First Psychology blog

A recent study from the Mayo Clinic suggests that both mental and physical exercise can lower the risk of memory loss. Following on from our blogs on dementia here are some tips, supported by psychological research, on ways to improve our memory. Write about your problems – by writing for 20 minutes, a few times a month, about something traumatic that has happened to you, a study by Yogo & Fujuhara (2008) showed that participants’ working memory improved after five weeks.  Look at a natural scene – by walking among the trees in an arboretum, participants’ in Berman, Jonides & Kaplan’s (2008) study, did 20% better on a memory test than those who went for a walk around busy streets. Even looking at pictures of nature, it seems, can have a beneficial effect.  Say it out loud – MacLeod et al . (2010) found saying words aloud or even mouthing them led to a 10% improvement in memory.  Meditate – Zeidan et al . (2010) found meditating for four sessions of 20 ...

Dementia is a term used to define a set of symptoms, such as memory loss, mood changes, problems with communication, reasoning and performing everyday tasks, which result from damage to the brain caused most commonly by Alzheimer’s disease. Over time, these symptoms gradually worsen, but the rate of progression, and the experience of dementia varies from individual to individual. As we age, our risk of dementia grows and so investigation into the prevention of dementia is becoming increasingly important. Research has shown those who remain more mentally active throughout their lives are at lower risk of cognitive impairment or dementia. These findings have led researchers to promote the idea of ‘use it or lose it’ and to advise individuals, particularly the elderly, to exercise their brains to preserve mental skills. Furthermore, although it may make foreign travel easier, speaking more than one language, according to research, published by Cell Press in the journal Trends in Cognitive...

Given the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recent estimate that dementia numbers are expected to triple throughout the world by 2015, from 35.6 million to 115 million, it seems fitting to highlight Dementia Awareness Week taking place in England, Northern Ireland and Wales from 20-26 May this year and in Scotland on 18 June. The need for this awareness is further emphasised by the figure of $604 million –  the amount predicted to be spent each year on treating individuals with dementia. This includes loss of income of those who have given up work to care for loved ones with dementia. According to WHO and Alzheimer's Disease International, programs to tackle dementia (only currently undertaken in eight countries) should focus on improving early diagnosis, public awareness about dementia, support for caregivers and reducing the stigma associated with dementia. Unfortunately, health care workers are often insufficiently trained to detect dementia. Only one in five of all dementia cas...

The theme for this year's International Day of Families, which is celebrated globally on 15 May, is ‘Ensuring a work family balance’. In the first of two blogs on the topic, we are going to examine how to get the work part of this balance right. Work, however much you enjoy it, can have a nasty habit of coming home with you like an uninvited guest and robbing your loved ones of quality time. Below are some tips on how to leave work at work: Release nagging, work-related thoughts – acknowledge your thoughts, notice if there is anything deeper behind them, label your thoughts (write them down if it helps) and then let them go. Begin and end the process by focusing on your breath and the sounds you hear.  Unravel like a thread from your job-related stress – imagine you're unwinding your list of worries, distancing yourself from any nagging thoughts about outstanding work, and freeing yourself from these thoughts with each rotation of the spool. Today there is no work, but tomo...

The ability to communicate clearly is something we often take for granted. However, one in six people in the UK experience some form of hearing loss, which means we may be excluding people and making their lives more difficult without realising it. Deaf Awareness Week from 7-13 May aims to raise awareness and understanding of different types of deafness by highlighting the different methods of communication used by deaf and hard of hearing people. Communicating with someone who is deaf doesn't have to be hard, it just takes time and patience to make sure it is undertaken in the individuals’ preferred method and that above all, it is effective. Hearing aids can help but they don’t restore hearing perfectly and so the wearer may rely on lipreading. People born profoundly deaf often use sign language as their means of communication and often can’t lipread or understand written English - sign language is structured in a completely different way to English. Tips to help improve communic...

Continuing on from our last blog on flow, we are most likely to find it, it seems, when we are faced with a task that has a clear goal or when our skills are fully immersed in completing a task which is challenging, but attainable.  If our task is too easy, flow can be restored by increasing its difficulty but if it’s too great a challenge, acquiring new skills can help us to resume this state of flow. Flow can occur in all aspects of life, but is particularly useful for enhancing performance in the following areas: Education - overlearning a skill or concept can help us experience flow, as can stretching ourselves beyond our current level of ability. Sports - engaging in a challenging athletic activity that is achievable but that, once again, slightly stretches our ability, can help us reach flow. Flow enables athletes to gain a sense of mastery of their performance and lose any self-consciousness they may feel. Work – allowing ourselves to completely focus on a task or project...

Have you ever been so immersed in what you’re doing you lose track of time? Focusing so intently on the task at hand you’re not conscious of what you’re thinking or feeling? Every action you take is automatic, you’re using your skills to the best of your ability and you feel energised in doing so? We might use phrases such as being ‘in the moment’, on the ball’, or ‘in the zone’ to describe these feelings and according to positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, these experiences also describe a mental state known as ‘flow’. Flow can be experienced in many ways. Some people experience it while engaging in sport and others during creative pursuits. It can last for minutes, hours, days or longer periods of time. Flow is an inner state of being that brings us happiness because we become absorbed in activities which have meaning and purpose and as a result, feel connected to our inner self and others. So, how do we experience flow and achieve happiness? Factors for achieving flow Th...