What do we mean by visual distraction? Inconceivable insights from 21 scientists

Have you ever had the experience of talking with someone and partway through, you realize that while you both might be using the same vocabulary, what you mean is quite different? Sometimes, this comes from a generational gap. Slang words change frequently, and some words don’t have the same meaning that they once did. For […]

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Turn left, or was it right, at the giant donut – how do we learn to find our way along a new route?

How am I supposed to learn my way around this confusing new place? Picture the following situation: you’re on vacation, you’ve spent all day (and then some) in airports and on planes, and you’ve finally made it to your hotel. Now you’ve got to find your room, and you need to remember how to get […]

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Distilling answers – what do we truly know about memory differences between Deaf and hearing people, and what are the implications?

Is this the right assessment for you? Is it right for me? Imagine you’re back in school (it may have been a while for you!) and you’re undergoing some kind of psychometric assessment, perhaps to see if you need extra support to be the best student you can be. If you’re reading this, it’s probably […]

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Life outside the lab doesn’t come with a manual: Learning the grammar of real behaviour

While you might not think of it, your life and your experience of moving through the world is governed by innumerable sets of rules that you’ve learned. We tend not to think much about these rules or grammars, much less how we learn them, but they’re nearly as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. Imagine […]

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Do bounties make you more confident about how you perceive the world?

Here’s a disconcerting thought: what if the baggage screener at the airport – not that many of us are spending much time in airports these days – got paid a bonus for confidently flagging bags for additional inspection? In an ideal world, they would just assess bags based on the perceptual information they have from […]

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