FEAST OR FAMINE

A Danish study confirms that it’s harder to think clearly at the end of the day, and this might impact when and how schools and universities hold their examinations. Small, but important, effects of the time of day influences standardized test scores. That’s because test scores drop as the school day continues ( Pacific Standard , February 16, 2016). So is it best to avoid taking exams in the afternoon? Three researchers conducted the study on cognitive fatigue and students’ performances on standardized tests – Hans Sievertsen from the Danish National Centre for Social Research in Copenhagen, Marco Piovesan from the Department of Economics at the University of Copenhagen, and Francesca Gino from the Harvard Business School of Harvard University in Boston. The Danish researchers analyzed scores from every student who took the Danish National Tests between the 2009-2010 and 2012-2013 school years. There were 10 tests studied in total. These included reading in grades 2, 4,...

Senya Malina Tells it Like it Was (from 1924, English version 2014) is set in northwest Russia in the rural village of Uyma (Weema) near Arkhangelsk (Archangel). Written by Russian Stepah Pisakhov (1879-1960), translated by British Blackwell Boyce (1963-), and illustrated by Russian Dmitry Trubin (1962-) it is 40 short stories with the same narrator – Senya Malina. Senya Malina is a villager – a Pomer (which means ‘the people by the sea’) – who tells tall tales with great embellishment and exaggeration. He calls the people of his village, merritimers (maritimers), and lives with his wife (Missus Malina), horse Karka, dog Rozka, and cat Moorka. In the story ‘Don’t Like It—Don’t Listen’ he begins with a description of Weema, with its salmon, cod, owls, polar bears, seagulls, eagles, and penguins. The sea has water as ‘clear as hundred-proof vodka’ and a river runs from the sea right through his little village. Senya Malina quickly launches into his f...

Experimenting with colour, plate size, serving dishes, and presentation all reveal that it’s not what you eat but how you eat it that makes food tastier (BBC – Future, February 26, 2016). Sensory stimuli can impact the perception of flavour. That’s the outcome of several food studies. The colour of the serving plate and the texture of food influence taste – and so do the type of utensils used. For example, serving desserts in a red dish makes them taste sweeter than serving the same dessert, with the same sugar content, in a non-red dish. Heavier knives and forks increases people’s perception of how valuable a meal at a restaurant is – the heavier the utensils, the more valuable the meal. Psychologists at the University of Oxford says plateware plays a role in how food tastes. Charles Spence says ‘everything from the texture, the temperature, or the feel, or the plateware, or bowl can fit into this.’ If a bowl of food is held in the hands, increasing the weight of the ...