Researchers at Stanford University, California, have used fMRI scans to discover how the brain suppresses irrelevant memories in order to recall what’s really important. Counter-intuitive though it may sound, remembering something entails a cost for memories that are related but unimportant. As Anthony Wagner, Associate Professor of Pscyhology at Stanford explains:- This relationship powerfully illustrates [...]

Dr Melissa Bateson and colleagues at Newcastle University have been doing some fascinating work on how a starling’s environment is reflected in its outlook, the New Scientist reports (28th April 2007). It turns out that the “richer” the bird’s environment, the more “optimistic” its behaviour is. The birds were trained to associate a tasty snack [...]

In an earlier post, I linked to an article on recovery-based training. Here is a more accessible version from the same swimming and triathlon coach and leading authority Wayne Goldsmith. At coaches’ infoservice, golfers will even find out how core stability training will get them driving further. Goldsmith highlights some of the complex variables (see [...]

Most days I drink tea from a mug with a quote from Winston Churchill: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Churchill’s quotation is about attribution, or what labels we put on things. Behavioural science blog The Situationist, in an excerpt from Stanford University’s alumni magazine, [...]

More from knackered downunder One explanation for American and Australian sporting achievement is their preparedness to look at new methods and throw away the old. It’s all about the search for the next revolution. Milt Nelms – an American performance enhancer and with whom former champion Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe trained last year – says [...]