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The Best Medicine: Decoding The Hidden Meanings Of Laughter
Here's how it usually goes: You're working from home and you dial in to a conference call for the morning meeting. Everyone is cheerfully talking around the table. You can't believe what a good time everyone seems to be having, talking about nothing. --- In the early 1990s, neuroscientist Robert Provine and colleagues conducted a study to find out what sparked laughter in conversations. Some of the "hilarious" phrases they observed included: "I'll see you guys later.""It was nice meeting you, too.""I see your point.""Look, it's Andre!" You can read about Provine's observational study here.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
A series of articles highlighting diverse perspectives on the prevalence and reliability of recovered memories of abuse.
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You Got Them Exactly the Wrong Thing, Didn’t You?
A few years ago, Sara Aiken planned the perfect romantic Christmas celebration with her husband, Ken. She made eggs Benedict, bacon and Bloody Mary cocktails for brunch. Then the couple lounged around in their pajamas and exchanged gifts. Ms. Aiken gave her husband a foul-weather jacket for sailing, some history books, cashmere socks and a pair of cuff links. She didn’t see any packages for herself under the tree, but got excited when he handed her a Christmas card and said her gift was in it. “I remember thinking: ‘The possibilities are endless!’” says Ms. Aiken, who is 58 and owns a pickleball paddle manufacturing company in Eastport, Md. “It could be a cool trip.
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A research-backed reason not to worry about what your peers think of you
Can you ever really know what your colleagues think about you? New research suggests there’s a good chance you already do. In a meta-analysis led by Hyunji Kim, a psychologist at York University in Toronto, researchers from Canada and Australia found that across more than 150 studies in which subjects ranked themselves in personality tests and were rated by peers, the gaps between self- and peer-perceptions were not wide. This wasn’t the case when the subjects of a study were strangers, but it was as true for work colleagues as it was between friends.
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These Are the Best Ways to Improve Your Memory
All day every day, your brain is bombarded with new information. Confronted with this tsunami of sensory and cerebral input, it’s no wonder much of it slips through your memory’s grasp. But if you feel like you’re forgetting more than you should—or if you just want to pump up your retention and recall—there are some science-backed ways to improve your memory. --- But there are things you can do. Mindfulness meditation may help beef up your memory. One small 2013 study found that students who took a two-week mindfulness course improved their scores on a test of working memory. They were also better able to block out distraction.
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Young Trans Children Know Who They Are
Since 2013, Kristina Olson, a psychologist at the University of Washington, has been running a large, long-term study to track the health and well-being of transgender children—those who identify as a different gender from the one they were assigned at birth. Since the study’s launch, Olson has also heard from the parents of gender-nonconforming kids, who consistently defy gender stereotypes but have not socially transitioned. They might include boys who like wearing dresses or girls who play with trucks, but who have not, for example, changed the pronouns they use. Those parents asked whether their children could participate in the study. Olson agreed.
