Can We Learn To Forget Our Memories?
Around 10 years ago, Malcolm MacLeod got interested in forgetting. For most people, the tendency to forget is something we spend our time cursing. Where are my keys? What am I looking for in the...
View ArticleTeachers' Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform
In my Morning Edition story today, I look at expectations — specifically, how teacher expectations can affect the performance of the children they teach.
View ArticleCharming, Cold: Does Presidential Personality Matter?
As part of NPR's coverage of this year's presidential election, All Things Considered asked three science reporters to weigh in on the race. The result is a three-part series on the science of...
View ArticleJersey Shore Storm Survivors Face Uncertain Future
The barrier islands off the coast of New Jersey were hit hard by Superstorm Sandy, and for the moment, most residents are banned from living in their homes because the area is far too damaged. Which is...
View ArticleStruggle For Smarts? How Eastern And Western Cultures Tackle Learning
In 1979, when Jim Stigler was still a graduate student at the University of Michigan, he went to Japan to research teaching methods and found himself sitting in the back row of a crowded fourth-grade...
View ArticleGive And Take: How The Rule Of Reciprocation Binds Us
In 1974, Phillip Kunz and his family got a record number of Christmas cards. In the weeks before Christmas they came daily, sometimes by the dozen. Kunz still has them in his home, collected in an old...
View ArticleWeekend Vote Will Bring Controversial Changes To Psychiatrists' Bible
This weekend, 20 people from around the country will meet in a nondescript hotel room in Arlington, Va., and take a vote. A passing stranger who stumbled on this group wouldn't see much of anything,...
View ArticleShootings Leave Sandy Hook Survivors Rethinking The Odds
About a month ago, Declan Procaccini's 10-year-old son woke him early in the morning in a fright."He came into my bedroom and said, 'Dad, I had a horrible, horrible dream!'" Procaccini says. "He was...
View ArticleMercy For Robots? Experiment Tests How Humans Relate To Machines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kf9coMuVuI
View ArticleWhy Even Radiologists Can Miss A Gorilla Hiding In Plain Sight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
View ArticleTo Spot Kids Who Will Overcome Poverty, Look At Babies
Why do some children who grow up in poverty do well, while others struggle?To understand more about this, a group of psychologists recently did a study.It began in a small spare room where a series of...
View ArticleNew Voices For The Voiceless: Synthetic Speech Gets An Upgrade
Ever since she was a small child, Samantha Grimaldo has had to carry her voice with her.Grimaldo was born with a rare disorder, Perisylvian syndrome, which means that though she's physically capable in...
View ArticleMining Books To Map Emotions Through A Century
Were people happier in the 1950s than they are today? Or were they more frustrated, repressed and sad?To find out, you'd have to compare the emotions of one generation to another.
View ArticleWould Angry Teens Chill Out If They Saw More Happy Faces?
All day long we're surrounded by faces. We see them on the subway sitting two by two, pass them on the sidewalk as we make our way to work, then nod to them in the elevator.But most of those faces...
View ArticleBoston Blasts Remind Us Of Fragility Of Life
From the first explosion in Boston on Monday to the second, just 15 seconds elapsed. And in those 15 seconds, three people were mortally wounded, including an 8-year-old boy.
View ArticleBig Sibling's Big Influence: Some Behaviors Run In The Family
Patricia East is a developmental psychologist who began her career working at an OB-GYN clinic in California.
View ArticleIf Your Shrink Is A Bot, How Do You Respond?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejczMs6b1Q4
View ArticleWhen Memories Never Fade, The Past Can Poison The Present
On Feb. 21, Alexandra Wolff ate steak, mashed potatoes and broccoli for dinner. Later that night, sitting in her room, she spent 20 minutes scanning pictures in InStyle magazine.She remembers those...
View ArticleSo You Think You're Smarter Than A CIA Agent
The morning I met Elaine Rich, she was sitting at the kitchen table of her small town home in suburban Maryland trying to estimate refugee flows in Syria.It wasn't the only question she was...
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