What are the secrets of a photographic memory?
bsp; Those with the best memories in the world -- who win memory competitions -- are not born, they're made. Since we're all far better at remembering pictures and routes than we are lists and numbers, memory experts build "memory palaces" in their mind -- fictional structures they can mentally walk through that visually connect all the things they've memorized. By associating over-the-top or emotional imagery with the facts to be remembered, they create rich "items" to place in the…
4 minutes
What’s an incredibly easy way to increase self-control?
ench your fists. Via the excellent BPS Research Digest: Across five studies, Iris Hung at the National University of Singapore and Aparna Labroo at the Booth School of Business showed that various forms of muscle flexion, from fist clenching to calf muscle tightening helped participants to endure pain now for later benefit... and to resist short-term gain (e.g. snack food) in order to fulfil a long-term gain of better health. Join 25K+ readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related…
1 min read
What’s an easy way to improve attention and make sure you’re evaluating the big picture?
ile: The broaden hypothesis, part of Fredrickson's (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory, proposes that positive emotions lead to broadened cognitive states. Here, we present evidence that cognitive broadening can be produced by frequent facial expressions of positive emotion. Additionally, we present a novel method of using facial electromyography (EMG) to discriminate between Duchenne (genuine) and non-Duchenne (non-genuine) smiles. Across experiments, Duchenne smiles occurred more frequently during positive emotion inductions than neutral or negative inductions. Across experiments, Duchenne smiles correlated with self-reports…
1 min read
What are 5 effective methods for dealing with angry people?
an article for Slate, Timothy Noah breaks down some of the principles explained in the book A Complaint Is a Gift: Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong. These techniques are designed for customer service reps but I think we can all learn something from them: 1.) Aikido. This concept is borrowed from Japanese martial arts. "Masters of aikido do not resist the physical force of their opponents," Barlow and Moller explain. "[R]ather, they turn with it and let it…
2 minutes
How do you build a good work environment?
b Sutton reviews Bill and Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company and calls out "Dave Packard's 11 Simple Rules" as guidelines for building a civilized work environment. Sutton should know: he's a professor at Stanford's MBA school and bestselling author of two excellent books about improving the workplace: The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't and Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from the Worst.…
3 minutes
Who is smarter: night owls or morning people?
bsp; Night owls have higher IQ's: Research examining various psychological correlates of circadian type (also known as diurnal preference) has been, over the years, quite expansive. A notable omission within this research program would appear a systematic exploration of the relation between intelligence and morningness–eveningness. The present study redressed this imbalance. 420 participants performed two self-report inventories assessing circadian type, as well as measures of intelligence from two psychometric batteries: CAM-IV and the ASVAB. The results indicate that, contrary to…
1 min read
Do dates tend to order the most expensive entrée?
. William Poundstone covers a study that showed prices didn't affect choices. Via William Poundstone's Blog: The menu is from an experiment by behavioral economists Ori Heffetz and Moses Shayo, of Cornell and Hebrew University, Jerusalem. They got a fancy Tel Aviv restaurant to play along as they manipulated the menu prices, specifically the little prices in parentheses telling how much the entrees would have cost a la carte. They wanted to test whether more people would pick an item…
1 min read
Does saying “I’ll never do that again” make you even more likely to do that again?
s. Resolving what you would not do in the future (as opposed to what you would) can lead to a "behavioral ironic rebound effect": The present studies tested the effectiveness of implementation intentions with an “if [situation], then not [habitual response]” structure. Based on ironic process theory and the literature on the processing of negations, it was expected that these “negation implementation intentions” would, ironically, strengthen the habit (situation—response association) one aims to break. In line with the hypotheses, forming…
1 min read
