psychological

Marshmallow Test with a twist: 3- and 4‑year-olds kids display more self-control when their reputation is at stake

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Chil­dren Will Wait to Impress Others—Another Twist on the Clas­sic Marsh­mal­low Test (Asso­ci­a­tion for Psy­cho­log­i­cal Science):

If you asked peo­ple to name a famous psy­chol­o­gy study, the “marsh­mal­low test” would prob­a­bly come out near the top of the list. In this task, young chil­dren are told they can imme­di­ate­ly get a small reward (one marsh­mal­low) or wait to get a big­ger reward (two marsh­mal­lows) [Read more…] about Marsh­mal­low Test with a twist: 3- and 4‑year-olds kids dis­play more self-con­trol when their rep­u­ta­tion is at stake

Five reasons to welcome Digital Mental Health innovations

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Map­ping out the Men­tal Health start­up ecosys­tem (Medi­um):

“Today, 1 in 5 peo­ple have a diag­nos­able men­tal ill­ness, and 1 in 20 peo­ple have dif­fi­cul­ty lead­ing their every­day life due to men­tal ill­ness. How­ev­er before even talk­ing about the preva­lence of the issue?…one must real­ize how inef­fec­tive the cur­rent infra­struc­ture is. Here are some of the most mind-blow­ing find­ings: [Read more…] about Five rea­sons to wel­come Dig­i­tal Men­tal Health innovations

Growing research aims at helping cancer patients in distress access most-likely-to-help self-care options, from Mindfulness training to Web-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

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Cred­it: UCIrvine/flickr , CC BY-NC-ND

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Mind­ful­ness in can­cer treat­ment: time to stop and think (The Conversation):

“Breathe deeply and focus on the moment: mind­ful­ness now appears every­where as a tech­nique to improve well-being, includ­ing in health care.

Mind­ful­ness train­ing is often sug­gest­ed for can­cer patients to reduce high lev­els of anx­i­ety and dis­tress asso­ci­at­ed with diag­no­sis, treat­ment and antic­i­pa­tion of pos­si­ble dis­ease recur­rence. But two ques­tions per­sist: does mind­ful­ness work and, if so, for whom? [Read more…] about Grow­ing research aims at help­ing can­cer patients in dis­tress access most-like­ly-to-help self-care options, from Mind­ful­ness train­ing to Web-based cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py (CBT)

Tailoring computing experience based on user’s mental state and quality of attention: Key neurotechnology patent #30

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Automated selection
– Illus­tra­tive image from U.S. Patent No. 7,395,507

Today we high­light a fas­ci­nat­ing 2008 patent assigned to Microsoft, dis­cussing assess­ment tech­niques such as pupil track­ing or head ori­en­ta­tion sen­sors to iden­ti­fy where and what the user is focused on–and what types of  infor­ma­tion and/ or noti­fi­ca­tions to dis­play accordingly.

U.S. Patent No. 7,395,507: Auto­mat­ed selec­tion of appro­pri­ate infor­ma­tion based on a com­put­er user’s context.

  • Assignee(s): Microsoft Corporation
  • Inventor(s): James O. Robarts, Dan Newell, Ken­neth H. Abbott
  • Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Neuro-monitoring
  • Issue Date: July 1, 2008

SharpBrains’ Take:

The ‘507 patent dis­clos­es meth­ods for assess­ing a user’s men­tal state and more broad­ly the user’s con­text, to dis­cern whether or not to present the users with a mes­sage (e.g., an adver­tise­ment). [Read more…] about Tai­lor­ing com­put­ing expe­ri­ence based on user’s men­tal state and qual­i­ty of atten­tion: Key neu­rotech­nol­o­gy patent #30

Study debunks the “earlier is always better” myth about brain development and cognitive training

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teenagers_collegeGood News: You’ve Got a Bet­ter Brain Than You Think (Time):

“Get­ting old­er? No worries…When does our learn­ing poten­tial start to go soft? A new paper pub­lished in Psy­cho­log­i­cal Sci­ence sug­gests that it might be lat­er than we thought. [Read more…] about Study debunks the “ear­li­er is always bet­ter” myth about brain devel­op­ment and cog­ni­tive training

Adding mindfulness to the PTSD therapist’s toolkit

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mindfulness_ptsd—–

Sol­diers who return home in casts and cas­kets are not the only ones struck down by the trau­ma of war. Many young mil­i­tary men and women car­ry emo­tion­al wounds far beyond the bat­tle­field in the form of post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der (PTSD). This [Read more…] about Adding mind­ful­ness to the PTSD therapist’s toolkit