Hot MedFax

So you're smiling pretty smugly because you just remembered where you saw that woman who said hello to you.  But guess what?  Having a great memory may just make you tire of experiences more quickly. Huh? "People with larger working memory capacities actually encode information more deeply," newswise.com quotes Noelle Nelson, lead author of this research published in the Journal of Consumer Research . "They remember more details about the things they've experienced, and that leads them to feel like they've had it more. That feeling then leads to the large capacity people getting tired of experiences faster." The new study provides a window into how memory could be the key to becoming satiated, especially on products or habits they hope to quit, such as eating unhealthy foods. "Our findings suggest that if they can enhance their memory for the other times they've eaten these foods, they may feel satiated and then not seek out th...

I admit it. I can't stand to see my child lose .  Whether it's a team sport or a grade, I can't stand to see him feel like he's a loser. I suppose I'm not a very good parent. Because experts say that, while you may think letting your preschooler win at Go Fish builds self-confidence, you could actually be doing your child a disservice. When young kids experience “illusory success” related to a particular task, their ability to formulate and act on judgments they make about their own performance suffers. As a result, the children may become conditioned to ignore valuable information they could use in future decision-making. It turns out that we're not really helping them to try to help them succeed at everything. My son, who, as I've mentioned before, is a bit of a nerd, never did well at sports.  I still remember him crying as he ran down the soccer field in preschool because he so didn't want to be there (go figure, he now plays soccer ev...

OK, so it's almost Thanksgiving and stories about gratitude abound. But here's a new one, at least to me. We all know that giving is better than receiving, right?  But what if you're giving an experience rather than an  XBox1 Virtual  Reality headset. People are more grateful for what they’ve done than what they have, and that gratitude can lead to greater generosity toward others, according to new research, newswise.com reports. The new study found that feelings of gratitude develop more often when people reflect on experiential purchases, such as vacations or tickets to events, than when they reflect on gadgets, furniture or clothes they’ve purchased. Reflecting on gratifying experiences also leads to more subsequent altruistic behavior than thinking about significant material possessions, the researchers found. In other words, when people are grateful for experiences, they treat the other people better as well. “We know a sense of gratitude carries...

I didn't listen much to my mother when I was growing up.  Nobody does. But now it's turning out that people in their 60s may actually benefit from giving advice.  Maybe that's why our moms did. A new study , however, also found that few people are willing to receive it. Bingo! The new study reveals that individuals in their 60s who give advice to a broad range of people tend to see their lives as especially meaningful, according to newswise.com. At the same time, this happens to be the age when opportunities for dispensing advice become increasingly scarce.  “This association between advice giving and life meaning is not evident for other age groups,” says Markus H. Schafer, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto and the lead author of the study. “Overall, we interpret these findings to suggest that the developmental demands of late midlife—particularly the desire to contribute to others’ welfare and the fear of feeling ‘stagna...

It's pretty much the same old story. But it's still a good one. Live in the moment.  But now researchers say it will help with motivation , too. Their point?  Enjoy the task at hand, according to newswise.com.  A new study from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business finds people value having a positive experience when they are in the middle of an activity, although this matters less to them before or after they start the activity. For example, people value that their work is engaging more when in the middle of a current job then when thinking about future work.  Because when people look forward to or back on an activity, they tend to underestimate how important it is to actually enjoy doing it, people also underestimate in advance how much the presence or absence of a positive experience will influence their persistence on a task. And further, people may come to regret selecting activities that provide a less enjoyable experience when th...

Did you know that all it takes for you to want to do something for someone else is to feel awe? That’s according to a new study , as reported by newswise.com.   Awe can inspire altruism. Say what?    Inducing a sense of awe in people can promote altruistic, helpful and positive social behavior according to research published by the American Psychological Association. " By diminishing the emphasis on the individual self, awe may encourage people to forgo strict self-interest to improve the welfare of others," says Paul Piff, PhD, assistant professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Irvine. So does that mean if we go on a tour of the Grand Canyon, we'll want to pay for dinner for all the others in the group?  Well, not exactly. What is awe?  Different things to different people.  I've experienced it as a double rainbow through the window of a restaurant where I was eating with my young son (h...

So you make your son practice the violin for two hours every day after school.  Your daughter takes tennis lessons four times a week.  And you've done the Iron Man twice but still can't run a mile faster than nine minutes. A new study has found, alas, that you can practice all you want, but if you don't have it, you'll never be the next Nadal.   Or even the next Djokovic.  "Some people are really just naturals who have the capacity to make the leap from good to great," writes David Worthington at smartplanet.com. "The evidence is quite clear that some people do reach an elite level of performance without copious practice, while other people fail to do so despite copious practice," Michigan State psychology professor Zach Hambrick said in a  press release . Hambrick found, studying chess players and musicians, that rigorous practice only accounted for a third of skill level differences, while innate ability, age and intelligence helped people mak...