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 […]
Attention
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 […]
Does Stanley Hudson, from The Office (US), sport a moustache? In an opener from the now-classic NBC sitcom, The Office (US), Dunder Mifflin staff members debate over whether their colleague has a moustache. The episode starts with the announcement that Stanley Hudson, a Black employee, is returning from his recent tonsillectomy, and his colleagues get […]
When was the last time you looked for a T among Ls? Unless you spend a lot of time in the lab, running in visual search experiments, your experience of visual search probably isn’t looking for Ts amongst Ls. Your experience of visual search in day to day life is probably more like “where’s my […]
Researchers have argued for centuries over two leading statistical approaches: Bayesian analysis and the Frequentist approach. Both holding their own complex (and convincing) reasoning, well-meaning researchers can all agree on the goal of their analyses: reaching conclusions with the least amount of bias and error. The war between Bayesians and Frequentists is likely far from […]
What does being in nature actually do for us? In the last couple of years, when we’ve all been in lockdown and had to work from home for prolonged periods, we’ve each probably thought “I should get out of the house and get some fresh air” – but does that help in more than the […]