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domingo, 1 de março de 2015
Can money buy happiness? The relationship between money and well-being
Finding psychological insights through social media
Social media has opened up a new digital world for psychology research. Four researchers will be discussing new methods of language analysis, and how social media can be leveraged to study personality, mental and physical health, and cross-cultural differences. The speakers will be presenting their research during the symposium "Finding Psychological Signal in a Billion Tweets: Measurement Through the Language of Social Media," at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) 16th Annual Convention in Long Beach, California.Collaborating with computer scientists Researchers have long measured people's thoughts, feelings, and personalities using survey questions. The widespread use of Twitter and Facebook has afforded new approaches to social science research, and requires new techniques to analyze and interpret data using computer science methods. These techniques allow researchers the ability to generate insights from large-scale data sets. "Collaborations between psychologists and computer scientists can yield studies and insights that would not likely have been conceived independently by researchers from either field," says Andy Schwartz of the University of Pennsylvania. A study utilizing open-vocabulary analysis found striking variations in language with personality, gender, and age. Certain words and phrases can provide novel and detailed insights. For instance, men used the possessive 'my' when mentioning their 'wife' or 'girlfriend' more often than women used 'my' with 'husband' or 'boyfriend.' Open-vocabulary analysis can find connections that are unanticipated and often are not captured by other analysis techniques. "Data-driven techniques are mostly limited to finding correlations rather than causation...Future analyses are moving beyond words to capturing less ambiguous meanings from language," explains lead researcher Andy Schwartz. Collaboration between social and personality psychologists, and computer scientists, will be integral to moving that research forward. Assessing personality with Facebook Researchers have found that words used on Facebook are surprisingly reliable indicators of personality. Their results are published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The researchers utilized predictive algorithms of the language to create efficient large-scale personality assessments. The automated language-based models of traits were consistent with the participants' self-reported personality measurements. Lead author Gregory Park confirms the reliability of the language-based model: "We evaluated the method in several ways. Predictions from the automated methods can accurately predict the scores the users receive on personality tests. They are consistent with personality ratings made by the users' actual friends, and other personality-related outcomes, such as the number of friends, or self-reported political attitudes." Another study, published in the journal Assessment, analyzed Facebook statuses of study participants using open-language analysis. The researchers generated word clouds that visually illustrated how several personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness) appear on Facebook. The study found that certain phrases are predictive of specific personality traits. For example, individuals who score high in neuroticism on a self-reported personality assessments are more likely to use words like sadness, loneliness, fear and pain. Analyzing this data may provide novel connections that may not be apparent in traditional written questionnaires and surveys. Tracking community health through Twitter In a study recently published in the journal Psychological Science, researchers compared tweets and heart disease at the county level. The study found that language analyses may predict heart disease risk as well or better than traditional epidemiological risk factors. "Language associated with anger, negative emotions, hostility and disengagement within a community was associated with increased rates of heart disease," explains lead author Johannes Eichstaedt, "Language expressing positive emotions and engagement was associated with reduced risk." Twitter users are not necessarily individuals at-risk for heart disease, but rather, they can serve as canaries for communities with higher heart disease risk. Tweets can represent the overall negativity a community is feeling, and indicate the social and environmental stresses that contribute to increased heart-disease risk. The results of the study illustrate that Twitter serves as an accurate predictor of health and risk factors of a community. Eichstaedt and his colleagues are now analyzing words and phrases on Twitter to track depression and anxiety across populations. Cultural variation in language Social media allows researchers to examine similarities and differences across cultures at a new level. Cross-cultural studies typically require time-intensive qualitative analyses with a small number of people. Margaret Kern of the University of Melbourne and Maarten Sap of the University of Pennsylvania are using Twitter to study variations in language use across cultures. Using differential language analysis the researchers examined Twitter posts from eight countries (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Singapore, Mexico, and Spain) and two languages (English and Spanish). The researchers found that there were many similarities across countries, with emoticons and iconic pop artists correlating with positive emotions and curse words, and aggression correlating with negative emotions. There were also differences that point to culture-specific correlations for emotional expression. Results of the study are still preliminary, and have not yet been published. "A challenge for us is understanding how to interpret any differences we see- is it a really difference, or simply noise? In the future, we hope to work directly with people from these cultures to help us interpret and understand the results," explains lead researcher Margaret Kern. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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quarta-feira, 18 de fevereiro de 2015
Willpower: The Key to Success?
