The more hours that young children spend in child care, the more likely they are to turn out aggressive and disobedient by the time they are in kindergarten, according to the largest study of child care and development ever conducted. Researchers said this correlation (相关性) held true regardless of whether the children came from rich or poor homes, were looked after by a relative or at a center, and whether they were girls or boys.

    What is uncertain, however, is whether the child care actually causes the problem or whether children likely to turn out aggressive happen to be those who spend more hours in child care. It also remains unclear whether reducing the amount of time in child care will reduce the risk that a child will turn into a mean person. What's more, quality child care is associated with increased skills in intellectual ability such as language and memory, leading some academics to suggest that child care turns out children who are “smart and naughty”.

    The government-sponsored research, which has tracked more than 1,300 children at 10 sites across the country since 1991, is bound to cause the debate over child care again: How should people balance work and family? And how should parents, especially mothers. Resolve the demands that are placed on them to be both breadwinners and supermoms?

    That debate was already on display at a news briefing yesterday, where researchers themselves had different opinions about the data and its implications (含义). “There is a constant relationship between time in care and problem behavior, especially those involving aggression and behavior,” said Jay Belsky of Birkbeck College in London, one of the lead investigators of the study who has previously annoyed women's groups because of his criticisms of child care. “On behalf of fathers or mothers?” interrupted Sarah Friedman, a developmental psychologist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and one of the other lead scientists on the study. “On behalf of parents and families,” responded Belsky.

    “NICHD is not willing to get into policy recommendations.” said Friedman, contradicting her colleague. “There are other possibilities that can be entertained. Yes it is a quick solution—more hours in child care is associated with more problems. The easy solution is to cut the number of hours but that may have implications for the family that may not be beneficial for the development of the children in terms of economics.” In an interview after the briefing, Friedman said that asking parents to work fewer hours and spend more time with their children usually meant a loss of family income, which adversely(不利地) affects children.

    Scientists said that the study was highly reliable. But the researchers said they had no idea whether the behavioral difficulties persisted as the children moved to higher grades.

    How many times do you check your Moments or Facebook page in a day to see whether your latest post has got another “like” or “thumbs up”?

    Although you might be embarrassed to admit how many times you do this, don't worry. Psychological findings have shown it's completely normal.

    In fact, the pleasure we derive from (取自) getting a “like” is equal to that of eating chocolate or winning money, and we can't help wanting more.

    According to the findings of the UCLA Brain Mapping Center, which observed 32 teens aged between 13 and 18, the feedback circuit (反馈电路) in the teens' brains are particularly sensitive, and the “social” and “visual” parts of their brains were activated when they received “likes” on a social network. The research also showed that though the thumbs up might come from complete strangers, the good they derive from it worked equally.

    So does it mean we should try our best to win as many thumbs up as possible?

    Not necessarily so if we know the reasons behind our desire for attention.

    In “Why do people crave (渴望) attention” by M. Farouk Radwan, he explained several cases in which people naturally longed for attention. Radwan said people who were an only child, who were used to being the center of attention in their house, may try to reproduce these conditions. Feeling “overlooked and unappreciated” might also lead you to be eager for attention. Other times, the state of being jealous or wanting to cover your mistakes may also contribute to such longings.

    In fact, too much desire for attention can create anxiety, and in turn ruin your happiness even when you get it. So what can we do about it? The answer is quite simple.

    “If people could adopt goals not focused on their own self-esteem (自尊) but on something larger than their self, such as what they can create or contribute to others, they would be less sensitive to some of the negative effects of pursuing self-esteem,” wrote psychology professor Jennifer Crocker in the Journal of Social Issues.

    Biologists believe that love is fundamentally a biological rather than a cultural construct, because the capacity for love is found in all human cultures and similar behavior is found in some other animals. In humans the purpose of all the desire is to focus attention on the raising of offspring. Children demand an unusual amount of parenting, and two parents are better than one. Love is a signal that both partners are committed, and makes it more likely that this commitment will continue as long as necessary for children to reach independence. But what does science have to say about the notion of love at first sight?

    In recent years the ability to watch the brain in action has offered a wealth of insight into the mechanics of love. Researchers have shown that when a person falls in love, a dozen different part of brain work together to release chemicals that trigger feelings of euphoria, bonding and excitement. It has also been shown that the unconditional love between a mother and a child is associated with activity in different regions of the brain from those associated with pair-bonding love.

    Passionate love is rooted in the reward circuitry of the brain—the same area that is active when humans feel a rush from cocaine. In fact, the desire, motivations and withdrawals involved in love have a great deal in common with addiction. Its most intense forms tend to be associated with the early stages of a relationship, which then give way to a calmer attachment form of love one feels with a long term partner.

    What all this means is that one special person can become chemically rewarding to the brain of another. Love at first sight, then, is only possible if the mechanism for generating long-term attachment can be triggered quickly. There are signs that it can be. One line of evidence is that people are able to decide within a second how attractive they find another person. This decision appears to be related to facial attractiveness, although men may favor women with waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7, no matter what their overall weight is. (This ratio may indicate a woman's reproductive health.)

