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Image-Based Memory May Heighten Symptoms of PTSD
Using imagery can help people keep their memories vivid for longer, but for those with PTSD, a strong sense of imagery could be harmful.
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How I Realized AI Was Making Me Stupid—and What I Do Now
... “With creativity, if you don’t use it, it starts to go away,” Robert Sternberg, a Cornell University professor of psychology, told me. Sternberg, who studies human creativity and intelligence, argues that AI has already taken a toll on both. Smartphones are already blamed for what some researchers call “digital dementia.” In study after study, scientists have shown that people who regularly rely on digital help for some tasks can lose capacity to do them alone.
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The Simple Trick to Change Other People’s Minds
"The growth of knowledge depends entirely upon disagreement," claimed the philosopher Karl Popper. He was writing about the dangers of dogma in science – but his words could equally apply to anyone's worldview. And if you want a disagreement to end by changing someone's mind, you have to do it in the right way. ... Research by Jeremy Frimer at the University of Winnipeg and Linda Skitka at the University of Illinois at Chicago has shown that rude behaviour is far more likely to alienate the person you wish to persuade than change their opinion, and it may even disaffect people who were already coming around to your point of view.
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Quaker Parents Were Ahead of Their Time
... So here I am, nearly 375 years after Quakerism’s founding, asking my kids questions, giving them bounded autonomy, and nudging them to invest in their strengths and be stewards of their community—all while communicating that their worth is in no way contingent. Put together, these Quaker practices result in a parenting style considered ideal by psychologists: authoritative parenting.
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Letting Kids Fail Is Crucial
When my older son Jack was in high school, he accepted a summer job selling solar panels door-to-door. My first reaction was to tell him not to do it. I felt protective—afraid of the rejection he would face on doorsteps all summer long. I just couldn’t see how my thoughtful son, a good athlete and straight A student, could cope with so much failure. ... This mindset—what psychologist Carol Dweck calls a growth mindset—is an invaluable resource for children, particularly in a fast-changing world. When my younger son Nick, learning to ski at about age eight, asked me to watch him come down the slope, I dutifully stood at the bottom and waited.
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This Habit Is Quietly Ruining Your Relationships
One night last week, my husband, Tom, and I got into an argument. The next morning, I was still fuming. So I gave him the silent treatment. For the uninitiated, the silent treatment is when a person intentionally refuses to communicate with you — or in some cases, even acknowledge you. It’s a common maneuver that’s used in all sorts of relationships, said Kipling Williams, emeritus professor of psychological sciences at Purdue University who has studied the effects of the silent treatment for over 30 years.