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If only you could control yourself. If you had more willpower, you could finally lose those last 10 pounds. If you had more self-control, you could finally stop procrastinating, save for retirement, stick to an exercise routine, and avoid various vices such as alcohol and cigarettes. That's a lot riding on mere force of will. As the American Psychological Association notes, people allover the world tend to place a lot of stock in the power of willpower. According to their annual Stress in America Survey, people identified a lack of willpower as the number one factor holding them back from achieving their goals. Change can be difficult and a large portion of people believe that one of the biggest obstacles preventing them from making a change is this seemingly elusive power of will. However, some of the most popular theories of behavior change suggest that willpower alone is not always enough to make a real and lasting change. According to the Stages of Change model, it is important to first recognize that there is a need to change, identify possible barriers to change, come up with a plan of action, monitor progress, maintain and manage the change, and cope with any possible relapses. Willpower plays a role, certainly, but it is not the only factor that impacts success. While many of us struggle with willpower and self-control, most people also seem to believe that this is a skill that can be learned and strengthened. Fortunately, researchers have also come to similar conclusions and suggest that there are a number of things that you can do to improve your self-control. Continue reading to learn more about what will power is, why it's so important, and what you can do to develop this ability. Photo Credit: Cultura/Edwin Jimenez / Riser / Getty Images source : www.about.com |
quinta-feira, 25 de dezembro de 2014
Psychology : From Humble Beginnings to Today
| Philosophers such as Rene Descartes played an important role in the history of psychology. Hulton Fine Art Collection / Getty Images While the psychology of today reflects the discipline’s rich and varied history, the origins of psychology differ significantly from contemporary conceptions of the field. In order to gain a full understanding of psychology, you need to spend some time exploring its history and origins. How did psychology originate? When did it begin? Who were the people responsible for establishing psychology as a separate science? Why Study Psychology History?Contemporary psychology is interested in an enormous range of topics, looking a human behavior and mental process from the neural level to the cultural level. Psychologists study human issues that begin before birth and continue until death. By understanding the history of psychology, you can gain a better understanding of how these topics are studied and what we have learned thus far. Questions in PsychologyFrom its earliest beginnings, psychology has been faced with a number of different questions. The initial question of how to define psychology helped establish it as a science separate from physiology and philosophy. Additional questions that psychologists have faced throughout history include:
The Beginnings of Psychology: Philosophy and PhysiologyWhile psychology did not emerge as a separate discipline until the late 1800s, its earliest history can be traced back to the time of the early Greeks. During the 17th-century, the French philosopher Rene Descartes introduced the idea of dualism, which asserted that the mind and body were two separate entities that interact to form the human experience. Many other issues still debated by psychologists today, such as the relative contributions of nature vs. nurture, are rooted in these early philosophical traditions. So what makes psychology different from philosophy? While early philosophers relied on methods such as observation and logic, today’s psychologists utilize scientific methodologies to study and draw conclusions about human thought and behavior. Physiology also contributed to psychology’s eventual emergence as a scientific discipline. Early physiology research on the brain and behavior had a dramatic impact on psychology, ultimately contributing to the application of scientific methodologies to the study of human thought and behavior. Psychology Emerges as a Separate DisciplineDuring the mid-1800s, a German physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt was using scientific research methods to investigate reaction times. His book published in 1874, Principles of Physiological Psychology, outlined many of the major connections between the science of physiology and the study of human thought and behavior. He later opened the world’s first psychology lab in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. This event is generally considered the official start of psychology as a separate and distinct scientific discipline. How did Wundt view psychology? He perceived the subject as the study of human consciousness and sought to apply experimental methods to studying internal mental processes. While his use of a process known as introspection is seen as unreliable and unscientific today, his early work in psychology helped set the stage for future experimental methods. An estimated 17,000 students attended Wundt’s psychology lectures, and hundreds more pursued degrees in psychology and studied in his psychology lab. While his influence dwindled in the years to come, his impact on psychology is unquestionable. Structuralism Becomes Psychology’s First School of ThoughtEdward B. Titchener, one of Wundt’s most famous students, would go on to found psychology’s first major school of thought. According to the structuralists, human consciousness could be broken down into much smaller parts. Using a process known as introspection, trained subjects would attempt to break down their responses and reactions to the most basic sensation and perceptions. While structuralism is notable for its emphasis on scientific research, its methods were unreliable, limiting, and subjective. When Titchener died in 1927, structuralism essentially died with him. The Functionalism of William JamesPsychology flourished in American during the mid- to late-1800s. William James emerged as one of the major American psychologists during this period and the publication of his classic textbook, The Principles of Psychology, established him as the father of American psychology. His book soon became the standard text in psychology and his ideas eventually served as the basis for a new school of thought known as functionalism. The focus of functionalism was on how behavior actually works to help people live in their environment. Functionalists utilized methods such as direct observation. While both of these early schools of thought emphasized human consciousness, their conceptions of it were significantly different. While the structuralists sought to break down mental processes into their smallest parts, the functionalists believed that consciousness existed as a more continuous and changing process. While functionalism is no longer a separate school of thought, it would go on to influence later psychologists and theories of human thought and behavior. source: www.about.com |
