Tracking down the bottleneck: The locus of the Psychological Refractory Period (PRP)

People often do multiple things at the same time. We can talk on the phone while stacking the dishwasher, and some university students seemingly know how to type messages on their cell phones while listening to a lecture. There are many occasions, however, when such multi-tasking breaks down or becomes dangerous. For example, notwithstanding how […]

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Losing marbles in the Hundred Acre Woods: Comparative approaches for studying psychological disorders

Beloved childhood friends for many – A. A. Milne’s characters from the Hundred Acre Woods also presented models for various psychological disorders – anxiety (Piglet), obsessive-compulsive disorder (Rabbit), depression (Eeyore), ADHD (Tigger). In fact, there is a full body of scientific research examining the various disorders represented by each character, such as a study conducted […]

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From 42 to HMM: An integrative neuroscience theory of the mind

In his seminal work of science fiction, A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams ponders a question, which turns out, unsurprisingly, to be difficult to answer: What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything? In the novel, a super-intelligent civilization builds a super-computer to answer the question. That super-computer cannot answer the […]

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Scan it like Beckham: Facilitating visual search by grouping objects into “teams”

Finding your office key amidst your building key, the lab key, your house key, the other house key in case you need to cat-sit for a friend is like finding a needle in a haystack. People who have tons of keys develop elaborate organizational systems, clumping together keys for similar places―like the Psychology building―which can […]

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Sugar and spice and some things nice: Coordinating on a task increases sharing in 4-year-old Chinese children (especially boys)

What are little boys made of Snips & snails & puppy dogs tails And such are little boys made of. What are little girls made of Sugar & spice & all things nice This very popular rhyme, probably written by English author Robert Southey, has persisted in western culture for nearly two centuries. It embodies […]

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