In a world of open-office plans and bustling coffee shops, the ability to focus on a difficult task while ignoring background noise is a vital professional skill. A study from researchers at the University of Helsinki and University of Turku explores how our brains achieve ‘cognitive control’ by both guiding task performance while at the […]
Read More… from Why Background Chatter Drains Your Brainpower
Karpicke and Blunt’s paper challenges the prevailing educational focus on encoding knowledge, often overlooking the critical role of retrieval processes. Traditional views suggest retrieval merely measures what has been learned, without actively contributing to learning itself. However, this research demonstrates that retrieval practice the act of actively recalling and reconstructing knowledge—is a more potent learning […]
Read More… from Retrieval Practice Outperforms Elaborative Studying
Neurodivergent diagnoses, from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism to mental illness challenges, are rapidly increasing. While organizations are making efforts to welcome neurodivergent individuals as employees, there remains a significant disparity in their labour force participation compared to their neurotypical counterparts. One UK study focuses on the in-work experience of neurodivergent employees, exploring […]
Read More… from Proactive Caring Enhances Work Experience of Neurodivergent Employees
After we have finished a compelling book or a film, the narrative of the story will linger in our minds. This lingering is involuntary: we do not choose or decide to think about the story. Emotional experiences and social interactions, research has shown, have the same lingering impact after their occurrence. A study by a […]
Read More… from Making Messages Linger with Thought-Provoking Stories
Many studies have confirmed the importance of sleep on our cognitive functions — our ability to think clearly and work productively. While previous studies use self-report surveys or a laboratory context to gather data, a new MIT study collected data on sleep and its benefits through fitbit devices worn throughout an entire semester by 88 […]
Read More… from The Personal and Productivity Benefits of Sleep
The digital native is a myth, according to an extensive review of the research by by Paul Kirschner of Open University of the Netherlands and Pedro de Bruyckere of Artevelde University in Ghent, Belgium. Writing in Teaching and Teacher Education journal, Kirschner and Bruyckere argue that multiple academic studies in multiple countries show repeatedly that […]
Read More… from Digital Natives and Multi-tasking Proficiency Are Harmful Myths
Cell phones can be distracting when you’re trying to work. If the phone rings, you’ll stop what you’re doing to answer it. If you hear the ping of a new email, you’ll check the message. Academic research has confirmed that having and attending to a cell phone during the completion of a task reduces productivity. […]
Read More… from Brain Drain: How Cell Phones Distract Customer Attention
All of us belong to certain social groups in society. Our ‘social identities’ are based on these groups, which can involve gender, nationality, profession, heritage, political affiliation, hobby or family roles, to name a few. Thus, a person might identify herself as an Italian-American female lawyer, devoted wife and mother, committed Republican and runner. There […]
Michael Porter gave us a process for strategy development. It was a very cognitive process (i.e., using conscious mental activities such as thinking, understanding, learning, remembering) that followed prescribed steps: gather the right data, avoid biases, and choose activities that differentiate the firm from competitors. There is one problem with the cognitive development of strategy: […]
Read More… from Why the Best Strategic Thinkers Are Both Rational and Emotional
The AIDA model of advertising identifies Attention, Interest, Desire and Action as key to the effectiveness of an advert. In order to measure the physiology behind advertising effectiveness, a research team used experiments involving public service announcements (PSAs) and focused specifically on the attention and action components of the model. PSAs are good foundations for […]
Read More… from Neurobiological Clues to Advertising Effectiveness