sábado, 20 de dezembro de 2014
Personalized advertising attracts more attention and makes contents of ads easier to remember
December 19, 2014University of Cologne - Universität zu Köln Personalized advertisements on the Internet not only attract more attention, they also remain in our memory longer than impersonal ads. People who surf the internet and shop online leave many traces of their behavior behind. These data are increasingly being used by companies to present ads on their websites that are intended to meet people's individual interests and preferences. Personalized advertisements on the Internet not only attract more attention, they also remain in our memory longer than impersonal ads. This is the result of a study conducted by Professor Kai Kaspar from the Psychology Department of the University of Cologne in collaboration with his colleagues Moritz Köster, Marco Rüth and Dr. Kai-Christoph Hamborg in Osnabrück. Specifically, they investigated the gaze behavior of female students on websites. People who surf the internet and shop online leave many traces of their behavior behind. These data are increasingly being used by companies to present ads on their websites that are intended to meet people's individual interests and preferences. However, so far it has been unclear if this form of personalized advertising actually attracts people's attention to a greater degree than impersonal ads. In their study, which was published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, the four researchers asked female students to read the current events presented on a news portal. The advertisements of various companies were also displayed, but the test persons tended not to look at these ads very much -- an effect also known as "banner blindness." Personalized advertisements, however, attracted much more attention than impersonal ones. Moreover, there was a significant effect on the memories of the test persons: in a later test, the female students recognized the images and slogans that were previously integrated into personalized ads much more often than those in impersonal ones. But the personalization of advertising had no effect on the test persons' memories of company logos or the contents of the news they were viewing. These combined effects are highly relevant for advertisers and website operators. However, web users should also be more aware of the uses to which the traces they leave behind of their online activities can be put. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by University of Cologne - Universität zu Köln. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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Family criticizing your weight? You might add more pounds
Women whose loved ones are critical of their weight tend to put on even more pounds, says a new study on the way people's comments affect our health.Professor Christine Logel from Renison University College at the University of Waterloo led the study, which appears in the December issue of the journal Personal Relationships. "When we feel bad about our bodies, we often turn to loved ones -- families, friends and romantic partners -- for support and advice. How they respond can have a bigger effect than we might think," said Professor Logel, who teaches social development studies. The study found that women who received a higher number of what the researchers called acceptance messages about their weight saw better weight maintenance and even weight loss than their counterparts who did not receive this positive messaging from their loved ones. The researchers studied university-age women, a demographic often dissatisfied with personal weight. The team of social psychologists asked the women their height and weight, and how they felt about what they see on the scale. About five months later, they asked them if they had talked to their loved ones about their concerns, and if so, how they had responded. About three months after that, they tracked whether their weight and their concerns about it changed in that time. "On average, the women in the study were at the high end of Health Canada's BMI recommendations, so the healthiest thing is for them to maintain the weight they have and not be so hard on themselves," said Professor Logel. "But many of the women were still very concerned about how much they weigh, and most talked to their loved ones about it." Overall, the women in the sample gained some weight over time, which is not uncommon for young adults. But if the women got the message from their loved ones that they look fine, then they maintained or even lost a bit of weight. Women who received comparatively few weight acceptance messages from their loved ones gained almost 4.5 pounds on average, whereas women who received comparatively more weight acceptance messages lost a pound. The results showed that when women concerned about their weight heard that their loved ones accepted them as they are, they felt better about their bodies, and subsequently they did not gain like other women did. "Lots of research finds that social support improves our health," said Professor Logel. "An important part of social support is feeling that our loved ones accept us just the way we are." Pressure from loved ones about weight loss was not helpful for women already concerned about it. And it actually led women who weren't originally concerned about their weight to gain some weight. "We all know someone who points out our weight gain or offers to help us lose weight. These results suggest that these comments are misguided," said Professor Logel. The research suggests that feeling better about themselves caused the women to be more active or eat more sensibly. Receiving unconditional acceptance might have lowered their stress, a known cause of weight gain. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by University of Waterloo. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference:
