Reflecting on godly matters … and on cognitive reasoning styles

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, […]

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Watch this … but stay calm: Negative emotions are distracting

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 […]

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Beyond pairwise: Adding hypergraphs to your psychometrics toolbox

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 […]

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Do you look for your glasses 200 times in a row? Can we learn from blocked designs even though we don’t block search in the world?

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 […]

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Similarity-based processing is in the eye of the inferrer

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 […]

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Useful in the past, distracting in the future: How past usefulness captures attention

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 […]

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L&B Special Issue: Interview with Nicky Clayton

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 […]

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Now you see me, now you don’t: The cost of visual perspective taking

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 […]

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