Why you get all your best ideas in the SHOWER: Focusing on a moderately engaging task boosts your creativity more than just letting your mind wander aimlessly, a study has found

• Participants were shown a “boring” video or clip from Harry and Sally
• They were then asked to name alternative uses for paperclips and bricks
• Those who saw Harry and Sally came up with more ideas
• The results suggest that focusing on moderately engaging tasks encourages your creativity more than just letting your mind wander aimlessly

By Shivali Best for Web

Published: 2:53 PM BST, October 6, 2022 | Updated at 3:02 PM BST, 6 October 2022

The shower is not only the place where we want to clean ourselves, but for many people it is also the place where we come up with our best ideas.

But what exactly makes the shower so ideal for creative breakthroughs?

Focusing on a moderately engaging task like showering boosts creativity more than just letting your mind wander, according to a new study.

dr Zac Irving, a psychologist at the University of Virginia and co-author of the study, said: “Let’s say you’re stuck in a problem. How are you?

“Probably nothing as boring as watching paint dry.

“Instead, you occupy yourself with something like going for a walk, gardening or taking a shower. All these activities are moderately engaging.”

The shower isn’t just where we go when we want to get clean — for many people, it’s also where we get our best ideas (stock image)

Forgetting is a form of learning, the study claims

Instead of our memories fading over time, forgetting is actually an active form of learning that helps our brain access more important information.

That’s the conclusion of experts from Trinity College Dublin and the University of Toronto, who said “lost” memories aren’t actually gone, they’re just being made inaccessible.

Memories, they explained, are permanently stored in clusters of neurons, with our brain deciding which ones to access and which irrelevant ones to lock away.

These decisions, they said, are based on feedback from the environment, theoretically allowing us flexibility in the face of change and better decision-making as a result.

If the results are correct, they could lead to new ways to understand and treat the memory loss associated with diseases – such as that seen in patients with Alzheimer’s.

Researchers were inspired to investigate the topic by a 2012 study that found that our brains tend to wander and creativity flow when we’re performing a low-demand task.

In their new study, the team asked participants to think of alternative uses for a brick or a paper clip.

Participants were divided into two groups, each watching a different three-minute video.

The first video was “boring” and showed two men folding laundry.

In contrast, the second video was “moderately appealing” and contained “that” cheeky scene from the 1989 film “When Harry Met Sally” in which Meg Ryan’s character demonstrates how to fake an orgasm.

“What we really wanted to know wasn’t which video will help you be more creative,” said Dr. irving

“The question was how does mind wandering relate to creativity in boring and engaging tasks?”

After watching the video, participants were asked to quickly list their alternate uses for the brick or paperclip.

They were also asked to report how much their mind wandered during the videos.

The results showed that the participants who watched the clip of Harry and Sally had more ideas than those who watched the boring video.

In their study, published in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, the team concluded: “We find that mind wandering leads to more creative ideas, but only in moderately engaging activities.

“Boring activities result in either more ideas or more semantically distant ideas overall, but these effects were unrelated to mind wandering.

“Thus, boring activities can generate ideas by providing time for focused problem-solving, while engaging activities can do so by encouraging productive mind-wandering.”

The news comes shortly after researchers found it’s actually possible for your mind to go completely blank.

The second video was “moderately engaging” and featured “that” cheeky scene from the 1989 film “When Harry Met Sally” in which Meg Ryan’s character demonstrates how to fake an orgasm

The researchers examined 36 people who were placed in an MRI machine and asked them to describe their thoughts.

People found that their minds were blank about five to seven percent of the time.

The scan results showed her brain went into an almost sleep-like state, with constant activity in all regions, rather than the variable activity in different brain areas associated with thinking.