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sexta-feira, 19 de dezembro de 2014
Being humble: Research shows E.B. White was right in Charlotte's Web
Before Charlotte the spider spelled the word "humble" in her web to describe Wilbur the pig, she told Templeton the rat that the word meant "not proud."That's probably what most people say if you put them on the spot. But if you give them time to think about it deeply, like a new study just did, other themes emerge that have a lot to do with learning. And these intellectual dimensions of humility describe the spider as well or better than the pig. "Wilbur has many of the dimensions of humility in general: regard for others, not thinking too highly of himself -- but highly enough," said Peter Samuelson, the lead study author. "Charlotte shows some of the unique aspects of intellectual humility: curiosity, love of learning, willingness to learn from others." Samuelson is a psychologist at Fuller Theological Seminary who embarked on a new voyage for academia: a bottom-up exploration of what it really means to be humble. Samuelson teamed up with Brigham Young University psychologist Sam Hardy. For his part, Hardy utilized a statistical technique called multi-dimensional scaling that made sense of open-ended responses from the 350 study participants recruited from Amazon's "Mechanical Turk." "This is more of a bottom-up approach, what do real people think about humility, what are the lay conceptions out there in the real world and not just what comes from the ivory tower," Hardy said. "We're just using statistics to present it and give people a picture of that." Hardy's analysis found two clusters of traits that people use to explain humility. Traits in the first cluster come from the social realm: Sincere, honest, unselfish, thoughtful, mature, etc. The second and more unique cluster surrounds the concept of learning: curious, bright, logical and aware. Samuelson says the two clusters of humble traits -- the social and intellectual -- often come as a package deal for people who are "intellectually humble." Because they love learning, they spend time learning from other people. "In many ways, this is the defining feature of intellectual humility and what makes it distinct from general humility," said Samuelson, who formerly served as a Lutheran pastor prior to his academic career. The new study appears in The Journal of Positive Psychology. Fuller Theological Seminary is a multi-denominational evangelical institution with programs of study in theology, psychology and intercultural studies. Brigham Young University is a large, private university supported by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and offers a broad spectrum of academic programs. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Brigham Young University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference:
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quarta-feira, 10 de dezembro de 2014
Can Fear Be Erased?
Hormone and gene therapies for anxiety and PTSD could be on the way
Give oxytocin to people with certain anxiety disorders, and activity in the amygdala—the primary fear center in human and other mammalian brains, two almond-shaped bits of brain tissue sitting deep beneath our temples—falls. Credit: Amber Rieder, Jenna Traynor, & Geoffrey B Hall via Wikimedia Commons When University of Bonn psychologist Monika Eckstein designed her latest published study, the goal was simple: administer a hormone into the noses of 62 men in hopes that their fear would go away. And for the most part, it did. The amygdala normally buzzes with activity in response to potentially threatening stimuli. When an organism repeatedly encounters a stimulus that at first seemed frightening but turns out to be benign—like, say, a balloon popping—a brain region called the prefrontal cortex inhibits amygdala activity. But in cases of repeated presentations of an actual threat, or in people with anxiety who continually perceive a stimulus as threatening, amygdala activity doesn’t subside and fear memories are more easily formed. To study the effects of oxytocin on the development of these fear memories, Eckstein and her colleagues first subjected study participants to Pavlovian fear conditioning, in which neutral stimuli (photographs of faces and houses) were sometimes paired with electric shocks. Subjects were then randomly assigned to receive either a single intranasal dose of oxytocin or a placebo. Thirty minutes later they received functional MRI scans while undergoing simultaneous fear extinction therapy, a standard approach to anxiety disorders in which patients are continually exposed to an anxiety-producing stimulus until they no longer find it stressful. In this case they were again exposed to images of faces and houses, but this time minus the electric shocks. Those subjects receiving oxytocin had increased activity in the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brainresponsible for getting fear under control—and decreased amygdala responsiveness when exposed to the now-benign images that subjects had been conditioned to find frightening. Physical manifestations of fear, namely sweating, were also decreased in the treated group. The results, published October 29 in Biological Psychiatry, suggest that just a single dose of oxytocin may effectively enhance extinction-based therapies for fear and anxiety conditions. “It would be far too early to give recommendations for a clinical use of oxytocin,” Eckstein cautions. “However, there is a large body of research suggesting a potential therapeutic role in various disorders in the future.” Though results were based on observation rather than fMRI findings, a smaller study published last year by Acheson and colleagues reported that intranasal oxytocin facilitates fear extinction in humans. Oxytocin also attenuates hyperactive amygdalas in social anxiety disorder and is being explored as a potential treatment for PTSD. Defusing the fear gene Raül Andero Galí, a research associate in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University, thinks BDNF-based approaches hold promise in understanding and treating anxiety. Only small amounts of BDNF make it across the blood-brain barrier, so at the moment there is no therapeutic role for the compound itself. Yet Galí’s work has shown that a compound that mimics the effects of BDNF in the brain successfully helped mice get over fearful associations—specifically a sound paired with a foot shock. The prospect of BDNF gene therapy is also being investigated. “BDNF provides some of the most powerful effects that I've ever seen in enhancing fear extinction,” says Galí. “However, we need to test whether BDNF-related molecules are safe and effective in humans.” Galí has also shown that a drug that blocks the activity of the Tac2 gene pathway, which is also thought to play a role in fear extinction, reduces the consolidation and storage of traumatic memories in mice, suggesting a possible therapeutic role in post-traumatic stress disorder. “PTSD it is a unique psychiatric disease because we usually know when it begins,” Galí says. “We could potentially give drugs shortly after trauma to prevent it.” It’s not “eternal sunshine” Eckstein isn’t too worried. “There is potential to abuse these treatments,” she says. “However, this is unlikely.” Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux has written that emotional memories—happy memories, exciting memories, fearful memories—are indelible. Rather than actually erasing bad memories, we forget how to access them, or learn to call up a more pleasant memory first. As Eckstein points out, in anxiety patients who’ve successfully learned to replace a fear association with a positive or neutral emotion, relapses do occur. “The old fear is still stored somewhere in the brain,” she says. But hopefully, as new treatments emerge, that fear will be harder to find. source to this article : www.scientificamerican.com |
quarta-feira, 3 de dezembro de 2014
Biology of anxious temperament may lie with a problem in an anxiety 'off switch'
December 2, 2014Elsevier Persistent anxiety is one of the most common and distressing symptoms compromising mental health. Most of the research on the neurobiology of anxiety has focused on the generation of increased anxiety, i.e., the processes that “turn on” anxiety. But what if the problem lay with the “off switch” instead? In other words, the dysfunction could exist in the ability to diminish anxiety once it has begun. A new report suggests that deficits in one of the brain’s off switches for anxiety, neuropeptide Y receptors, are decreased in association with anxious temperament. Persistent anxiety is one of the most common and distressing symptoms compromising mental health. Most of the research on the neurobiology of anxiety has focused on the generation of increased anxiety, i.e., the processes that "turn on" anxiety. But what if the problem lay with the "off switch" instead? In other words, the dysfunction could exist in the ability to diminish anxiety once it has begun. A new report in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison suggests that deficits in one of the brain's off switches for anxiety, neuropeptide Y receptors, are decreased in association with anxious temperament. To conduct their work, the researchers studied 24 young rhesus monkeys to examine expression of the neuropeptide Y system in relation to anxious temperament. Neuropeptide Y is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate the body's response to stress. Anxious temperament is a trait that presents early in life and increases the risk of developing anxiety and depressive disorders. They found that elevated anxious temperament is associated with decreased messenger RNA expression of two neuropeptide Y receptors, Y1R and Y5R, in the central nucleus of the amygdala, a region of the brain that plays an important role in regulating fear and anxiety. "This finding is very important as it focuses our thinking about treatment on promoting recovery after stress rather than suppressing the normal adaptive reaction to threatening situations. Fear, at times, is the best possible reaction to life events. However, persistent fear can be destructive. This new finding points us in the direction of new treatments that aim to promote resilience rather than blunting one's life experiences," said Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. The authors agree, with first author Dr. Patrick Roseboom noting that "extreme anxiety in children is a prominent predictor of the later development of anxiety disorders and other illnesses such as depression and substance abuse. Using young rhesus monkeys in our model of anxious temperament is critical as brain structure and function in non-human primates closely resembles that of humans." "Identifying the molecular underpinnings of why some individuals are at-risk for developing anxiety and depression has the potential to identify new treatment targets," added Roseboom. "The current findings suggest that focusing on a system that provides resilience may be an important strategy at the molecular level." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Elsevier. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference:
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quarta-feira, 12 de novembro de 2014
Why 'I'm so happy I could cry' makes sense
Individuals who express negative reactions to positive news were able to moderate intense emotions more quickly, scientists found. They also found people who are most likely to cry at their child's graduation are most likely to want to pinch a cute baby's cheeks.
The phrase "tears of joy" never made much sense to Yale psychologist Oriana Aragon. But after conducting a series of studies of such seemingly incongruous expressions, she now understands better why people cry when they are happy.
"People may be restoring emotional equilibrium with these expressions," said Aragon, lead author of work to be published in the journal Psychological Science. "They seem to take place when people are overwhelmed with strong positive emotions, and people who do this seem to recover better from those strong emotions."
There are many examples of responding to a positive experience with a negative emotion. A crying spouse is reunited with a soldier returning from war. Teen girls scream at a Justin Bieber concert and so do soccer players as they score a winning goal. The baseball player who hits a winning home run is pounded at home plate by teammates. And when introduced to babies "too cute for words," some can't resist pinching their cheeks.
"I was surprised no one ever asked why that is," she said.
Aragon and her colleagues at Yale ran subjects through some of these scenarios and measured their responses to cute babies or happy reunions. They found that individuals who express negative reactions to positive news were able to moderate intense emotions more quickly. They also found people who are most likely to cry at their child's graduation are most likely to want to pinch a cute baby's cheeks.
