Working remotely has become the new normal for many of us—so much so that we may not quite realize what we’re missing. Ben Waber of the workplace analytics firm Humanyze has now quantified one COVID-era casualty: the number of informal conversations we have with coworkers. During the pandemic, Waber found, the average number of co-workers […]
The conversations we’re not having Continue Reading >
“Prospective memory”—the ability to remember to act on our intentions—declines with age. But older people can perform on a par with younger ones when they use their extended minds: that is, when they rely on the external environment to provide cues and reminders. This process is known as “cognitive offloading.” It involves moving the intentions
Learning how to use our extended minds Continue Reading >
In today’s information-saturated workplace, there’s too much knowledge for any one person to keep tabs on. Yet all relevant knowledge must somehow be marshaled and applied in order to accomplish a complex task. The solution to this dilemma lies in creating what psychologists call a “transactive memory system,” in which each person on a team
The importance of knowing what your teammates know Continue Reading >
Many of us have no doubt noticed that if we’re feeling stressed or upset about something, we feel better about it after we exercise. But why would this be? A new study suggests an intriguing answer. Researchers from Beijing Normal University in China tested the theory that engaging in vigorous physical activity improves our capacity
How exercise helps us regulate our emotions Continue Reading >
If you like to read about psychology, you may have encountered the term “theory of mind,” which refers to our ability to think about the mental states of others: their thoughts, feelings, and intentions. But what about having a theory of our own mind? How well do we understand what’s going on in our own
Do you have a theory of your own mind? Continue Reading >
During this pandemic year, we’ve been living as individuals—isolated individuals, practicing personal responsibility, wearing our own masks, washing our own hands. We’ve done this for the good of the collective as well as to preserve our own health—but the “collective” has existed mostly as an abstract idea. What we haven’t experienced in a while is
The joy of letting go of our individuality Continue Reading >
Most all of us are familiar with the novelist John le Carré. How many of us have heard of his wife, Jane Cornwell? Yet Jane was a “crucial, covert collaborator” in the creation of le Carré’s books, writes the couple’s son, Nick, in an essay in the Guardian. Nick’s article is a beautiful portrait
John le Carré didn’t write alone Continue Reading >
Political observers spend a lot of time contemplating how voters think: what they believe, how they can be persuaded. But how about what voters feel—literally, the physical sensations in their bodies? Manos Tsakiris urges us to consider what he calls “visceral politics.” Tsakiris, a psychologist at the University of London, writes in a fascinating new
Politics plays out in the body Continue Reading >
In so many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a disaster for education. But there some ways in which the disruption it has induced has made room for new approaches—within educational systems that are resistant to change in normal times. One of these approaches is bringing bodily movements into the learning process. Javeria Salman
The new appeal of “touchless” games Continue Reading >
Imagine a real-life mind meld, in which one brain communicates directly with another. New advances are making this possible—taking people “beyond the confines of their bodies, creating a sort of extended cognition,” writes Laura Sanders in Science News. She points to the research of neuroscientist Rajesh Rao of the University of Washington. In his lab,
Paying attention, together, changes the way we think Continue Reading >