How are the meanings of words, events and objects represented and organized in the brain? When we think of a dog, what representation are we invoking? Is there such thing as an abstract dogness—the doggiest of all dogs—or do we merely remember one of many stored exemplars of dogs that we have encountered in our lives? (If […]
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Perhaps like no other medium, movies have articulated, reflected, and shaped our culture for nearly a century. On the positive side, they have brought enjoyment to millions and made us want to have what she’s having. On the darker side, they have been effective tools of totalitarian propaganda. But […]
Groundhog Day is better for your homework: We adapt to attentional conflict but only if nothing changes William James famously postulated that the world presents itself as “one great blooming, buzzing confusion” to an infant, whose senses are constantly assaulted by visual, auditory, tactile and olfactory stimuli. To make sense of the world requires attention, […]
We forget. Whether we trade the name of a fish for the name of a student, or whether we eventually forget the name of the U.S. President, the loss of information from memory is nearly always unavoidable. The reasons that underlie forgetting are, however, still debated. One putative mechanism that has attracted considerable attention is the idea […]
The TV is tuned to the Superbowl channel and popcorn and a cold beverage are at hand. What more could one need to enjoy a few relaxing hours? Actually, if you are among the people who media multitask, then you would have to throw in at least a smartphone and a laptop to satisfy your craving […]
Humans are social beings and by and large we understand each other. In particular, we have a sense of how others are feeling and what others might be thinking or what information they have access to. If your spouse calls you on the phone to ask whether you can find the wallet that they forgot […]
The Granada meeting has drawn to a close after an intense and action-filled three days, and a very brief recap of the highlights seems in order, especially for the social (media) aspects. I think most attendees would agree with me that the meeting was organized to a nearly mind-boggling degree of perfection. With more than […]
The International Meeting of the Psychonomic Society 2016 in Granada, Spain, will commence a week from today. The scientific program is available here and promises a varied and exciting meeting. The lineup of keynote speakers is particularly notable: Judith Kroll will be giving the opening keynote on Thursday (5th May) on Two languages in mind: Bilingualism as a lens to cognition. […]
When today’s grass is greener than tomorrow’s gold: Modeling temporal discounting We value the present more than the future. When given the choice, very few people would prefer to wait a month to receive $51 if the alternative were to receive $50 today, even though the accrual during this delay would correspond to a whopping […]
When you chuang to close the chuang because you want to go to chuang: Modeling spoken word recognition in Chinese We noted earlier this week that Chinese is a language without inflection of verbs or nouns. That is, whereas in English you “walk” and Fred “walks”, in Chinese the same word would be used irrespective of who […]