A tale of two island nations: Lessons for crisis knowledge management

When confronted with the Black Death in the middle ages, leading authorities resorted to analysis of the position of the planets —Jupiter’s hostility against Mars features prominently— to explain the plague. Today, authorities rely mainly on science to explain and manage the COVID-19 pandemic. The success of this is borne out in countries such as […]

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Ignoring your family but not your teacher: Irrelevant speech and talker familiarity

We rarely listen to just one stream of information at a time. Whether we are at a dinner party, on a crowded bus, or talking on the phone while walking down a busy street, more often than not there are multiple voices that compete for our attention. People are generally very good at focusing on […]

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#psynom19: The next generation of Psychonomes

The annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society in Montreal drew to a close last Sunday. Following tradition (anything that lasts more than 4 years surely qualifies as a tradition?), I e-interviewed a few mainly junior researchers who were presenting posters at the meeting. I hope this gives us a better sense of what the next […]

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Spinal Tap in the lab: Why loudness fatigues with two ears but not one

Noise can be annoying. It is also by far the most common preventable cause of hearing impairment. Unsurprisingly, noise levels in the workplace are therefore subject to occupational health regulations. Workers must wear headphones to protect themselves against noise from chainsaws, jet engines, or any other loud device. No such standards exist for recreational noise, […]

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Prosody and a Christmas Carol: Welcome to Brett Myers

The Psychomic Society’s Digital Team is welcoming another Digital Associate Editor: Brett Myers has joined our team. Because there have been quite a few recent changes to the team, here is the lineup of current Digital Associate Editors: The newest member, Brett Myers, is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders […]

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Facilitating your fovea’s focus by crowding your periphery: Visual crowding in 3-D

We owe most of our visual acuity to the fovea, the central area of the retina that is most densely packed with receptors—around 150,000 cones per square millimetre. Whenever we focus on an object, we move our eyes so ensure that the image is projected onto the fovea. And we see whatever is there, irrespective of […]

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Mortgage disclosures: When sweet nothings are neither sweet nor nothing

Imagine living in a home for decades and then someone, perhaps an armed law enforcement officer, shows up and removes you and your belongings, often facing an uncertain future. Foreclosure of one’s home is right up there among life’s most stressful events. Not surprisingly, foreclosures have been associated with an increased incidence of major depression, […]

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