There is also some evidence that strong negative feelings may provoke positive expressions; for example nervous laughter appears when people are confronted with a difficult or frightening situations, and smiles have been found by other psychologists to occur during extreme sadness.
These new discoveries begin to explain common things that many people do but don't even understand themselves, Aragon said.
"These insights advance our understanding of how people express and control their emotions, which is importantly related to mental and physical health, the quality of relationships with others, and even how well people work together," she said.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Yale University. The original article was written by Bill Hathaway. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- E. J. Boothby, M. S. Clark, J. A. Bargh. Shared Experiences Are Amplified. Psychological Science, 2014; DOI: 10.1177/0956797614551162
sexta-feira, 31 de outubro de 2014
5 Ways to Improve Your Attention
Things You Can Do to Minimize Distraction and Increase Concentration
It happens to the best of us. You're sitting in class or in a meeting and you suddenly find yourself daydreaming, losing focus, and not paying attention. In one study of over 2,000 adults, people reported that their minds weren't really on the task at hand almost 50 percent of the time. Perhaps even more importantly, people report feeling less happy when they are distracted.
So what can you do to improve your attention, increase your focus, and prevent your mind from wandering? Researchers have discovered a few different things that might help:
suedhang/Image Source/Getty Images
1. Stop Multitasking
Trying to do many different things at once makes it more difficult to concentrate on any one thing. While it might seem like multitasking can help you accomplish more, research has shown that juggling multiple tasks actually reduces both productivity and accuracy. If you want to make the most out of your attentional resources, try focusing on just one task at a time.
Thomas Barwick / Getty Images
2. Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness involves purposely paying attention to things in a particular way, and new research suggests that practicing mindfulness might actually help improve your ability to concentrate. According to research presented at an annual conference held by the British Psychological Society (BPS), children who took a short training course in mindfulness were better able to concentrate and ignore distractions.
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3. Meditate
Researchers have found that those experienced in meditation are better at focusing their attention on a single item and ignoring irrelevant items. What about people new to meditation? Can practicing this skill help you better focus your attentional spotlight? The research indicates that the answer is yes. Participants in one study who learned to meditate and practiced for approximately 30 minutes per day were quicker to notice new stimuli, indicating that they had improved their attention.
So why exactly does meditation help? One suggestion is that it decreases the attentional blink that we all experience. Attentional blink is a brief period of time after we focus on one item, about half a second, where we are unreceptive to secondary stimuli. Essentially, focusing on one thing makes us briefly blind to other things. One study found that participants who received meditation training demonstrated a marked reduction in attentional blink.
Tetra Images / Getty Images
4. Turn Off the Technology
From smart phones to video games to online video, it seems like we spend a huge chunk of our day absorbed by various forms of technology. Unfortunately, research has demonstrated that the constant distraction presented by such technology can actually make it more difficult for young children to focus on activities such as reading for an extended period of time. If you want to focus your attention and fully devote yourself to a task, turn off the technology - at least for long enough to let you finish the job.
Zakaria Wakrim / Getty Images
5. Practice Makes Perfect
Meditation can help you learn to improve your focus, but it takes practice to learn how to bring your bring your attention back to the task at hand. Researcher Wendy Hasenkamp suggests that becoming aware of when your mind has wandered, actively disengaging from the distraction, and bringing your focus back to the task at hand can help make people more mindful of how they utilize their attention. The more you notice that your mind has wandered, and thus the more you actively bring yourself back to a state of attention, the better you will become at maintaining your focus on a single task.
"Understanding the way the brain alternates between focused and distracted states has implications for a wide variety of everyday tasks," Hasenkamp explains. "For example, when your mind wandered off in that meeting, it might help to know you’re slipping into default mode—and you can deliberately bring yourself back to the moment. That’s an ability that can improve with training."
Final Thoughts
If you've ever felt like you have a "short attention span" or if you often catch your mind wandering when you should be focusing on a task, you might be able to benefit from some of these "attention boosting" activities. Eliminating distractions, putting an end to multitasking, meditating, and actively practicing these skills are just a few of the things that researchers believe can have a beneficial influence on attention. Think of attention as a muscle – the more you work with it, the stronger it will be.
References
Carr, N. (2010, June 20). As technology advances, deep reading suffers. SFGate. Retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/As-technology-advances-deep-reading-suffers-3261215.php
Hasenkamp, W., Wilson-Mendenhall, C. D., Duncan, E., & Basalou, L. W. (2012). Mind wandering and attention during focused meditation: A fine-grained temporal analysis of fluctuating cognitive states. NeuroImage, 59, 750-560.