The researchers now suspect that there is a good evolutionary reason to switch off when concentration would be better – to prevent our brain from becoming too tired.

there news it was broadcast by the Ukrainian police and went around the world. Serhiy BolvinovHead of the investigative department of the region Kharkivhad posted on Twitter The images of the finds in a new “Chamber of Secrets”, a basement in the newly liberated village Pisky-Radkivskiwhere, he explained, the inmates Russians tortured and subjected to inhumane conditions i civilians Ukrainians in the occupied territories. There they found a box full of teeth and dentures, apparently made of gold. For the authorities of Kyiv They were the result of the violence of the troops of To fly but now another version emerges from the picture. This jar full of teeth, reminiscent of the horrors AuschwitzIt would have been stolen from a local dentist. It would not even be “golden tooth capsules”, but simple stainless steel, i.e. old prostheses that he had removed from patients years ago. The German tabloid actually met with the dentist Pisky-RadkivskiHe claims to be the only one in the village: the man said that the chest shown by the authorities – and also relaunched on Twitter by the minister – was displayed Ukrainian defense – it actually looks like the container the Russians stole from his studio. The man also reported that local residents believed the Russians were only showing them to intimidate them population. A testimony that tells a different truth compared to the version published by the Kiev police.

Support ilfattoquotidiano.it WE REALLY NEED
FROM YOUR HELP.

For us, the readers are the only masters.
But those who follow us must contribute because, like everyone, we don’t work for free. Become a supporter too. CLICK HERE

Many Thanks

Support now

previous article

Yemen stalled: no national ceasefire. And the risk of terrorism is returning

next article

Brazil, another murder for political reasons: the sixth in a few months. The expert: “Right-wing propaganda creates a conflict between good and evil”

Status: 10.06.2022 12:40 am

After Russia announced it would nationalize the Zaporizhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, concerns about the plant’s safety increased. IAEA chief Grossi is in Kyiv today for negotiations. Meanwhile, attacks on the city of Zaporizhia continue.

Ukraine is making progress in recapturing Russian-held territories, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. After Russian forces withdrew from the front lines in the south and east, Ukrainian troops liberated three more towns in the Kherson region, Zelenskyy said in his daily video speech: Novovoskresenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka.

Meanwhile, attacks on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia continue. According to Ukrainian sources, seven Russian rockets hit residential buildings in the early morning. Two people died and at least five were still trapped in the rubble, said the region’s governor, Oleksandr Staruch. Many people were rescued from the multi-story buildings. Authorities reported another rocket attack late in the morning but did not give immediate information about casualties or damage.

Shaded in white: Russian army advance. Shaded in green: Russian-backed separatist areas. Crimea: annexed by Russia. Image: ISW/4.10.2022

Nationalized Zaporizhia NPP

Russian President Putin had already continued the administrative annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia. After initially signing ratification of the annexation on Wednesday, he instructed the government in Moscow to nationalize Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear plant, which is occupied by Russian troops. “The government is instructed to ensure that the objects for the use of nuclear energy from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and other properties necessary for its operation are taken as state property,” said the decree published on Wednesday.

The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Russia has effectively controlled the nuclear plant since early March, when Moscow troops occupied much of southern Ukraine as part of the war of aggression. So far, however, Ukrainian technicians have ensured the operation of the nuclear plant.

The plant has been attacked several times during intense fighting in recent months and has also had to be closed. Ukraine and Russia blame each other for the damage. The bombing sparked international concerns of a nuclear catastrophe.

Ukraine: President of Enerhoatom runs nuclear plant

Despite the Russian announcement, the head of Ukrainian nuclear power company Enerhoatom, Petro Kotin, said he would take over the management of the nuclear plant. Kotin said he will manage the Kyiv nuclear power plant. Ukrainian workers continue to work under Russian supervision at the plant, whose last reactor was shut down in September.

Vassili Golod, WDR, at the visit of IAEA Chief Grossi in Kyiv

Lunch Magazine, October 6, 2022

Grossi calls for a nuclear safety zone around the nuclear plant

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, is expected for talks in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv today. “The need for a nuclear safety zone around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is more urgent than ever,” Grossi wrote on Twitter late on Wednesday before leaving for Kyiv.

The IAEA chief also wants to pay a visit to Moscow afterwards. Grossi had announced that he would travel to both capitals throughout the week to discuss the issue of nuclear safety – in particular the risks associated with the disputed Zaporizhia nuclear plant.

Reports of torture of nuclear power plant employees

Meanwhile, officials at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant reported kidnappings and torture by Russian occupiers. They constantly tried to intimidate workers with beatings and other forms of abuse to get them to keep the plant running – or to punish those who expressed their support for Kyiv.

