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Notre Dame Psychology Students Take on Wikipedia Challenge
Today @ Notre Dame: Wikipedia is often in the top results when people search for information online, but it isn’t always the most credible source. Enter a group of advanced Notre Dame undergraduates in psychology who have taken on the challenge to update, correct, or, in some cases, write new entries for the online encyclopedia. It’s all part of the new Association for Psychological Science (APS) Wikipedia Initiative—and Assistant Professor Gerald Haeffel’s “Science and Pseudoscience in Psychology” class is one of a select few across the country selected to participate. “We know that a lot of people get their science information from Wikipedia,” Haeffel says.
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Is bad bedside manner a conscious decision on the doctor’s part?
Toronto Star: Bad bedside manner — when a health-care practitioner fails to see the patient as human — can make or break an already complex relationship. Patients crave a deep relationship, full of empathy and trust, with their doctor or nurse. Such a relationship, however, is sometimes lacking in the medical field. Patients complain that doctors or nurses sometimes talk down to them, forgetting they have a family, feelings and concerns. What is the psychology behind a bad bedside manner? And is it a conscious or subconscious decision by the doctor?
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Study of the Day: Why There’s No Love Lost Between Political Enemies
The Atlantic: PROBLEM: Usually, visceral states, or internal conditions that we want badly to change, can get so overwhelming that we project them onto others. A person who's freezing, for instance, would likely assume that the people around him must be cold as well. But how far does this effect extend? METHODOLOGY: To see if political rivals can also feel each other's pain, researchers led by Ed O'Brien asked subjects to read a short story about a person who was either a left-wing, pro-gay rights Democrat or a Republican proponent of traditional marriage. This character goes hiking in winter and gets lost with no food, water, or extra clothes.
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Walk in park boosts memory
Indo Asian News Service: A walk in the park benefits people suffering from depression, say researchers on the basis of new evidence. Marc Berman, post-doctoral fellow at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute, working with Michigan and Stanford Universities, said: "Our study showed that participants with clinical depression demonstrated improved memory performance after a walk in nature, compared to a walk in a busy urban environment." Berman, however, cautioned that such walks are not a replacement for existing and well-validated treatments for clinical depression, such as psychotherapy and drug treatment, the Journal of Affective Disorders reports.
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Soup has many benefits, but it can be a problem if it has too much salt
The Washington Post: Sipping a bowl of soup is an easy way to give yourself a healthful boost — as long as you keep an eye on the nutrition label. Nearly 99 percent of us consume more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day, the upper limit recommended for African Americans, people older than 50 and those with high blood pressure or chronic kidney disease, according to a recent analysis from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. (The 1,500 figure covers about half of the U.S. population; the limit for most other people is 2,300 milligrams.) And much of the sodium in our diet is in prepared foods such as soup.
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Sophia and Jacob are most popular U.S. baby names
USA Today: The most popular baby names often change a bit year to year, but not Jacob, which in 2011 marked its 13th year as the most popular name for boys, according the Social Security Administration's tally for 2011, out Monday. Sophia is the new No. 1 name for girls, moving the most popular girls' name for the past two years — Isabella — to second-best. Mason was No. 2 on the boys' list. The federal agency notes that although Mason has been a relatively popular name since the 1990s, it had never reached the top 25 names until 2010. That's when it hit No. 12, suggesting the rise may be due to reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian's son, Mason.
