Cognition
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Illusion & Cognitive Distortions
Everyone would like to be able to remember the names of people we meet, especially people we meet in new social situations. Some of these situations are purely for enjoyment, and others have higher stakes. You’re being interviewed for a new job, for example, and as soon as you’re introduced to your potential supervisor, the name has flown completely out of your consciousness. Unfortunately, you’ll lose the job prospect as quickly as you’ve lost that name. When it comes to meeting people at parties, or even in casual conversation when introduced by a mutual friend, you also will appear to be a social klutz when you see that person again and must flounder (or fake) knowing the new people’s names.
The One Social Skill that Can Change Your Life
Pick One Already!
We spend a significant chunk of our lives trying to make up our minds. Small college or large college? Organic or not organic? Boxers or briefs? We like to think we're masters of deliberation, but supposedly fail-safe decision-making techniques (e.g., ask a close confidante) may backfire, while counterintuitive tricks (think in another language!) can help us reach wiser conclusions.
Twenty years ago, a pair of researchers in England reported on a series of experiments in which they showed that very young children could, in the context of play, solve logic problems that they seemed unable to solve in a serious context. The problems they used were syllogisms, the classic type of logic problem described originally by Aristotle. A syllogism requires a person to combine the information in two premises to decide if a particular conclusion is true, false, or indeterminate (cannot be determined from the premises). Syllogisms are generally easy when the premises coincide with concrete reality, but are more difficult when the premises are counterfactual (contradictions to reality). The prevailing belief at the time that the British researchers conducted these experiments was that the ability to solve counterfactual syllogisms depends on a type of reasoning that is completely lacking in young children.
The Value of Play II: How Play Promotes Reasoning in Children and Adults
Risk Intelligence: How to live with uncertainty
05 Jul 2012 Risk intelligence expert Dylan Evans outlines a powerful form of thinking; one where the same intuition seen in the best poker players can be effectively transferred to business, politics and everyday life. Listen to the podcast of the full event including audience Q&A Take the RQ, Risk Intelligence Test Download the video (mp4) Watch Dylan Evans on our YouTube Channel Watch Dylan Evans on our Vimeo ChannelHow to Be Prepared When Worry Attacks
Ever notice how aggravated you get when you go to check out at the grocery store, and... there's a line? And what about how even more aggravated you feel when you realize that you're standing in the line, especially after you've done the exhaustive -- customers x coupons x cashier energy -- calculation of which line is most likely to move fastest? No matter how insignificant the activity is that you have to do next, you are incensed (and frustrated by your poor calculation skills) that you've had to waste even a moment of your time unnecessarily. And yet. Look what happens, two minutes later when in the parking lot of the very same grocery store, your iPhone buzzes with a message from a frustrated client.
Every day I work with physicians. I interview them, write with them and edit for them. I’m a freelancer; consequently, in order to make a living, I’m constantly taking on new clients—new physicians.
What Underlies Physician Compassion?
For our blog’s sections on ‘ Your Brain ‘ and ‘ Test Prep ‘, we’re always on the lookout for great articles, videos and charts on memory and retention. By helping you understand how our brains work, we want to allow you to try different approaches to studying that will hopefully help you become better learners for life. Over time, we’ve compiled articles on brain foods , how motivation and memory works, methods for better retention , … If we take a look at the sum of all articles and areas of interest, it seems obvious that there should be one chart that combines all of these elements that make up and influence our memory. Thanks to onlinecolleges.com, there now is.
How Memory Works: an Infographic | The Brainscape Blog: Learn How to Learn Faster
I remember reading somewhere that writer Anne Lamott thinks about herself in the third person, to take better care of herself: “I’m sorry, Anne Lamott can’t accept that invitation to speak; she’s finishing a book so needs to keep her schedule clear.” I find that often, the same trick helps me to be realistic about myself. "Gretchen gets frantic when she's really hungry, so she can't wait too long for dinner." "Gretchen needs some quiet time each day."
Think of Yourself in the Third Person
¿Dios es real o sólo un amigo imaginario? Neurólogos daneses realizan controversial hallazgo Imagen: C Jill Reed (CC)
¿Dios es real o sólo un amigo imaginario? Neurólogos daneses realizan controversial hallazgo
Researchers find thinking in a foreign language causes people to make more rational decisions
(Medical Xpress) -- While at first glance it might seem irrational, researchers from the University of Chicago have found that people who speak two languages tend to make more rational decisions when thinking in their non-native tongue. They came to this conclusion after conducting a series of experiments, the results of which they have published in a paper in the journal Psychological Science . Intuitively, most people would assume that it shouldn’t matter which language a person is thinking in when making a decision, but the research team found just the opposite to be true, and they theorize that it’s because when people think in a language that takes more effort, they tend to be more analytical and less emotional when faced with making a choice. To find out if their idea was sound, they conducted several experiments.
The Foreign-Language Effect
Thinking in a Foreign Tongue Reduces Decision Biases Abstract Would you make the same decisions in a foreign language as you would in your native tongue? It may be intuitive that people would make the same choices regardless of the language they are using, or that the difficulty of using a foreign language would make decisions less systematic.Nuevo estudio afirma que evitar que las personas piensen favorece las ideas políticas de derecha Imagen: Scott Eidelman | U. de Arkansas Luego de que en febrero un exhaustivo estudio publicado en el “Journal of Psychological Science” encendiera la polémica al afirmar que las personas de derecha, con pensamiento conservador, están ligadas a una menor inteligencia incluso detectable durante la niñez, un nuevo trabajo académico atrae controversia sobre las motivaciones de los sectores políticos. Esto porque según un estudio de la Universidad de Arkansas , el pensamiento conservador de derecha está vinculado al pensamiento del “mínimo esfuerzo”, ya sea por las características de la persona o bien por la necesidad de entregar respuestas sin mayor elaboración. “La gente tiende a apoyar las ideas conservadoras cuando tiene que entregar una primera respuesta o una respuesta rápida”, señaló en un comunicado el doctor Scott Eidelman, a cargo del estudio.