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Baby brain is real, and it makes you a better mum
New Zealand Herald: Pregnant women have long complained that their baby bump makes them forgetful. Now a researcher has claimed there may be scientific truth in this 'baby brain' syndrome - and that there is a very good reason why expectant mothers develop short-term memory loss. The suggestion is that women's brains change during pregnancy so that they will be better able to concentrate on their newborn's needs after the birth, with the result that they become less focused on other things, such as where the car keys might be.
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The Origins of Positive-Constructive Daydreaming
Scientific American: Once accused of being absent-minded, the founder of American Psychology, William James, quipped that he was really just present-minded to his own thoughts. William James didn’t just live in his own head, but he also studied the phenomenon, coining the term “stream of thought” in 1890. In his famous textbook Principles of Psychology, he opened an early chapter with the following: “We now begin our study of the mind from within”. He clearly saw the internal stream of consciousness as an important topic within psychology. Daydreaming may be regarded as a feature of William James’ stream of thought.
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America Needs More Geeks: How to Make Science Cool
TIME: A white lab coat. An unsmiling expression. Thick glasses and unkempt hair. In one hand, a device replete with dials and gauges; in the other, a beaker bubbling over with a toxic-looking liquid. This image, which owes more to the movies than to the laboratory, is nevertheless what many students think of when they hear the word “scientist.” It shows up with striking regularity, for example, in the drawings made by a class of seventh graders from Illinois who were asked their impressions of the scientific profession. The captions underneath their pictures tell the same story: “When I think of a scientist I think of brainy and very weird people,” wrote a boy named James.
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Mom-child bonding affects adult relationships: Study
MSN India: The bonding between a baby and the mother may affect the child''s romantic relationships later in adulthood, a new study has found. The more a baby is attached to his mom during childhood, the better he is at resolving relationship conflicts and enjoying stable, satisfying ties with their romantic partners in early adulthood, the researchers found. "It''s often very difficult to find the lingering effects of early life being related to adult behaviour, because life circumstances change," said study author Jeffry Simpson, a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota.
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Beetje ellende? Daar wordt u hard van!
Scientias: Het is een bekend gezegde. Maar klopt het ook? Onderzoek toont aan van wel. Zolang de ellende maar niet te erg wordt. “Negatieve gebeurtenissen hebben negatieve gevolgen,” zo benadrukt onderzoeker Mark Seery. Hij wil heus niet beweren dat ellende alleen maar goed is. Wat hij wel heeft aan kunnen tonen is dat ellende soms toch nog iets positiefs oplevert: mensen worden er sterker van. “Omdat iets slechts is gebeurd, wil dat nog niet zeggen dat iemand vanaf dat moment gedoemd is om beschadigd door het leven te gaan.” Onderzoek Hij baseert zijn conclusies op onderzoek onder verschillende mensen. Zo bestudeerde hij mensen die heel veel traumatische ervaringen mee hadden gemaakt.
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‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ explores brain processes
USA Today: Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow is not only a best seller, it's making many best-books-of-the-year lists, including those from The New York Times and Amazon. It entered USA TODAY's list at No. 28 on Nov. 3 and, after eight weeks, is No. 45. Kahneman, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize for economics, is a psychologist and Princeton professor. Despite the author's academic pedigree, Thinking is aimed at the lay reader. The book, with 190,000 copies in print, explores how the brain processes information both rationally and through intuition. Read the whole story: USA Today
