Competition in the classroom: When incentive systems change character
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 4-Sep-2025 09:11 ET (4-Sep-2025 13:11 GMT/UTC)
Enduring competitive pressure not only changes young people's behaviour, but also their personality: they become less prosocial. This is shown by a new study from the University of Würzburg.
Cognitive reserve (CR) is the brain's ability to maintain cognitive function despite age-related brain changes, damage or disease. It reflects an individual's capacity to cope with these changes by utilizing pre-existing cognitive strategies or developing compensatory mechanisms. The CR hypothesis presumes higher tolerance of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-related pathology without functional decline for those with high education yet more rapid decline after AD onset. However, evidence supporting the second part of the hypothesis has been largely confined to U.S.-based studies.
A new study by researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
has found that people with more years of education lost their memory and thinking abilities faster after being diagnosed with AD, compared to those with less education. These findings now provide evidence for the CR theory using real-life data from older adults from England, Germany and France.
The seismic activity generated by Taylor Swift’s concerts in Dublin in 2024 provided a unique opportunity for scientific engagement and education, according to the authors of a groundbreaking new study.
After six centuries in Spain, discrimination against the Roma people remains “rooted in stereotypes based on ignorance and, in some cases, pseudo-knowledge about this community”, explains Juan Jarque Jarque, who advocates for an inclusive education system that respects diverse values as a way to end antigypsyism and encourage greater Roma participation in community life. To overcome both antigypsyism in Spanish society and Roma disengagement from it, Jarque proposes an education system that weaves Roma history into Spain’s national narrative while also protecting each community’s cultural identity. This way, different groups can preserve their traditions yet share the same cultural, political and social space.