Monthly Archive for February, 2011
Willpower and Reward Myopia
Don't let the immediate rewards of a bad behavior wash away your better knowledge and values. Prevent your imagination from being hijacked by myopic temptations -- eliminate "reward myopia."For the sake of research and for developing good theories, researchers work with ideas that are boiled down. But what about real life? As we've seen from the my prior posts on the subject of willpower, we can take some very useful measures, and they aren't all the kinds of obvious things that you didn't need research to know.
Too Much Information? – Labeling Restaurant Menus
Information can be a source of learning; but, when there is too much information, or it is not available in a form that can be easily understood and analyzed by the person for whom it is intended, information can be a burden. Or, too much information can simply be ignored in an over-stimulated society. Such seems to be the case when it comes to labeling restaurant menus with nutrition information.
Does This Light Make Me Fat?
In 2003, a group of Italian university scientists and public health officials began sifting through the health records of shift workers at a factory in Apulia, Italy. The scientists had designed a cross-sectional study of 319 male workers with normal glucose and insulin levels, and were looking for metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors. Their study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, showed that workers on the night shift at the factory were significantly more likely to gain weight and show increases in systolic blood pressure than day workers.
Cartoon – Alcohol and Aggression
Judging by all the destruction caused by the test subject, drinking more does make one more aggressive.A recent study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found a positive correlation between alcohol dose and aggression in human subjects. Aggressiveness was measured by shock intensity and duration administered to one's "opponent" in a competitive reaction-time task. The opponents were fictional and no actual shocks were administered. Essentially, the more alcohol one drank, the more frequent and longer shocks they applied. This finding was observed throughout both genders.
Popular Posts
- Mind Games - Science's Attempts at Thought Control
- The Science of Stuttering
- Intelligence - Are You Holding Back Your Brain?
- Risks of Personalized Medicine
- Is Grief a Mental Illness?
- The Brain's Buying Power
- The Cost of a Good Night's Sleep
- Risk Factors for Recurrence of Depression
- Salvia Divinorum - DEA Control over Magic in the Mint
- The Many Emerging Roles of Astrocytes
Future Posts
Latest Posts
- Thinking Fast Equals Risky Business
- A Gateway to Weight Loss?
- Intelligence – Do You Need it to be Successful?
- A Trip for Terminal Patients
- Memory Ain’t What It Used to Be – And That’s Good for Psychotherapy
- The Science of Stuttering
- Are Your Friends Making You Fat?
- Beer – The Smarter Drink
- Macroeconomics and Suicide
- From Nymphomania to Hypersexuality
Comments
- : this is a wonderful; klbgsna n
- Dr. Linda Vu: I consider the plasticity in r
- karir: Hello there, just became aware
- akas: The rate of fashionable experi
- Ryan: Great post! I agree with the p
- : I have used heroin for 20 year
- Lino Baine: I am not aware that people wit
- Lulu Jones: Hmm....this is interesting. I
- Robert A. Yourell, MA: Hi Stephanie...OR they tried a
- Stephnie: Based on the facts in the arti
- Sammy: I was a test subject for one o
- Veronica Pamoukaghlian, MA: Thank you for your insightful
