Yawning to stay awake
Interesting BBC article on some research into yawning:
BBC NEWS | Health | Yawning may keep us ‘on the ball’
Apparently yawning cools down the brain - to help keep us awake and it may be infectious because it is a survival instinct to yawn when you see others yawning - i.e. staying awake and alert.
Tags: off-topic
04.Jul.07 
memory, off-topic, science 
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Are social networks, texting and phones changing our brains?
An article over at CBC refers to some exciting research about how brains may be developing in new ways thanks to new on-line social interactions and dealing with “too much” information:
FTA : “Studies are beginning to show that cellphone-toting execs and Facebook-friendly teens may be multi-tasking their way into taking on even more, by rewiring their brains to handle it.”
Now we have even more reasons to find new ways to support their learning - their brains are different to ours!
07.Jun.07 education, memory, science Comments (0)
Psychological impact of a mobile lifestyle
A recent report has shown that 90% of 12 year old kids in the UK have a mobile phone.
Not a surprising statistic on it’s own but 80% of the children in the survey who have a mobile phone said that they have a better social life.
50% of those questioned admitted to sending and receiving a text during a lesson. They also preferred texting to making a phone call, and send on average 10 texts a day.
Nice statistics, but what can we learn from them. Well certainly the phone is now ubiquitous from the age of 12 upwards. The phone also has a key role in the social life of children.
I’ve looked for further psychological research or evidence to see if anyone is looking into the impact these trends but have none - feedback welcome if you know of some!
BBC NEWS Business Youngsters ‘reliant on mobiles’
19.Sep.06 education, memory, science Comments (0)