Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

This Scientific American blog article provides a handy run-down of research findings re: music's effect on the brain, including 1. Musicians are better able to process foreign languages because of their ability to hear differences in pitch, and have incredible abilities to detect speech in noise. Even those w/ a few years of music training showed more robust neural processing of sounds. Music "tones auditory fitness", critical for perceiving speech and distinguishing, recognizing and processing conversation in noisy environments. 2. Musical training and education may confer linguistic, mathematical, and spatial benefits, and promote social development/"team player" capacities.

Benefits of Bilingualism and associated studies are discussed.

The consensus among sociologists and psychologists who study online behavior is that all kinds of people can become trolls-not just the unwound, the immature or the irate. The Internet's anonymity produces the "disinhibition effect," in which "the frequency of self-interested unethical behavior increases among anonymous people." Online communication causes users to feel 'distant' from the people they're speaking to, and less focused on their own identities, resulting in increased aggressive behavior.

Survey results of teens, history, effects, attributed accidents, distractions, etc. of texting and IM

There is a strange little cultural feedback loop that's playing out again and again on social media. It begins with, say, a white American man who becomes interested in taking an outspoken stand against racism or misogyny. This article talks about a certain slang word that has become popular and how this actually has many positive effects.

The effective use of body language plays a key role in communication. Here are ten tips for powerful body language I've learned during the past two decades of coaching teams around the world:

Study finds that positive self talk phrases improve performance, while positive self talk sentences and negative forms of self talk do not improve performance

This advice is really, really helpful. I agree that it's important to focus on something specific that you're passionate about. At the same time, it's hard to expand on this and be detailed/focused throughout the entire essay. I like the advice of being humble and not showing off because the way you write and your topic can tell a lot about who you are as a person.

I think the best bit of information i took from this article, is showing how the struggle of overcoming some great difficulty. On a general sense, if I were to do an essay on some type of failure, I think the best way to continue the essay would be to show how I was able to push past this downfall, and learn from it. It's important to let the reader understand the hardship you went through and show them how you made the best of a seemingly terrible event.

I think this tip sheet really summed up most of the other articles into a concise, helpful article. Overall, I learned that, in terms of the essay, colleges don't really care about any particular achievements. Instead, the colleges are looking at your voice to see what type of person you are. You should stray from writing about others and focus more about your own feelings and thoughts. Finally, college essay readers have seen all of the generic essays before, so there are more pros than cons in taking a risk by saying something controversial.

This was an interesting study I read while doing my research experiment on filler words. It is a similar study however it examines disfluency not only due to filler words but other factors as well.

There are numerous positive effects of writing in a journal. The action of writing our thoughts, ideas and feelings benefits us in numerous aspects of our lives. One benefit of writing in a journal is that is boosts memory and comprehension. This is because there is a relationship between our hands and brains created by writing thoughts and ideas. Words are representation of ideas and the formation of letters causes the mind to compose or re-compose ideas while journaling. The second benefits is emotional, physical and psychological healing. This is because translating an experience into language makes the experience graspable and allows you to free yourself from emotional blockages and lowers anxiety, stress and induces better sleep. These are two out of ten benefits of writing in a journal that is proposed in this article.

How to Use Aristotle's Three Main Rhetorical Styles Rhetoric (n) - the art of speaking or writing effectively. ( Webster's Definition) According to Aristotle, rhetoric is: "the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion." He described three main forms of rhetoric: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos.

The French have gotten themselves into one of their recurrent linguistic lathers, this one over the changes in their spelling that will be taking effect in the fall. The changes were originally proposed more than 25 years ago.

There are ways to reduce your risk of having a stroke - for example, you can exercise more and not smoke. But should a stroke occur, you might also be able to reduce your risk of losing brain function if you are a speaker of more than one language.

Dr. Thomas Bak, one of the study's authors, posits that language learning helps brains build "cognitive reserve": a rich network of neural connections - highways that can can still carry the busy traffic of thoughts even if a few bridges are destroyed, as via a stroke. "People with more mental activities have more interconnected brains, which are able to deal better with potential damage," Bak says. He likens language learning's effect on the brain to swimming's ability to strengthen the body. Learning a language at any stage in life provides a thorough workout, but other cognitive "exercises," such as doing puzzles or playing a musical instrument, might also benefit stroke recovery, he said. The research applies to the larger concept of neuroplasticity, in that the brain is dynamic and can adapt to new challenges when properly conditioned,

A lady contemplates the exponential usage of exclamation points in writing and the effects of such over usage (happy a lot, but over nothing)

Controlling angry people is challenging, but there are several effective anger management strategies you can use to avoid verbal confrontations and protect yourself or the people you love from angry people.

The benefits of MultiTasking along with the benefits of "MonoTasking", or focusing on one task only, along with a few examples on how to effectively use both.

Positive effect of technology on language

Members of Congress are often criticized for what they do - or rather, what they don't do. But what about what they say and, more specifically, how they say it? It turns out that the sophistication of congressional speech-making is on the decline, according to the open government group the Sunlight Foundation.

Here's a follow-up on the same study, examining the speech of Hawaii's senators and representatives: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/157017545.html?id=157017545. U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka speaks at a college sophomore level, according to an analysis of his speeches by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington group that pushes for government transparency. The analysis ranks Akaka in the top five among members of Congress for his use of longer sentences and more complex words. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye isn't far behind. His speeches use words and sentences on the level of a college freshman. U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono speaks at the level of a high school senior, while U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa's speeches are at the high school freshman level, according to the study. Of course, longer sentences and more complex vocabulary use don't necessarily make for better communication, nor indicate effectiveness in re: serving one's constituents.