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Al Seckel says our brains are mis-wired
Thanks to his extensive work in neurosurgery and cognitive science, Al Seckel possesses an intimate understanding of the brain's over-reliance on perception. Because of this biological tendency, humans are susceptible to believing what illusions tell them. Be sure to watch the video of this lecture rather than simply reading the transcript, as the fantastic visuals greatly highlight how this phenomenon works — and gives people exactly what they want to see. Watch the Ted Talk here
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Positive Memories Sustain Us
Huffington Post: Emotional events are memorable. If I talk to people from my parent's generation, they can all tell you where they were and what they were doing when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot, even though this happened almost 50 years ago. For my generation, the day of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger as well as the attacks on 9/11 have the same force and vividness in memory. All of this would make it seem as though negative events are particularly memorable. And, of course, there is some reason to want to remember negative things that happened in detail.
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Sheena Iyengar on the art of choosing
No matter if options in question stand as amazingly trivial or earth-shatteringly major, the human brain reacts to choice with an incredibly complicated, interesting series of mental processes. Nurture and other cultural factors, of course, do play a significant role in shaping how individuals condition themselves to make choices, as with emotional and mental states. From this vantage point, Sheena Iyengar showcases the wide spectrum of psychological and sociological phenomena that lead into why people do what they do. Watch the Ted Talk here
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How to Beat the Holiday Blues
ABC News: They say it's the most wonderful time of the year. But for many Americans, the holiday season is the most hectic, most stressful and most demanding. "There's the huge expectation to be jolly and cheerful and there's often a big contrast between how people are actually feeling and how they're expected to feel," said Nadine Kaslow, chief psychologist at Emory University School of Medicine. "A lot of the discomfort of the holidays lays in that discrepancy." The financial strain of gift-giving, the memories of holidays past and the weight of wanting everything to be perfect can take its toll. But managing expectations and keeping things laid back can help stave off the holiday blues.
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Fatherhood can be the birth of positive change
Los Angeles Times: Ten tiny fingers and 10 tiny toes may be enough to change men's lives in ways they never thought possible. A recent study found that some men dropped their delinquent ways when they went from "hood" to fatherhood. The research, conducted by scientists in Oregon and Texas, tracked 206 males from a medium-size metropolitan city in the Pacific Northwest. Participants were recruited at age 12 and assessed annually over 19 years, until age 31. Read the full story: Los Angeles Times
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Babies Picky About Who They Imitate
LiveScience: Babies are famous for copying adults, but a new study shows that little ones carefully choose whether to imitate an adult's actions based on how credible they think the adult is. For example, if an adult has previously displayed unreliable or dishonest behavior, the baby is less likely to mimic them, according to the study. Researchers divided 60 babies between 13 months and 16 months into two groups. In the first group, "unreliable" experimenters looked inside a container while expressing excitement, and invited the babies to discover whether the box contained a toy or was empty. For that group's experiment, the box was empty.