Hasenkamp, W. (2013, July 17). How to focus a wandering mind. Greater Good. Retrieved fromhttp://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_focus_a_wandering_mind
Jha, A. P., Krompinger, J., & Baime, M. J. (2007). Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of attention. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 7(2), 109-119.
quinta-feira, 30 de outubro de 2014
Cognition
The term cognition is used in several loosely related ways to refer to a faculty for the human-like processing of information, applying knowledge and changing preferences.
Cognition or cognitive processes can be natural and artificial, conscious and not conscious; therefore, they are analyzed from different perspectives and in different contexts, in anesthesia, neurology, psychology, philosophy, systemics and computer science.
The concept of cognition is closely related to such abstract concepts as mind, reasoning, perception, intelligence, learning, and many others that describe numerous capabilities of human mind and expected properties of artificial or synthetic intelligence.
Cognition is an abstract property of advanced living organisms; therefore, it is studied as a direct property of a brain or of an abstract mind on subsymbolic and symbolic levels.
In psychology and in artificial intelligence, it is used to refer to the mental functions, mental processes and states of intelligent entities (humans, human organizations, highly autonomous robots), with a particular focus toward the study of such mental processes as comprehension, inferencing, decision-making, planning and learning (see also cognitive science and cognitivism).
Recently, advanced cognitive researchers have been especially focused on the capacities of abstraction, generalization, concretization/specialization and meta-reasoning which descriptions involve such concepts as beliefs, knowledge, desires, preferences and intentions of intelligent individuals/objects/agents/systems.
The term "cognition" is also used in a wider sense to mean the act of knowing or knowledge, and may be interpreted in a social or cultural sense to describe the emergent development of knowledge and concepts within a group that culminate in both thought and action.
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology and neurology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relate to specific psychological processes.
It is scientific in its approach and shares an information processing view of the mind with cognitive psychology and cognitive science.
It is one of the more eclectic of the psychological disciplines, overlapping at times with areas such as neuroscience, philosophy (particularly philosophy of mind), neurology, psychiatry and computer science (particularly by making use of artificial neural networks).
Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach to psychology that attempts to explain useful mental and psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, i.e., as the functional products of natural selection.
The purpose of this approach is to bring the functional way of thinking about biological mechanisms such as the immune system into the field of psychology, and to approach psychological mechanisms in a similar way.
In short, evolutionary psychology is focused on how evolution has shaped the mind and behavior.
Though applicable to any organism with a nervous system, most research in evolutionary psychology focuses on humans.
Evolutionary Psychology proposes that the human brain comprises many functional mechanisms, called psychological adaptations or evolved cognitive mechanisms designed by the process of natural selection.
Examples include language acquisition modules, incest avoidance mechanisms, cheater detection mechanisms, intelligence and sex-specific mating preferences, foraging mechanisms, alliance-tracking mechanisms, agent detection mechanisms, and so on.
Evolutionary psychology has roots in cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology.
It also draws on behavioral ecology, artificial intelligence, genetics, ethology, anthropology, archaeology, biology, and zoology.
Evolutionary psychology is closely linked to sociobiology, but there are key differences between them including the emphasis on domain-specific rather than domain-general mechanisms, the relevance of measures of current fitness, the importance of mismatch theory, and psychology rather than behaviour.
Many evolutionary psychologists, however, argue that the mind consists of both domain-specific and domain-general mechanisms, especially evolutionary developmental psychologists.
Most sociobiological research is now conducted in the field of behavioral ecology.
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all of the psychological variables that are measurable in a human being.
The reference to imagined or implied others suggests that we are prone to social influence even when no other people are present, such as when watching television, or following internalized cultural norms.
The study of attitudes is a core topic in social psychology.
Attitudes are involved in virtually every other area of the discipline, including conformity, interpersonal attraction, social perception, and prejudice.
Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the interaction of mental states and immediate, social situations.
In general, social psychologists have a preference for laboratory based, empirical findings.
Their theories tend to be specific and focused, rather than global and general.
domingo, 26 de outubro de 2014
sábado, 25 de outubro de 2014
Reminiscing can help boost mental performance
“The prevailing view is that activating brain regions referred to as the default network impairs performance on attention-demanding tasks because this network is associated with behaviors such as mind-wandering,” said Spreng. “Our study is the first to demonstrate the opposite – that engaging the default network can also improve performance.”
To solve a mental puzzle, the brain’s executive control network for externally focused, goal-oriented thinking must activate, while the network for internally directed thinking like daydreaming must be turned down to avoid interference – or so we thought.
New research led by Cornell University neuroscientist Nathan Spreng shows for the first time that engaging brain areas linked to so-called “off-task” mental activities (such as mind-wandering and reminiscing) can actually boost performance on some challenging mental tasks. The results advance our understanding of how externally and internally focused neural networks interact to facilitate complex thought, the authors say.
