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City Hosting BlindSquare Event App Information Session

City Hosting BlindSquare Event App Information Session

City Hosting BlindSquare Event App Information Session

The City of St. John’s and CNIB are hosting a free orientation session for people learning how to use the BlindSquare Event App.

The app is being piloted at the Downtown Pedestrian Mall to help those with vision loss navigate the area.

The information session will cover how to download the app, how to adjust settings for better results, and how the app helps people navigate.

The event takes place Tuesday, July 26 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Foran Greene Room at City Hall.

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Information Session: WISIR Transdisciplinary Systemic Innovation Lab | Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience

Information Session: WISIR Transdisciplinary Systemic Innovation Lab | Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience

Transdisciplinary Systemic Innovation Lab

Are you instructing a course at the University of Waterloo this fall?

Looking for ways to spice up your students’ engagement in your course material?

You might like to learn more about an upcoming research project by the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR). Funded by a Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Grant (administered by the Centre for Teaching Excellence and the Associate Vice-President, Academic’s Office), WISIR will run a transdisciplinary, participatory lab in which students and researchers from across faculties work with community stakeholders on a ‘wicked problem’ to prototype and test system-changing solutions.

Join our information session on June 23 at 12pm EDT. Discover more about our research questions, delivery model, learning platform, and provide feedback with Principal Investigator Sean Geobey and WISIR’s Innovation Lab Manager Meg Ronson.

Register here.

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People Learn Relevant Information Better During Stressful Event

Grant Shields

Grant Shields

Photo by University of Arkansas

Grant Shields

New findings on the effects of stress on memory suggest that people tend to recall information better when the information is related to the stressful event.

However, the factor of delay — that is, the time between a stressful event and learning information — does not appear to have as strong an influence on the relationship between stress and memory as previously thought.

“The effects of acute stress on memory encoding are complex,” said Grant Shields, lead author of a study published in Learning & Memory. “Our work shows that relevance of information to a stressor appears to play an important role in the effects of stress on encoding.”

Shields is assistant professor of psychological sciences in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the U of A. As a cognitive neuroscientist, he studies the effects of stress on cognitive processes.

Shields and co-authors Colton Hunter, doctoral student in psychological sciences at the U of A, and Andrew Yonelinas, psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, tested the recall of 130 young adults by manipulating acute stress, the delay between stress and memory encoding, and the relevance of information to the stressful event. Encoding is the initial learning of information.

The researchers divided participants into two groups. Both groups were asked to remember a list of words related to personality traits and other words not related to personality traits. Members of one group were required to give a speech on their personality to a panel of evaluators. Members of a control group also spoke on their personality, but only among themselves within a nonstressful environment.

The researchers found that stress during encoding led to greater recall of stress-relevant materials — in this case, a list of personality-related words. This was true compared to material not related to the stressor, non-personality words such as “muddy.” This effect was slightly greater for materials encoded during the stressor, rather than those encoded after a short delay, although the stress-relevance effect was not significantly different across the delay conditions.

Attention to the effect of stress on cognition has increased over the past two years, as more people are dealing with a multitude of stressors. Research has shown that chronic or repeated exposure to stress has a negative effect on attention span, sleep and memory, and that it can even damage the brain.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas’ flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas’ economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.

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Ask SAM: Are there any shredding events coming up?

Ask SAM: Are there any shredding events coming up?

Mount Tabor United Methodist Church, 3543 Robinhood Road, Winston Salem, will have a shredding event from 9 a.m. to noon April 23. They will accept monetary donations to benefit food programs serving children in Forsyth County and other missions of the United Methodist Women. Make checks payable to Mt. Tabor UMC-Circle 5. For more information, call the church 336-765-5561 or go to www.mttaborumc.org.

New Philadelphia Moravian Church, 4440 Country Club Road, Winston-Salem, will have a document shred from 9 a.m. to noon April 23. The cost is $5 per box. Enter from Kilpatrick Street. They will unload. You do not have to get out of your vehicle. The shredding is sponsored by the Advent Class. Proceeds will benefit outreach ministries of the Moravian Church. For more information, call 336-972-0494 or visit www.newphilly.org.

Fries Memorial Moravian Church, 251 N. Hawthorne Road, Winston Salem, will have a community shred day from 9 a.m. to noon April 30. Shamrock Shredding will be shredding documents on-site in the church parking lot. Donations of $5 per file box or bag are requested. Paper only, no plastic or non-paper trash will be accepted. Proceeds will benefit local youth and family ministries.

Hopewell Moravian Church will have two shredding events at the Griffith Volunteer Fire Department, 5190 Peters Creek Parkway, Winston-Salem. The first will be 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 30. The second will be 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 25. A $5 per bag or box donation is suggested.