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Study Finds Link Between SAT Scores and Freshman Grades
The Chronicle of Higher Education: The debate over whether the SAT reliably predicts success in college has another argument in the test's favor: an article published in the journal Psychological Science, conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota and financed by the College Board, which owns the SAT. The article, "The Role of Socioeconomic Status in SAT-Grade Relationships and in College Admissions Decisions," responds to persistent criticism that the test widely used in college admissions is a poor indicator of future academic performance and that it disadvantages low-income and minority students.
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Too Soon? Study Reveals ‘Sweet Spot’ in Joking About Tragedy
LiveScience: When is it okay to joke about a tragedy? New research shows that a comedian must carefully balance how bad and how distant an unfortunate event is to make a joke about it that won't leave an audience stone-faced or shouting, "Too soon!" Researchers from the Humor Research Lab (HuRL) at the University of Colorado Boulder conducted several studies to explore how psychological distance and severity impact humor about an unlucky turn of events. In the first study, participants in an online survey were asked to describe a personal experience that became either less funny or funnier as time passed, and then to rate its severity. Read the whole story: LiveScience
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The candidates’ message: I might be so-so, but the other guy is terrible
The Washington Post: Four stories are at the heart of any campaign. If you understand them, you know who controls the message — and with it, perhaps the election. These stories make up what campaign strategists call the “message grid,” which has four quadrants. The first two comprise the positive stories the candidates are telling about themselves; the other two feature the negative stories each candidate is telling about the other. In some elections, one quadrant of the grid dominates the conversation — for example, when the economy or a candidate is particularly strong or weak.
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Can We Learn To Forget Our Memories?
NPR: Around 10 years ago, Malcolm MacLeod got interested in forgetting. For most people, the tendency to forget is something we spend our time cursing. Where are my keys? What am I looking for in the refrigerator again? What is that woman's name? But MacLeod, who works as a memory researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, took a radically different view of forgetting. He wanted to know if it might be possible for people to do it better, to improve their ability to forget, specifically, their ability to intentionally forget their own personal memories.
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Door to Door in the Heartland, Preaching Healthy Living
The New York Times: Like a missionary, Michael Bailey, a county health worker, spends his days driving his beat-up Nissan around this city’s poorest neighborhood, spreading the word in barber shops and convenience stores about the benefits of healthy diet and exercise. “Look at the kids,” he said. “Overweight, huffing and wheezing. Their lives will be miserable if this doesn’t change.” Mr. Bailey believes that food is slowly killing his community here, and signing people up for a program to prevent heart disease is his way of saving souls. Local governments across the country are creating dozens of such experiments with money from the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act.
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Mindless tasks boost creative potential
The Globe and Mail: “Do you have a numbingly dull job, one so monotonous that you frequently find your mind wandering?” asks Pacific Standard magazine. “Well, congratulations: Without realizing it, you have boosted your creative potential. Mindless tasks that allow our thoughts to roam can be catalysts for innovation. That’s the conclusion of a research team led by Benjamin Baird and Jonathan Schooler of the University of California, Santa Barbara’s META Lab (which focuses on Memory, Emotion, Thought and Awareness). Their research, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests putting a difficult problem in the back of your mind won’t, by itself, lead to creative thinking.
