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Tero Toivanen

Memory Improved 20% by Nature Walk « PsyBlog - 0 views

www.spring.org.uk/...improved-20-by-nature-walk.php

psyblog Memory Improved Nature Walk

shared by Tero Toivanen on 06 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Marc G. Berman and colleagues at the University of Michigan wanted to test the effect of a walk’s scenery on cognitive function (Berman, Jonides & Kaplan, 2008; PDF).
  • In the first of two studies participants were given a 35 minute task involving repeating loads of random numbers back to the experimenter, but in reverse order.
  • The results showed that people’s performance on the test improved by almost 20% after wandering amongst the trees. By comparison those subjected to a busy street did not reliably improve on the test.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • In the second study participants weren’t even allowed to leave the lab but instead some stared at pictures of natural scenes while others looked at urban environments. The improvements weren’t quite as impressive as the first study, but, once again, the trees and fields beat the roads and lampposts.
  • These results replicated a previous study by Berto (2005) who found that just viewing pictures of natural scenes had a restorative effect on cognitive function.
  • So just as we might have predicted nature is a kind of natural cognitive enhancer, helping our brain let off steam so it can cruise back up to full functioning.
  • When our minds need refreshing and if natural scenery is accessible, we should take the opportunity. If not then just looking at pictures of nature is a reasonable second best.
  • Tero Toivanen on 06 Mar 09
     
    New study finds that short-term memory is improved 20% by walking in nature, or even just by looking at an image of a natural scene.
Tero Toivanen

Cognitive Daily: A quick eye-exercise can improve your performance on memory tests (but... - 1 views

scienceblogs.com/...ick_eye-exercise_can_impro.php

memory

shared by Tero Toivanen on 18 Apr 09 - Cached
  • If you're taking a test of rote memorization, like words from a list, move your eyes from side to side for about 30 seconds before you start.
  • It may be that this quick activity helps facilitate interaction between the brain hemispheres.
  • any activity that encourages communication between the hemispheres is likely to increase recall.
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  • people who have poorer interactions between the hemispheres should benefit more than others. Who has less interactions between hemispheres? People who are strongly right-handed.
  • Strongly right-handed students remembered significantly more words if they moved their eyes compared to keeping their eyes still. Non-strongly-right-handed students (including left-handers) remembered the same number of words regardless of whether they moved their eyes before the test.
  • strongly right-handed students had significantly fewer false alarms after they moved their eyes back and forth. But for non-strongly-right-handed people, the reverse occurred; moving their eyes caused them to falsely remember more words. So overall, while the eye-saccade exercise helped right-handers, for lefties and for those who didn't have a strongly dominant hand, the exercise actually harmed their performance.
  • You might think that only side-to-side movement would improve performance, but Lyle's team found that moving your eyes up and down caused the same effect.
  • researchers say that other studies have shown that any eye movements increase bilateral activity in the frontal eye field, so it's still possible that hemispheric connectivity can explain the improved performance after eye movements.
  • So why doesn't the exercise work the same way for left-handers? Left handers (and ambidextrous individuals) already have a high level of hemispheric connectivity. Lyle's team speculates that there might be such a thing as too much connectivity, which results in a decrease in performance.
Stanley Bishop

The Reliable Sleep Apnea Home Test - 1 views

Because I used to snore hard, my wife insisted that I should see a doctor to make sure that this snoring problem will not lead to a more serious health concern. However, going to a doctor is the la...

started by Stanley Bishop on 17 Oct 12 no follow-up yet
Tero Toivanen

Creativity and the Aging Brain | Psychology Today Blogs - 0 views

blogs.psychologytoday.com/...creativity-and-the-aging-brain

creativity aging brain

shared by Tero Toivanen on 03 Apr 09 - Cached
  • So instead of promoting retirement at age 65, perhaps we as a society should be promoting transition at age 65: transition into a creative field where our growing resource of individuals with aging brains can preserve their wisdom in culturally-valued works of art, music, or writing.
  • Numerous studies suggest that highly creative individuals also employ a broadened rather than focused state of attention. This state of widened attention allows the individual to have disparate bits of information in mind at the same time. Combining remote bits of information is the hallmark of the creative idea.
  • Other studies show that certain areas of the prefrontal cortex involved in self-conscious awareness and emotions are thinner in the aging brain. This may correlate with the diminished need to please and impress others, which is a notable characteristic of both aging individuals and creative luminaries.
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  • Finally, intelligence studies indicate that older individuals have access to an increasing store of knowledge gained over a lifetime of learning and experience. Combining bits of knowledge into novel and original ideas is what the creative brain is all about.
  • Tero Toivanen on 03 Apr 09
     
    The aging brain resembles the creative brain in several ways. For instance, the aging brain is more distractible and somewhat more disinhibited than the younger brain (so is the creative brain). Aging brains score better on tests of crystallized IQ (and creative brains use crystallized knowledge to make novel and original associations).
my serendipities

Mind - How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...06mind.html

psychology science learning behavior

shared by my serendipities on 10 Oct 09 - Cached
  • my serendipities on 10 Oct 09
     
    "Researchers have long known that people cling to their personal biases more tightly when feeling threatened. After thinking about their own inevitable death, they become more patriotic, more religious and less tolerant of outsiders, studies find. When insulted, they profess more loyalty to friends - and when told they've done poorly on a trivia test, they even identify more strongly with their school's winning teams. #implicit learning: k. gained without awareness #rain-imaging studies of people evaluating anomalies, or working out unsettling dilemmas, show that activity in an area called the anterior cingulate cortex spikes significantly. The more activation is recorded, the greater the motivation or ability to seek and correct errors in the real world #disorientation begets creative thinking. "
mahtabalam93

Diagnostic Tests for Depression | How to Get an Accurate Diagnosis of Clinical Depressi... - 0 views

www.scientificworldinfo.com/...is-of-clinical-depression.html

psychology mental-health diagnosis depression

shared by mahtabalam93 on 07 Sep 19 - No Cached
  • mahtabalam93 on 07 Sep 19
     
    If you plan to go to the doctor to talk about depression, here, we have discussed diagnostic tests for depression that your doctor will ask you to take.
Meredith Blige

Effective Solution to Snoring Problem - 1 views

I have been snoring for almost a year now and my wife is constantly complaining about it. Since I cannot point out the exact reason that causes this problem, I went to our resident doctor for consu...

sleep apnea symptoms

started by Meredith Blige on 15 Dec 11 no follow-up yet
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