Worth The Effort? Not If You’re Depressed

New research indicates that decreased cravings for pleasure may be at the root of a core symptom of major depressive disorder. The research is in contrast to the long-held notion that those suffering from depression lack the ability to enjoy rewards, rather than the desire to seek them.

By Science Daily

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Playing computer games improves brain power of older adults, claim scientists.

Psychologists discovered that playing video games exercised the mind and improved memory and alertness.

It also reversed “cognitive” decline making the brain more agile, allowing it to carry out and switch between tasks more quickly.

Previous studies have shown that elderly brains improve during the playing of video games but this is the first to prove that the benefits remain for weeks afterwards and can transfer to everyday tasks.

By Richard Alleyne (Telegraph.co.uk)

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Positive Is Negative

Suggested by Pocholo Peralta (Plato On-line)

Despite what all those self-help books say, repeating positive statements apparently does not help people with low self-esteem feel better about themselves. In fact, it tends to make them feel worse, according to new research.

In one of their studies involving 32 male and 36 female psychology students, the researchers found that repeating the phrase did not improve the mood of those who had low self-esteem, as measured by a standard test. They actually ended up feeling worse, and the gap between those with high and low self-esteem widened.

By Shankar Vedantam (Science Digest:Washington Post)

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Teaching the Mind to Treat Insomnia

Changing bad sleep habits and clearing the mind with meditation may offer drug-free alternatives to traditional insomnia treatments.

Two new studies suggest that cognitive behavioral therapy to change people’s attitudes and actions about sleep and using meditation to encourage relaxation can help insomniacs get a better night’s sleep without pills.

By Jennifer Warner (WebMD)

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You Know More than You Think

There is an old saying that two heads are better than one. This saying received empirical support in social psychology in the 1920s, when a series of studies showed that groups were more accurate than their individual members. In an early demonstration of the phenomenon, for example, Columbia University’s Hazel Knight asked students to estimate the temperature in a classroom. When the estimates were averaged together, the resulting group answer was more accurate than the estimate of a typical member.

By Jack Soll and Richard Larrick (Scientific American)

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Brain Games: Do They Really Work?

Do you misplace your keys or regularly miss appointments? Do you often forget the names of people you know well? Do you feel like your memory is slowly getting worse? If so, then you may find yourself considering those brain games advertised everywhere. Sales pitches such as “where the sweat is figurative, but results are real” and “your brain will thank you” are amusingly alluring. But you may find yourself wondering whether they are really worth the time and expense. You shell out the money, play a few rounds and your brain will start spitting out names, dates and pin numbers like you’re 18 again—right?

By P. Murali Doraiswamy and Marc E. Agronin (Scientific American)

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Why is logic relevant to everyday life?

Logic:

* Enables clear thought through a rigorous demand for truthfulness;
* Because thought processes are clarified, the use of logic enables consideration of all available options for opinion and action, and decreases the persuasive power of popular opinion;
* Because available options have been fairly considered, the use of logic increases the likelihood that subsequent opinions and actions will adhere most closely to the truth.
* Adherence to the truth, while sometimes painful, is the human condition more likely to lead to satisfactory outcomes in most situations.
* Therefore, logic’s relevance to everyday life is that its use improves the likelihood of satisfactory outcomes in the day-to-day decisions each person makes.

By WikiAnswers.com

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Thoughts on unconscious perception

Modern studies of consciousness actually date back to the last quarter of the nineteenth century when the comparatively new science of psychology started to emerge from its roots in philosophy and physiology.

By  John Cowley (Helium)

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