In the past I’ve been accused of various forms of laziness—not taking advantage of a beautiful day, whiling away my childhood, not studying for my next test, whiling away my adolescence, not writing my dissertation, whiling away my 20s, 30s, etc.—when really I’ve been hard at work watching TV and movies. That the optimal method […]
Attention
Unfortunately for me, one of the first things I see most mornings is an ad. It’s largely my fault—I have the extremely terrible habit of keeping my phone next to me at night and then an arguably worse habit of checking Twitter (excuse me, X) in the morning, leading me to inevitably scroll past an […]
A few paces into a walk one day, my friend’s dog found, nestled under a pile of autumn leaves, the most wonderful treasure the world could offer: a discarded box of half-eaten chicken wings. Before my friend could pull her dog away, the wings were gone—inhaled with the speed of an opportunist who knows better […]
Here’s a challenge. While you read this post, I want you to stay completely focused. Don’t let your attention drift – no checking emails, thinking about your lunch plans, or petting your dog. Sounds easy enough, right? Sometimes, it’s hard to pay attention. Sometimes the task is too difficult, sometimes other things distract you, or […]
November is here. The leaves changed from green into vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds and carpeted the streets. The air chilled, so my winter clothes reappeared, replacing my summer clothes, as I braced myself for the colder months ahead. Root vegetables supplanted fresh salads on my menus. For me, an American in the UK, November […]
In this episode of All Things Cognition, I interviewed Anna Kosovicheva and Ben Wolfe (pictured below) about their research described in an article recently published in the Psychonomic Society journal, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. They co-authored the paper with the first Editor in Chief of another of the Society’s journals, Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, Jeremy Wolfe. […]
Online interactions and robots are increasingly common. We spend more time on video calls and we interact more and more with virtual assistants, chatbots, and avatars. We have created new verbs: it almost feels more natural to say that we are “zooming” than “having a video call”. And certain names, like “Alexa”, may bring a […]
If you’re like me, you’ve been busy trying out new hobbies in the last couple of years. Maybe you’ve taken up gardening, sculpting, hiking, or knitting. Or perhaps you’ve taken up a more unusual one: competitive duck herding, extreme ironing, ostrich racing, or worm charming. (Yes, these are all real activities!). But before you run […]
In this episode of All Things Cognition, I interviewed Caitlin Sisk (pictured below). Caitlin took a break from wedding celebrations in Cape Cod to tell me about the research she and co-authors published recently in the Psychonomic Society journal, Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications (CRPI). To be clear, she was attending the wedding, not a star […]
We all know that multitasking while driving can have deadly consequences. In the U.S. alone, 3142 deaths and over 400,000 injuries were caused by distracted driving in 2020. In fact, texting while driving doubles your chances of being the cause of an accident. But is all driving-related multitasking this dangerous? A recent report by Mallory […]