Our world is incredibly vast and culturally diverse. One of the evident ways in which cultures differ includes their religious beliefs, creating a rich array of expressions and practices. Wandering through China, for example, you are likely to encounter marvelous Buddhist temples, whereas in Indonesia, mosques are the most common type of religious building. Similarly, […]
Whether you are an air traffic controller, a transportation security officer, a gamer, a student studying for finals, a writer trying to meet a deadline, or a parent, the ability to maintain attention for extended periods without getting distracted can be crucial. However, as many humans have experienced, sustaining attention to a task, especially one […]
It’s easy to think of mental states like depression or anxiety as lists of unrelated symptoms. Even though it’s helpful to think about each individual symptom, it’s also important to remember that symptoms can be related to each other in complex ways. That’s the main idea behind network psychometrics, where psychologists examine the relationships between […]
Search in the lab doesn’t look like search in the world (mostly) Visual search is something that we do all the time – in the morning, pre-coffee, you might stumble into the washroom and look for your toothbrush (hoping that your cat didn’t get rambunctious in the night and knock it into the sink), followed […]
Have you ever played one of those candy jar guessing games where the goal is to accurately estimate how many candies are inside to win them all? As a kid, I always tried my hardest to guess correctly because my mom rarely let me have candy. No matter how hard I tried, my guesses were […]
I hate going grocery shopping, so when I go to the supermarket, I usually have a shopping list and try to quickly find what I want in the sea of grocery objects on each aisle to finish as soon as possible. I guess I’ve got better at this over the years, but I still don’t […]
In reality shows like American Idol or RuPaul’s Drag Race, contestants compete for the chance to become the next big star. The judges on these shows want to pick a winner who they believe will have long-term success. One way the judges might choose a winner is through similarity-based processing, where they compare contestants to […]
When I’m trying to focus on reading scientific articles, my eyes keep drifting to my phone beside me—even when it’s face-down, on silent. No notifications, no vibrations, nothing calling for my attention … yet, I still look. Once I stash it in a desk drawer and it is out of sight, I can successfully focus […]
Audio Intro Kosovicheva: You’re listening to All Things Cognition, a Psychonomic Society podcast. Now, here is your host, Laura Mickes. Intro to the interview with Professor Nicky Clayton Mickes: Nicky Clayton (pictured below) is a Professor of Comparative Cognition in the Department of Psychology at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of Clare College. She was elected […]
Visual perspective taking (VPT) refers to the ability to comprehend what another person can see from their viewpoint. It’s a skill we first develop when we master the art of “hide and seek.” When finding the best hiding spot, children need to consider where they will be least likely to be seen. They need to […]