readings in psychology for october 10th 2010

strawberries and spanish tortilla! CLICK on the picture to read more about our farmer's markets here in san luis obispo, california!

Here is what I am reading today:

• alternative biomedical treatments

“Parents who research treatments for autism are confronted with a bewildering array of options, almost all of which have never been tested for safety and effectiveness. Organizations like The Cochrane Collaboration, which reviews the quality of evidence for medical treatments, are putting more effort into evaluating popular alternative treatments.”

• when you teach someone to fish

“In an underground kitchen just a few steps from the Eiffel Tower, a woman named Kadidiatou stands at a stainless steel counter ripping the heads off of live lobsters, removing their claws and threading their still-wriggling bodies onto skewers. She has never tasted a lobster, has never seen the sea. And though she lives only ten miles from Paris in the gritty suburb of Sarcelles, she had never visited the Eiffel Tower until Alain Ducasse came into her life. The famous French chef has just launched his latest project, and its success or failure rides on Kadidiatou and her colleagues. But it isn’t a new restaurant or a luxury hotel – Ducasse is trying to change the lives of underprivileged women by teaching them how to cook.”

• children with autism are generally not good at lying

“Children with autism will tell white lies to protect other people’s feelings and they are not very good at covering up their lies, according to a Queen’s University study.”

• those blind from birth enhance other senses

“People who have been blind from birth make use of the visual parts of their brain to refine their sensation of sound and touch, according to an international team of researchers led by neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC).”