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Angela Duckworth and Long Term Goals
Here are a few of the mechanisms that help people be motivated
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Gorillas, babies, and the importance of looking
Vvisual behaviors sculpt our potentially overwhelming environment into meaningful experiences and the importance of studying visual social attention among individuals with autism
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Why won’t my baby stop clinging to me? The waxing and waning of stranger anxiety
Does your 6-to-12-month-old infant follow you around the room like a shadow, cry in the presence of unfamiliar people, and refuse to be comforted or held by anyone but you? No worries! This is a normal part of development. As exhausting as this phase may be for you, it will pass, and your baby will…
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Solving the problem of adverse childhood stress
Recently an article in the New York Times caught my eye. It was about something called “toxic stress” and its effect on children. Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACE), like abuse, neglect, and domestic violence, has long term impacts on a child’s psychological and physical well-being. These negative experiences can induce what researchers at the…
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Multitasking Video Game Improves Cognition in 79-year-olds!
Today, Nature published evidence that training on a multitasking video game improved older adults’ cognitive ability beyond the scope of the game to untrained aspects of cognition. The article featured a four-year research led by Drs. Adam Gazzaley and Joaquin Anguera at UCSF. They utilised a relatively simple video game, NeuroRacer to train older adults on multitasking. NeuroRacer requires participants to drive a cartoon car, and to respond…
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ADHD Medication and Risk for Later Alcohol and Drug Use
Many parents have to make difficult choices about how to help their children with an ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) diagnosis. Two treatments have been proven in well-designed and carefully controlled research studies to be effective: behavioral management (also known as parent training) and medication (typically Ritatin or Adderall). Medication treatment has raised concerns about…
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How do childhood experiences affect how we interpret facial expressions?
Guest Author: Valentina Park Much of our daily, personal interactions are based on how we interpret the facial expressions of people we meet. On a basic level, when a person smiles we know we made them happy and when they look angry we may have offended them. This type of facial discrimination has become so…
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Psychology Classics: Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a Swiss developmental psychologist. While he made many contributions to the field, his most notable is his systematic study of cognitive development.
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Are genetics destiny for psychiatric disorders?
Are genetics destiny? Simplistic thinkers may say so, but what scientists are learning is that, though many traits are heritable (e.g., height, extraversion, IQ), it is difficult to find a “gene” for the vast majority of traits. At the completion of the human genome project, there were high hopes that single genes could be located…