Since 2011, chess has been compulsory for all primary school students, aged 6-8, aiming to develop logical thinking and problem-solving skills from a young age. Armenia boasts a strong chess tradition and many grandmasters.
Multiple controlled studies show that regularly writing down three things you are grateful for — for as little as three weeks — significantly increases life satisfaction, reduces depressive symptoms, and improves sleep quality. Gratitude activates the brain's reward circuits and increases dopamine and serotonin production. A landmark 2005 study by Martin Seligman found that a 'gratitude visit' — writing and personally delivering a thank-you letter — produced the largest increase in happiness of any positive psychology intervention tested.
Psychologist John Bowlby and researcher Mary Ainsworth established attachment theory: the emotional bond formed with caregivers in infancy creates an 'internal working model' that influences all future relationships. They identified four attachment styles — secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized. Research shows that a person's attachment style in childhood predicts relationship patterns in adulthood, conflict resolution style, and even parenting behavior with their own children.
Psychologist Daniel Kahneman discovered that people don't evaluate experiences by their overall average — they remember them based on the peak (most intense moment) and the end. In a famous study, patients undergoing colonoscopies reported less total pain when doctors deliberately prolonged the procedure slightly at the end, at reduced discomfort. The longer but less painful ending dominated their memory. This is why vacations with a great last day, and presentations that end strongly, are remembered more positively.
Priming occurs when exposure to one stimulus influences responses to a later stimulus — often without any conscious awareness. In one famous experiment, people who unscrambled sentences containing words about old age (bingo, wrinkle, Florida) subsequently walked more slowly out of the lab than those who hadn't. In another, people exposed to money-related images became more self-reliant and less helpful to others. These effects reveal how deeply unconscious associations guide everyday behavior.
