CE#612: How far will you go for Fantastic Delites? – Delite-o-matic

CE#509: Internet On, Inhibitions Off: Why We Tell All (WSJ)

It is now well known that people are generally accurate and (sometimes embarrassingly) honest about their personalities when profiling themselves on social-networking sites. Patients are willing to be more open about psychiatric symptoms to an automated online doctor than a real one. Pollsters find that people give more honest answers to an online survey than to one conducted by phone.

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CE#462: A Sequence of Lines Traced by Five Hundred Individuals (vimeo)

CE#460: The 10 “B’s” of a Successful Relationship (Psychology Today)

By Barton Goldsmith, Ph.D.

Created Dec 10 2011 – 3:02pm

Couples in successful relationships have some things in common. Much of the time it’s not about what they do or don’t do, it’s about who they are as people and how they behave with each other. Here are some of the many ways the happiest of couples interact with each other.

1.     Be best friends. Tom Hanks​ and Steven Speilberg​ both say that they are best friends with their wives. People who don’t think that having a best friend as a partner is romantic are usually single and bitter. Having a best friend in your heart and bed is the best part of a loving relationship.

2.     Be able to laugh at yourselves. Having a sense of humor about your life and your relationship is one of the keys to thriving. Life throws us many curves and without the ability to see and appreciate the irony, you could end up hating the world and each other.

3.     Be open to new ideas and experiences. If your partner only wanted to do the things you like to do, life would soon become dull and uninteresting. Having a partner who exposes you to different perspectives and dreams will make your world and soul fulfilled.

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CE#395: The Neuroscience Of Change—Or How To Reset Your Brain (AMEX l Open Forum)

Matthew E. May , Founder, Shibumi Creative Works

July 7, 2011

The mysteries of the mind and brain are many and complex. Neuroscience, through the magic of technology is just beginning to unravel some of them. Given that my livelihood revolves around creativity, I have become fascinated with neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity is the mind’s ability to change the brain. Yes, you read that right. Neuroplasticity radically reverses ages of scientific dogma which held that mental experiences result only from physical goings-on in the brain, and we can’t do much about it. But extensive studies by neuroscientists confirm that our mental machinations do alter the physical structure of our brain matter. So, when you change your mind, you change your brain. This is great news for most of us.

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CE#301: Reaching Life Goals: Which Strategies Work (PsyBlog)

Have a look at this list of 10 common ways you might go about achieving your goals. Most of these should be familiar, but which ones do you think work? More to the point: which ones do or don’t you use?

1. Make a step-by-step plan.
2. Motivate yourself by focusing on someone who has achieved a similar goal.
3. Tell other people about your goal.
4. Think about bad things that will happen if you do not achieve your goal.
5. Think about the good things that will happen if you achieve your goal.
6. Try to suppress unhelpful or negative thoughts about your goal and how to achieve it.
7. Reward yourself for making progress in your goal.
8. Rely on willpower.
9. Record your progress.
10. Fantasize or visualize how great your life will be when you achieve your goal.

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CE#236: Sense of Touch Colors Our View of the World (Science Mag)

The next time you absently palm that paperweight on your desk, ponder this: The physical characteristics of the objects you touch can influence how you perceive the world. Holding a heavy clipboard, for example, may lead you to view a job applicant as more serious. And, according to a new study, running your hand over sandpaper may make you view social interactions as more hostile and competitive.

The idea that our physical environment can influence our thinking—a concept called “embodied cognition”—is not new. In 2008, researchers reported that simply holding a warm cup of coffee prompts us to view others as emotionally warmer. Last year, a separate group found that holding a heavy clipboard makes us perceive social-justice issues as more important: In a theoretical scenario, volunteers holding a heavy clipboard were more likely to support a student grievance with a university committee than were those holding a light clipboard.

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