of a host of maladies, like attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia and depression. And he says that on a day-to-day basis, too much
Set aside some time if you want to take in this massive Slate article. Lots of embedded video, including this, the Skinner Box at work: UPDATE: The Slate article seems to have disappeared. Here’s a Wiki page about the Skinner Box instead.
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Jonah Lehrer looks at the “paradox of power” in the WSJ. Contrary to the Machiavellian cliché, nice people are more likely to rise to power. Then something strange happens: Authority atrophies the very talents that got them there.
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PsychCentral: More College Students with Depression, Anxiety More college students are grappling with depression and anxiety disorders than they did a decade ago, according to research presented at the annual conference of the American Psychological Association. And with greater diagnoses of depression and anxiety has come a related rise in the number of college students on psychiatric
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