The Neuroscience of Habits
This article explores the neuroscience of habits: what habits are, how they form, and how to build good habits (and break bad ones). »
Neuroscience
Strategies for Creating (or Destroying) Habits
In a previous article, we defined habits, looked at how they are formed (through the lens of Duhigg’s and Clear’s models), and then outlined the science behind them. According to James Clear’s Four Laws of Behaviour Change (2018), there are four steps to establishing a habit: cue, craving, routine, reward (Clear, 2018). This article is about how we turn the above steps into practical actions/advic... »
The Science Behind Habit Formation
Oh, here we go again! You’ve got a wonderful new smart phone – or maybe a computer – with all the bells and whistles, but how do you make it work? How do you get from one screen or one app to the next? Chances are, the first day will involve a bit of brainwork; you’ll notice what happens when you push this button or come to that screen and you may feel slightly clumsy working it, but after a day o... »
Dreams and Counselling
How do you respond when your client asks in distress: “Why am I having all these wild dreams?”? Do you know what purpose the client’s dreams may be serving? If your honest answer is “no”, you are not alone. While theories on why we dream abound, it’s hard to get at dreams directly. The main thing that dream theorists agree on is that there is little agreement (C... »
Hard-wired to Connect: Mirror Neurons and Empathy
Many people have suspected for a long time that we human beings are designed to be able to experience things happening for another person: in good times or in bad. So we see a stranger clumsily bump their head on a low-hanging branch at the park, and we flinch, too. We hear that a friend has gotten some good news about a medical diagnosis, and we are genuinely happier. Yet although we have suspect... »
The Neuroscience of Facial Recognition
When we look at a face, it is not just a special object amongst objects. The face is uniquely perceived and interpreted. The brain has even evolved a dedicated area in the neural landscape, the fusiform face area or FFA (Kanwisher et al, 1997), to specialise in facial recognition. This is part of a complex visual system that can determine a surprising number of things about another person. The ... »
How the Mind Works
Over the past two decades scientists have devoted much time to the human brain: how it works, why it works, and how it impacts human and animal behaviour. As a result, it is hard to keep up with the latest research! To help you out, we looked around for websites that publish regular, free, and very interesting content on how the mind works. Below are five of them: »
