Mather Honored for Innovative Publication
Presented by the Behavioral and Social Sciences division at the society’s 60th annual convention in San Francisco, the Kalish Award recognizes insightful and innovative publications on aging and lifespan development within the past three years.
Mather’s paper, “Goal-Directed Memory: The Role of Cognitive Control in Older Adults’ Emotional Memory,” showed that older adults tend to remember more positive than negative information as they age, also called the positivity effect. Co-authored with students Michael McCaffrey and Marisa Knight of the University of California at Santa Cruz, the article appeared in the December 2005 issue of Psychology and Aging.
“Our findings revealed that older adults who were doing best cognitively showed the most positivity effect,” Mather said. “Older adults are using their cognitive resources to help them pay attention to positive information and ignore negative information.”
Laura Carstensen, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, presented the award to Mather.
“This article is really elegant, a home run,” Carstensen said. “The presentation of this award proves this belief is widely shared by members of the (Behavioral and Social Sciences) section.”
Upon receiving the award, Mather thanked Carstensen, who served as her mentor on the paper, and the students with whom she collaborated.
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The Wall Street Journal highlighted the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
KPCC-FM reported that this fall USC will offer Persian language courses for the first time. A $250,000 grant from the Farhang Foundation helped to establish the program. Bruce Zuckerman of the USC Dornsife College said he has many students interested in the Persian language, culture and region. “The Iranian region is one that has great impact on our lives today and has had great impact going back into ancient times,” he said. The story noted that USC and the Farhang Foundation hope to raise more money to create an Iranian studies minor. Payvand also featured the new courses.
American Songwriter ran a Q&A with Christopher Sampson of the USC Thornton School about the school’s Popular Music program, which Sampson founded. He noted that the program has been available as a major in Songwriting since 2009, and has incorporated a diverse range of musical genres. “We have now established a consistent track record of students having professional success to know that the program gets results,” Sampson said. He also highlighted the achievements of Songwriting faculty members Lamont Dozier, Andrea Stolpe and David Poe of the Thornton School.
The Economist featured research by Valter Longo of the USC Davis School finding that short periods of fasting could help cancer patients better tolerate chemotherapy, and may even make treatment more effective. The Globe and Mail (Canada) reported that cancerous tumors are essentially energy hogs. “They need to burn lots of energy just to stay alive,” Longo said. The study was also covered by Irish Independent (Ireland), Magyar Tavirati Iroda (Hungary), Anadolu Ajansi (Turkey), Son Haber (Netherlands), Vietnam+ (Vietnam), Turkish Radio and Television (Turkey) and Romania Libera (Romania).
L.A. Weekly featured research by USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, which has developed video games based around physical movement for people recovering from strokes or other injuries. The games develop strength in specific body parts. Traditional video games weren’t right for these patients, said the institute’s Belinda Lange. “Often, the fun parts of the game would only be unlocked after a series of other levels, which our patients often couldn’t achieve,” she said. The games are now being tested with physical therapists in three major clinics.
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