Here are five interesting new studies/articles I found on the web recently:
Mobile phone use by adolescents may have a negative impact on the development of figural memory. Figural memory is mainly located in the right brain hemisphere and the association was more pronounced in adolescents using the mobile phone on the right side of the head. Sending text messages, playing games or browsing the Internet were not associated with the development of memory performance.
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"Giving children omega-3 fatty acid supplements reduces disruptive behaviour, which in turn had a positive effect on their parents, making them less likely to argue with each other and engage in other verbal abuse."
How Facebook manipulates you into consuming as much of your time and conscious attention as possible. To learn what truly addicts us to the site, ultimately leaving us feeling unsatisfied, check out this video, which explains the subject in depth.
Here's another study showing that getting better at a brain training game doesn't translate into better performance on other, even similar, tasks. "If you're looking to improve your cognitive self, instead of playing a video game or playing a brain training test for an hour, go for a walk, go for a run, socialize with a friend. These are much better things for you."
Tricking the brain into eating less by serving food on a smaller plate doesn't necessarily work. Rather, "when people are hungry, especially when dieting, they are less likely to be fooled by the plate size, more likely to realize they are eating less and more prone to overeating later."