When we launched the Psychonomic Society’s featured content site back in 2014, we had a simple idea: take the remarkable work of cognitive scientists and make it approachable, inviting a broader community into the conversation. Over the years, we did just that. Through blog posts (over 800!), podcasts (6 seasons!), interviews, research highlights, and digital […]
If attention were a muscle, most of us would swear ours had been skipping leg day. One minute you’re reading an email, the next you’re three tabs deep into a recipe for a croquembouche that looks like a “Kraken bush”—and you don’t remember how you got there. Psychologists call the ability to stay on task […]
Humans are quite skilled at detecting patterns subconsciously. If you listen to a new song for the first time, you can probably follow the beat or predict how the melody will change next. If you go into a new grocery store, you can probably navigate to the potatoes based on your experience in other stores. […]
If you like idioms, you’ll be… head over heels… for this research. Allow me to… break the ice… without… beating around the bush. A new study on idioms by Nicholas Griffen and Ira Noveck is… the bee’s knees. In second-language learning classes, ever notice that idiomatic expressions are covered in the more advanced sections? These […]
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 […]
As consumers in the world, we are surrounded by ploys and tactics that nudge us into certain behaviors. This is especially true during the holiday shopping season. If I had a nickel for every advertisement I saw that tried to get me to buy today’s hot new deal… well, I’d probably spend all my nickels. […]
Is it likely to rain today? Do you think the Ravens will win their next game? Is now a good time to buy stock in that one tech company? We make predictions like the ones above all the time. We do this using probability estimates. What is the probability of this event happening based on […]
Color fills our world. Color makes our visual landscape exciting, vibrant, and full of character. Color also has meaning that extends far beyond color. Different cultures have associated meanings to different colors. Green, yellow, and red may be linked to traffic signals. Brown, orange, and yellow may indicate a seasonal change in nature. Universities are […]
Picking someone out of a lineup can be tough. Bias in eyewitness testimony is a complicated factor that can influence judicial proceedings. When eyewitnesses identify a criminal, they need to recognize a person’s face, and they need to place them at the scene of the crime. That’s a difficult task for most passersby. We might […]
Have you ever visited a foreign country or region and found your own speech being influenced by the accent of the native people? Or perhaps you live far from home, and when you go back, your speech shifts back to the local accent? This happens to me every time I visit my family in Baltimore, […]