About 4,000 nuclear workers have fled since the Russian invasion. Those who stayed tell about the threat of kidnapping and torture. These reports were substantiated by an incident last Friday: Russian forces allegedly kidnapped the factory manager, Ihor Murashov, as he was returning home from work. On Monday, they apparently released him – after he was forced to make false statements in front of the camera, as Enerhoatom boss Kotin puts it. “I would call it mental torture,” he told the AP news agency. “He had to explain that the bombing of the Zaporizhia nuclear plant was carried out by Ukrainian forces and that he is a Ukrainian spy… in contact with the Ukrainian special forces.”

Mayor: More than 1000 people kidnapped

In all, more than 1,000 people, including nuclear workers, were kidnapped from the city of Enohodar, estimates Mayor Orlov, who fled to Zaporizhia – the nearest city under Ukrainian control – after refusing to cooperate with the Russians. Kotin suspects that 100 to 200 people are still being held.

Mayor Orlov accused the Russians of torturing abductees at various locations in Enerhodar, including the city’s police station, basements and the nuclear power plant. “Horrible things are happening there. People who managed to get out say there was torture with electric shocks, beatings, rapes, shootings.” Some would not have survived.

Continued after the ad

LOS ANGELES — The bodies of four people from the same family, including an eightmonthold baby, were found in countryside near the city on Wednesday, May 5 Mercedesin the middle of Californiaus United States.

the victims are a 27 and 36yearold couple, their 8monthold baby and the child’s 39yearold uncle. They were kidnapped at gunpoint Monday at the family’s truck shop in the city, about 110 miles from Sacramento, the sheriff’s office said.

“Tonight our worst fears were confirmed, we found the four people involved in the kidnapping dead,” he said. Vernon WarnkeMerced County Sheriff, in a statement to local media.

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke speaks to the press about the kidnapping of a family in California Photo: Andrew Kuhn/The Merced SunStar via AP

Authorities say the motive for the kidnappings and killings is not yet known, but the 48yearold man suspected of the crime has been stuck since Tuesday after trying to commit suicide in the city atwater. “Right now there are no words to describe the anger I feel and the meaninglessness of this event. I’ve said it before, there’s a place in hell waiting for this guy,” Warnke added.

The police identified the dead as Aroohi Dheri, from 8 months; Her mother, Jasleen Kaur, from 27; your father, Jasdeep Singh, from 36; and the baby’s uncle, Amandeep Singh39 years old.

The bodies were discovered hours after authorities released surveillance footage showing the moment of the kidnapping. According to the Sheriff’s Report, a worker from a nearby rural area reported finding four bodies around 5:30 p.m. local time. Shortly thereafter, security officers arrived at the scene to determine that the bodies belonged to the missing family.

Continued after the ad

Footage from surveillance cameras recorded the suspect approaching the two dead men outside the family business on Monday morning.

The images capture the moment he takes a firearm from a white garbage bag, leads his family members into the building, from where they immediately leave with their hands tied. The suspect then puts them in the victim’s own truck, starts the car, and drives away.

Six minutes later, still as seen in the pictures, the man returns to the scene, finds the woman and baby through the back door of the store, and puts them in the same car. After that, the movement is no longer captured by the cameras. Hours later, authorities found the burning vehicle in the town of Winton, less than 12 miles from Merced, and launched an investigation.

On Tuesday, April 4th, the police took Jesus Manuel Salgado, 48, after detectives received information that the victims’ cards had been used at a bank in the city of Atwater, also in California. Salgado was considered a “person of interest” for the investigation and was said to have attempted suicide before being confronted by police.

Jesus Salgado was considered a “person of interest” in the investigation into the kidnapping and murder of four people in California. Photo: Merced County Sheriff’s Office via AP

Continued after the ad

“The family informed our suspect that they had contacted the police about what he had told them,” Sheriff Warnke said. “And instead of talking to the police, he tried to take his own life.”

Authorities did not provide any additional information about Salgado’s relationship with the murdered family or what he had said about his own family. Authorities have not identified a motive for the kidnapping and are still trying to interrogate him.

Salgado was convicted of armed robbery and false imprisonment in 2005 and jailed and paroled in 2015. Since then, according to the sheriff, the police have had no further contact with the suspect. After that incident, Sheriff Warnke said he hoped the prosecutor would decide “to use the death penalty” if the crime was confirmed. /EFE and NYT