Cogito ergo sum. Thus spake René Descartes, usually translated into English as “I think, therefore I am.” Thinking is what makes us human—quite literally so because homo sapiens means “wise man”. So what does it mean to think, let alone to be wise? Much debate can be had about that question, but it seems safe […]
Asking your waiter what beers are on tap should come with a trigger warning, because the simple question may trigger a cognitive challenge. From Heineken to Becks and some other local boutique IPAs whose names you cannot even pronounce, the list can be so extensive that you are put into frantic rehearsal mode just to […]
The world around us is structured. Certain features of objects just go together. Imagine a muscular sports car in a 1950s black-and-white photograph, like this classic Ferrari 340: What do you think its color was? And what color would you guess a 1950’s VW beetle in a grayscale image was? Chances are you did not […]
As we approach a new academic year—at least in the northern hemisphere—there have been some changes on the digital team. Richard Morey has decided to withdraw from the team owing to his other editorial commitments. We are sad to see Richard go because he has been doing a terrific job covering the areas of methodology […]
Reproducibility is the hallmark of science. It has been argued that a finding needs to be repeatable to count as a scientific discovery and that replicability is a line of demarcation that separates science from pseudoscience. The fact that a recent large replication effort of 100 studies found that fewer than half of cognitive and social psychology […]
We experience potentially emotive stimuli all the time. Some of us suffer intense outrage when we mistakenly tune into Fox News. Others have the same experience when they stumble upon CNN. We all have developed strategies to cope with those events, a skill known as emotion regulation. Although emotions are often portrayed as “irresistible forces”—there […]
Apparently the internet, video games, and social media are damaging our children’s development, and are responsible for the increase in autism over the last few decades—or so it has been claimed, although that claim hasn’t withstood scrutiny. Similarly, Wikipedia has an entry for something known as Internet addiction disorder, which apparently occurs when internet use […]
People are capable of inferring many attributes of an object by wielding it. Pick up a hammer and you can get a fairly good idea of its length, width, and shape (an ability that is known as exteroception). You will also acquire information about the orientation of the hammer in your hand (exproprioception), and your […]
Imagine settling into the well-deserved holiday on the Ningaloo Reef. The Indian Ocean is warm and gentle and you go for your first exploratory snorkel. The corals are beginning to recover from their latest bleach and the number and coloring of the tropical fish is as enchanting as it is astounding. And then you take […]
You reach for the life-saving glass of water handed to you from the judge’s bench, with a bit of assistance from your co-defendant. You take a sip and the rest is movie history. What happens to your attention during that sequence of events? When we plan a movement, for example to reach for a glass […]