Highly accomplished and talented people rely heavily on their working memory, a short-term memory system than maintains relevant information in an active state which can be accessed quickly. However, when under pressure, the stress and distractions interfere with their higher working memory and deplete cognitive resources.

Research done by Sian Beilock, Associate Professor of Psychology at the Universtiy of Chicago and presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, shows that when under pressure, talented people end up resorting to the same problem solving techniques used by lower performers. These methods can include guessing and estimating. Use of these strategies undermined the accuracy of those who normally perform at higher levels.

Students participating in the study were given mathematical tests and told they would be paid for right answers - but only if a partner, chosen randomly, also got the right answer. To increase the pressure, students were told their partners had solved the problem correctly.

Adding pressure had no effect on those whose working memory was more limited and their performance was no worse for the added stress. But for those who usually find their superior working memory to be an advantage, the addition of stress to the situation hampered their cognitive performance.

University of Chicago

If you believe you can get smarter, you will. Studies have previously shown that IQ is not fixed but can be influenced by many factors. Home environment, community and education all affect IQ.

Findings of a study on how students views of their intelligence affected their math grades showed that those who believed that intelligence can be developed did in fact improve their math performance.

One study monitored 12 year olds over two years of school. The students who believed that their intelligence could be expanded outperformed those who believed that intelligence is fixed. Over the two years, the difference in performance levels widened, even though both groups had started out on an equal achievement level.

A second study concentrated on students whose math grades were declining. One group was taught that intelligence is not fixed, but expandable. Another group was not told that intelligence could be developed. Both groups went through an 8-session workshop on study skills. The students who were taught that their intelligence could be expanded reversed the decline in their grades in contrast to the second group, whose math grades continued on a downward slope.

Researchers believe that when students believe they are capable of achieving more, they concentrate more on learning and the power of their own effort. The results of the studies indicate that what students believe about intelligence can affect their academic progress and motivation.

The two studies were conducted by researchers at Columbia University and Stanford University, and are published in the January/February 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.

Society for Research in Child Development

Is forgetting what you have learned ever helpful? A study appearing in the January, 2007 issue of Psychological Science says that when it comes to learning a second language, at least in the beginning, the answer is yes.

While learning a new language, our native language words may distract us and inhibit our ability to express thoughts in a new tongue. In the study, University of Oregon psychologist Benjamin Levy and his colleague Dr. Michael Anderson asked native English speakers who had completed at least one year of Spanish to repeatedly name objects in Spanish. The more the students were asked to repeat the Spanish words, the more difficulty they had in producing the corresponding English words for the objects. The more a person immerses in a second language the more the brain inhibits native language - a phenomenon known as first-language attrition - making it possible to forget words one has used all one’s life.

Researchers found that the more fluent bilingual students were less prone to first-language attrition suggesting that the phenomenon assists the brain in the first stages of second language learning but becomes less necessary as the student achieves fluency.

Although the value of suppressing previously learned knowledge to learn new concepts may appear counterintuitive, Levy explains that “first-language attrition provides a striking example of how it can be adaptive to (at least temporarily) forget things one has learned.”

Association for Psychological Science

Three crows jockeyed for the highest perch in an oak tree outside my window yesterday for the better part of the afternoon. Two screamed at a contender who positioned on higher limbs, and the three yelled back relentless caws, to stake their claim on a top branch.

Then this morning, on my drive home a Rotary breakfast meeting,  I heard NPR’s Morning Edition announcer speak of the power of power to alter moods. Studies, for instance, show a marked increased in serotonin, when people gain power.  Good or bad?  You’d likely be interested  to make people drunk.

Have you noticed power’s ability to anger crows or inebriate people?Coincidentally, I dropped into Starbucks for a latte and a New York Times, only to read another “power story.”  Pankaja Mishra’s article titled … “Gaining Power, Losing Values,” claimed that “India, like China, is putting growth ahead of morality.”

What are the benefits or drawbacks of power in your life? Has it changed the way you think or act?

Seems quite a coincidence that within one morning two very different sources pointed to power’s effect in the brain and in people’s lives. What do you think?