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Grocery Store Lesson

As a kid, I loved the feeling of confidence that came when my mom handed me a few bucks at the pool and told me I could get what I wanted from the concession stand. Since my main responsibility for the afternoon was to keep the kids occupied, and I was in no rush to [...]

Culture | Nature | Psychology | Science

Research Shows That the Smarter People Are, the More Susceptible They Are to Cognitive Bias

Perhaps our most dangerous bias is that we naturally assume that everyone else is more susceptible to thinking errors, a tendency known as the “bias blind spot.” This “meta-bias” is rooted in our ability to spot systematic mistakes in the decisions of others—we excel at noticing the flaws of friends—and inability to spot those same [...]

Culture | Cyberculture | Essays | Media | Nature | Psychology | Social_Software | Technology

We’re Creating a Culture of Distraction

I’d argue that what’s happening is that we’re becoming like the mal-formed weight lifter who trains only their upper body and has tiny little legs. We’re radically over-developing the parts of quick thinking, distractable brain and letting the long-form-thinking, creative, contemplative, solitude-seeking, thought-consolidating pieces of our brain atrophy by not using them. And, to me, [...]

Culture | Personal | Psychology | Science

The Importance of Mind-Wandering

When I am insanely busy during the academic year, I relish the time before I fall asleep, as time I can think about anything at all. If it’s productive and interesting, I’ll stay awake. If not, well, then I won’t waste much time before I conk out.

In an attempt to carve out enouth time [...]

Culture | Education | Ethics | Games | History | Psychology | Rhetoric

Teaching the Holocaust or slavery: Is role playing effective or fraught with problems?

A middle school teacher in South Carolina has been accused of dragging a student under a table during class, telling the boy “this is what the Nazis do to Jews,” police said Monday.

The 12-year-old student said he got up to sharpen a pencil at Bluffton Middle School on Wednesday when Patricia Mulholland grabbed him [...]

Academia | Design | Education | Media | Psychology | Science

Khan Academy and the Effectiveness of Science Videos – YouTube

Interesting implications for the flipped classroom. If students think they already understand something, they’ll tune out of a video lecture.

Students watched a science video they frequently described as “clear,” but in a post-test it turns out the video had actually confirmed their incorrect assumptions.

When students watched a second video that first presented and [...]

Culture | Humanities | Literature | Psychology | Science | Writing

The Neuroscience of Your Brain On Fiction

The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated. Keith Oatley, an emeritus professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto (and a published novelist), has proposed that reading produces a vivid [...]

Cyberculture | Essays | Philosophy | Psychology | Social_Software | Technology

‘Plug In Better’: A Manifesto – Alexandra Samuel – Technology – The Atlantic

And it’s easier to avoid what is, to many, a very painful truth: Going offline is no longer a realistic option. Sure, we can unplug for an hour, a day, or even a week, but it’s not like you can permanently shut off the challenges of our online existence. The offline world is now utterly [...]

Games | Psychology | Science

NBA Players Scoff at Mathematical Model Suggesting When to Shoot

Interesting application of math to sports.

In analyzing teams’ shot quality, shot rates and shot percentages, Skinner found that the average NBA squad has a 4 percent probability of shooting the ball when left with 15 seconds on the shot clock in their final possession. The ideal rate is 12 percent.

Skinner didn’t offer guidelines [...]

Culture | Design | Ethics | Games | Literature | Psychology

The heroine’s journey

Near the end of a review of a time-management game, Emily Short offers some fairly brilliant narratological observations. A Little Princess and Jane Eyre – and buckets of other classic and semi-classic literature for young women — revolve around the idea of patient, perennial self-sacrifice and obedience as a way of life, with the hope [...]