On:

IF you’re a supertasker – Psychologists have found a small group of people with an extraordinary ability to multitask: Unlike almost everyone they’ve studied, they can safely drive while chatting on a cell phone (although it’s against the LAW in some places)!

These “supertaskers” are only 2.5% of the population, but they are able to successfully do 2 things at once: in this case, talk on a cell phone while operating a driving simulator without noticeable impairment.
read more

On:

Better to just LISTEN – Most of the time research is important, but sometimes it’s not. For instance, to fully enjoy your next trip to the symphony, you may want to listen to the music before you read the notes provided in the program. Research results suggest that reading program notes before hearing music can significantly lessen a listener’s enjoyment!

Music theorist Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis explains: “Listeners are less likely to simply let the music wash over them if they have read a description–they are more likely to listen in terms of the concepts just encountered.” She says that struggling to listen conceptually may inhibit a sense of flow, which studies have shown to be critical to many types of musical enjoyment.
read more

On:

It’s really true! – Old people (with gray hair) have bad memories, right? It’s not as simple as that. A new study has found evidence that the older brain’s weakened ability to filter out irrelevant information may actually give aging adults an ADVANTAGE over their younger people: It may be what’s behind what we call wisdom.

Aging is associated with a decreased ability to tune out irrelevant information, which may be one of the sources of older folks’ memory problems. Now scientists have discovered that when older adults “hyper-encode” extraneous information (most of the time without even knowing they’re doing it), they have the unique ability to tie it to other information that is appearing at the same time.
read more

On:

No? Here’s why not – Guess what’s due on April 15? A scientist is trying to figure this out why some people put off filing their taxes until the last minute.

Psychologist Joseph Ferrari says, “Everyone procrastinates, but not everyone is a procrastinator. We all put tasks off, but my research has found that 20% of US men and women are chronic procrastinators. They delay at home, work, school and in relationships. These 20% make procrastination their way of life, so of course they procrastinate when filing their income taxes. We are a nation of ‘doers’ but we are also, like people from other industrialized nations, a people of ‘waiters.'”
read more