Shape your environment, shape your mind

By Greater Good Science Center | April 23, 2021

One of the biggest con­trib­u­tors to our hap­pi­ness is some­thing we bare­ly pay atten­tion to: the voice inside our own heads. As psy­chol­o­gist Ethan Kross describes in his new book Chat­ter, that voice is con­stant­ly ana­lyz­ing the sit­u­a­tions we’re in, reflect­ing on the past and future, and telling us who we are. While some­times friend­ly and…

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Can You Outsmart Your Genes? An Interview with Author Richard Nisbett

By David DiSalvo | June 12, 2009

While the debate over intel­li­gence rages on many fronts, the bat­tle over the impor­tance of hered­i­ty rages loud­est. It’s easy to see why. If the camp that argues intel­li­gence is 75 to 85 per­cent genet­i­cal­ly deter­mined is cor­rect, then we’re faced with some tough ques­tions about the role of edu­ca­tion. If intel­li­gence is improved very…

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Change Your Environment, Change Yourself

By Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D. | March 20, 2009 |

(Edi­tor’s note: one of the most com­mon ene­mies of get­ting qual­i­ty cog­ni­tive exer­cise is being on “men­tal autopi­lot”. I recent­ly came across an excel­lent new book, titled The Dai­ly Trad­ing Coach: 101 Lessons for Becom­ing Your Own Trad­ing Psy­chol­o­gist, by trad­ing per­for­mance expert Dr. Brett Steen­barg­er, which explic­it­ly calls for address­ing the “men­tal autopi­lot” problem…

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Epigenetics: Nature vs. Nurture?

By Alvaro Fernandez | October 19, 2008 |

In yes­ter­day’s inter­view with Michael Pos­ner, he says: — “There is a grow­ing num­ber of stud­ies that show the impor­tance of inter­ac­tion between our genes and each of our envi­ron­ments. Epi­ge­net­ics is going to help us under­stand that ques­tion bet­ter, but let me share a very inter­est­ing piece of research from my lab where we found…

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Cognitive, Brain News RoundUp

By Alvaro Fernandez | April 18, 2008

Inter­est­ing recent news: 1) A Par­a­digm Shift in Genet­ics (Philadel­phia Inquir­er) 2)  Con­fer­ence on Brain Devel­op­ment and Learn­ing: Mak­ing Sense of the Sci­ence (thanks Pete) 3) 1 in 5 vet­er­ans found with men­tal dis­or­der (Boston Globe) 4) Com­mon Med­ica­tions May Harm Mem­o­ry in Old­er Peo­ple (U.S. News & World Report) 5) Men More Like­ly to Devel­op Cog­ni­tive Prob­lems (Forbes) For more…

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Peace Among Primates- by Robert Sapolsky

By Greater Good Science Center | April 5, 2008 |

(Edi­tor’s Note: One of the most orig­i­nal minds we have ever encoun­tered is that of Robert Sapol­sky, the Stan­­ford-based neu­ro­sci­en­tist, pri­ma­tol­o­gist, author of A Pri­mate’s Mem­oir, and more. We high­ly rec­om­mend most of his books. Above all, for any­one inter­est­ed in brain health, this is a must read and very fun: Why Zebras Don’t Get…

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