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The Key To Learning: Knowing How Learning Works
TIME: What’s the key to effective learning? One intriguing body of research suggests a rather riddle-like answer: It’s not just what you know. It’s what you know about what you know. To put it in more straightforward terms, anytime a student learns, he or she has to bring in two kinds of prior knowledge: knowledge about the subject at hand (say, mathematics or history) and knowledge about how learning works. Parents and educators are pretty good at imparting the first kind of knowledge. We’re comfortable talking about concrete information: names, dates, numbers, facts.
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Unhealthy food marketed to youth through athlete endorsements
Yale News: Professional athletes are often paid large amounts of money to endorse commercial products. But the majority of the food and beverage brands endorsed by professional athletes are for unhealthy products like sports beverages, soft drinks, and fast food, according to a new study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. The study appears in the November issue of Pediatrics. Analyzing data collected in 2010 from Nielson and AdScope, an advertisement database, the study reveals that adolescents aged 12 to 17 viewed the most television ads for food endorsed by athletes.
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Brief Memory Test ‘Ages’ Older Adults
A simple memory test can have a noticeable impact on just how old some older adults feel, results from a cognitive study show.
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Appearances Really Count When Rising to the Top
Even in the most egalitarian of working environments, certain people seem to reliably move to a higher status than others. They seem more competent and committed. In essence, they appear to be natural leaders. But groups don’t always place the most valuable or competent person in charge. Rather, the people who appear to be the most valuable or competent at any given time tend to achieve higher rank, a recent study indicates.
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Study Shows Couples’ Genes Could Affect Marital Bliss
NBC: A couple's chances for marital bliss may go beyond their ability to have and to hold. A new study released this week by scientists from Chicago's Northwestern University and the University of California, Berkeley shows DNA determines, in part, how happy you'll be in your marriage. “An enduring mystery is, what makes one spouse so attuned to the emotional climate in a marriage, and another so oblivious?” UC Berkeley psychologist Robert W. Levenson said. “With these new genetic findings, we now understand much more about what determines just how important emotions are for different people.” Read the whole story: NBC
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Too much eye contact could be why we’re not seeing eye to eye
Chicago Tribune: Like most Americans, I haven't looked up from my smartphone since 2007. I've evolved a nice set of sensitive, molelike whiskers that allow me to navigate around things like walls, other humans or automobiles. But there are still times when I'm forced into human interaction, and I've wondered — between Facebook posts — if not making eye contact is hampering my communication skills. After all, my dad always said it's best to look a person in the eyes when speaking. A new study I read on my phone while mole-whiskering along the edge of a building found that making eye contact can make you less persuasive.