“The prevailing view is that activating brain regions referred to as the default network impairs performance on attention-demanding tasks because this network is associated with behaviors such as mind-wandering,” said Spreng. “Our study is the first to demonstrate the opposite – that engaging the default network can also improve performance.”
There are plenty of neuroimaging studies showing that default network activation interferes with complex mental tasks – but in most, Spreng explained, the mental processes associated with default network conflict with task goals. If you start thinking about what you did last weekend while taking notes during a lecture, for example, your note-taking and ability to keep up will suffer.
Spreng and his team developed a new approach in which off-task processes such as reminiscing can support rather than conflict with the aims of the experimental task. Their novel task, “famous faces n-back,” tests whether accessing long-term memory about famous people, which typically engages default network brain regions, can support short-term memory performance, which typically engages executive control regions.
While undergoing brain scanning, 36 young adults viewed sets of famous and anonymous faces in sequence and were asked to identify whether the current face matched the one presented two faces back. The team found participants were faster and more accurate when matching famous faces than when matching anonymous faces and that this better short-term memory performance was associated with greater activity in the default network. The results show that activity in the default brain regions can support performance on goal-directed tasks when task demands align with processes supported by the default network, the authors say.
“Outside the laboratory, pursuing goals involves processing information filled with personal meaning – knowledge about past experiences, motivations, future plans and social context,” Spreng said. “Our study suggests that the default network and executive control networks dynamically interact to facilitate an ongoing dialogue between the pursuit of external goals and internal meaning.”
The study, “Goal-congruent default network activity facilitates cognitive control,” published in October in the Journal of Neuroscience, was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Cornell University. The original article was written by Melissa Osgood. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- R. N. Spreng, E. DuPre, D. Selarka, J. Garcia, S. Gojkovic, J. Mildner, W.-M. Luh, G. R. Turner. Goal-Congruent Default Network Activity Facilitates Cognitive Control. Journal of Neuroscience, 2014; 34 (42): 14108 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2815-14.2014
domingo, 19 de outubro de 2014
36 Questions to Bring You Closer Together
Get to know someone and create a sense of intimacy, in as little as an hour.
Published on October 15, 2013 by Temma Ehrenfeld
These questions only take about 45 minutes to discuss—and they almost always make two people feel better about each other and want to see each other again, according to social psychology researcher Arthur Aron of the Interpersonal Relationships Lab at Stony Brook University in New York, who published his results in "The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness" in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (1997).
You can try these questions with a date, but they're not necessarily only applicable to fostering romance. You can also try them with people you already know well—friends, family members, even long-term partners—to deepen your ties.
Each of you should take a turn answering each question.
Here they are, in order:
1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?
2. Would you like to be famous? In what way?
3. Before making a phone call, do you ever rehearse what you're going to say? Why?
4. What would constitute a perfect day for you?
5. When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?
6. If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you choose?
7. Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?
8. Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.
9. For what in your life do you feel most grateful?
10. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?
11. Take four minutes and tell you partner your life story in as much detail as possible.
12. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained one quality or ability, what would it be?
13. If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?
14. Is there something that you've dreamt of doing for a long time? Why haven't you done it?
15. What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?
16. What do you value most in a friendship?
17. What is your most treasured memory?
18. What is your most terrible memory?
19. If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living? Why?
20. What does friendship mean to you?
21. What roles do love and affection play in your life?
22. Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of your partner. Share a total of five items.
23. How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other people's?
24. How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?
25. Make three true "we" statements each. For instance, "we are both in this room feeling..."
26. Complete this sentence "I wish I had someone with whom I could share..."
27. If you were going to become a close friend with your partner, please share what would be important for him or her to know.
28. Tell your partner what you like about them: be honest this time, saying things that you might not say to someone you've just met.
29. Share with your partner an embarrassing moment in your life.
30. When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?
31. Tell your partner something that you like about them already.
32. What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?
33. If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven't you told them yet?
34. Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and pets, you have time to safely make a final dash to save any one item. What would it be? Why?
35. Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find most disturbing? Why?
36. Share a personal problem and ask your partner's advice on how he or she might handle it. Also, ask your partner to reflect back to you how you seem to be feeling about the problem you have chosen.
... and a few variations:
- If you could choose the sex and physical appearance of your soon-to-be-born child, would you do it?
- Would you be willing to have horrible nightmares for a year if you would be rewarded with extraordinary wealth?
- While on a trip to another city, your spouse/lover meets and spends a night with an exciting stranger. Given that they will never meet again, and could never otherwise learn of the incident, would you want your partner to tell you about it?
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