    Another piece of evidence comes from work by a psychologist at Ben-Gurion University, who found in a survey that a small percentage (11%) of people in long-term relationships said that they began with love at first sight. In other words, in some couples the initial favorable impressions of attractiveness triggered love which sustained a lengthy bond. It is also clear that some couples need to form their bonds over a longer period, and popular culture tells many tales of friends who become lovers.

    One might also assume that if a person is looking for a partner with traits that cannot be quantified instantly, such as compassion, intellect or a good sense of humor, then it would be hard to form a relationship on the basis of love at first sight. Those more concerned with visual appearances, though, might find this easier. So it appears that love at first sight exists, but is not a very common basis for long-term relationships.

    Now Glen doesn't like to think what might have happened had he and his best friends, Ray Wightman and Chris Johnson, picked their usual path along a rocky outcrop－the faster route to Johnson s home on Triangle Mountain. They were heading there after school that day－April 14, 1999－to play street hockey in Johnson's driveway. There were other lucky twists, too: not stopping at the shops to get a cola« as they usually did; hearing the strange cry.

    It was 3:30 pm. The three teens were laughing and talking when suddenly they heard a strange cry coming from the ditch(沟渠) across the road. Crossing to take a look, they found an Adidas gym bag sitting deep in the icy water. They climbed down the steep bank and pulled the bag from the water, expecting to find abandoned cats or dogs inside. Instead, the boys found a trembling newborn girl. Wrapped in an old blanket, wearing a thin nightshirt, she was almost blue, her lips shaking from the cold and her crying.

    The boys couldn't have been more astonished. They knew this one needed to get warm and dry, although they didn't know much about babies. Ray dug through his gym bag and wrapped her in a T-shirt. “We didn't know what to do,” said Glen. “I didn't think any of us had really held a baby before.” So the three stood beside the ditch, dumbfounded, taking turns to hold the baby to their chests to keep her warm.

    “We knew it was no use walking up to Ray's house, because his mum was working and no one would be home. We figured we'd have a better chance just staying by the road and flagging down someone.” So they stood there and waited.

    A car drove by and the boys caught the driver's attention, telling her that they had found a baby. The woman then drove off to get help. When the police and ambulance came 20 minutes later, the teens were told the baby was probably two or three hours old and had perhaps been in the ditch for an hour or more. They were also told that they had saved her life and that given 10-20 minutes more in the cold water, she probably would be drowned.

    Neither style of thinking is better or worse than the other; they're just different, as Professor Ankush Chopra explains. To be a great artist, musician, or big-picture thinker, holistic thinking is important—it's about context, and intuition (直觉) is important. Many careers like those in science or law, reward analytic thinking, which looks at parts and units, and is specific and logical. Of course, the most successful people will be able to do both kinds of thinking, though generally holistic thinking, linked to creativity, is more difficult to teach than analytic thinking.

    So those people who are analytic thinkers will see a price of $1.99 by looking at the single numbers, and will prioritize the first number when it comes to price. "Holistic thinkers tend to view all price numbers as a whole and are  less likely to be affected by the nine-ending price effect," Lingjiang Lora Tu, Ph. D. , professor of marketing at Baylor and  a study's lead author, told Phys. org.

    However, that the type of thinking allows holistic thinkers to see the whole rather than the parts goes out the window when they're stressed or distracted (分心的).

    "Our findings suggest that regardless of consumers' thinking style, nine-ending prices are most likely to be effective in situations that overuse consumers' resources, such as when shoppers are time-pressured at the checkout counter or distracted by background music or occupied with an interactive product demonstration," Tu said.

    This study was done with the idea that marketers should know about these differences in thinking style and keep them in mind when they're pricing things for different types of people. But anyone who buys things can benefit too, by figuring out what kind of thinker you are, and then keeping that in mind when the signs show "sale" with a loud noise!—and reminding yourself that nobody makes the best decisions when they're distracted.

    What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher? A doctor? How about an ice-cream taster?

    Yes, there really is a job where you can get paid to taste ice cream. Just ask John Harrison, an "Official Taste Tester" for the past 21 years. Testing helps producers to be sure of a product's quality. During his career Harrison has been responsible for approving large quantities of the sweet ice cream –as well as for developing over 75 flavors(味道).

    Some people think that it would be easy to do this job; after all, you just have to like ice cream, right? No –-- there's more to the job than that, says Harrison, who has a degree in chemistry. He points out that a dairy or food-science degree would be very useful to someone wanting a career in this "cool" field.

    In a typical morning on the job, Harrison tastes and rates 60 ice-cream samples. He lets the ice cream warm up to about 12 F. Harrisonexplains, "You get more flavor from warmer ice cream, which is why some kids like to stir it, creating ice-cream soup."

    While the ice cream warms up, Harrison looks over the samples and grades each one on its appearance. "Tasting begins with the eyes," he explains. He checks to see if the ice cream is attractive and asks himself, "Does the product have the colour expected from that flavor?" Next it's time to taste!

    Continuing to think up new ideas, try out new flavors, and test samples from so many kinds of ice cream each day keeps Harrison busy but happy – working at once cool job.