Picking someone out of a lineup can be tough. Bias in eyewitness testimony is a complicated factor that can influence judicial proceedings. When eyewitnesses identify a criminal, they need to recognize a person’s face, and they need to place them at the scene of the crime. That’s a difficult task for most passersby. We might […]
Learning and Memory
Last week, I was eating dinner with some friends. One friend shared his dream, in which he was taking a high school exam and was just so nervous about thinking how he didn’t study and hence wouldn’t pass. That gave us all a good chuckle – we are all adults way beyond our high school […]
For the last week and a half, I have traveled by plane, by car, by ferry, by kayak, by boat, and by foot, visiting many beautiful locations within the Pacific Northwest in the United States. Whether it is due to my middle-aged brain or the fact that there have just been so many places, I […]
“But when does lack of ‘simplicity’ in the protective belt of theoretical adjustments reach the point at which the theory must be abandoned?” – Lakatos, 1976 What does it take to falsify a psychological theory? This question sounds straightforward: if you find data that are inconsistent with the theory, you reject the theory. But in […]
We have known Larry for a long time. At first it was a one-way affair, when we were in graduate school and read his work. After we studied Larry’s paper on ad-hoc categories our view on semantic memory was never the same again. We had been working on the boundary between episodic and semantic memory, […]
As a cognitive psychologist who leads a higher educational institution, I contemplate the effect of artificial intelligence (AI) on equity and justice every day. This technological era highlights the importance of bridging our knowledge of human cognition and behaviors with the design and execution of codes through machine learning. By understanding cognitive processes such as […]
It’s a beautiful day outside. While you recline comfortably under a tree, you see a small creature in the distance. It has four legs, a long tail, brown fur, and dark eyes that stare directly at you. If you had no prior experience with a creature like this, how would you encode and later remember […]
Everyone struggles to remember things. Whether it’s a home address, someone’s phone number, or even a new acquaintance’s name—it’s challenging to recall information when we need to. We have lost count of the number of times we’ve been introduced to someone only to immediately forget their name. However, some things might be easier to remember […]
Habits can be great for you, such as flossing consistently to preserve oral health, or they can rather be a problem, such as smoking, or something I struggle with from time to time: doomscrolling. I think part of the reason I sometimes get caught in the loop of scrolling endlessly is that I actually get […]
I have played sports my whole life—swimming, tennis, basketball, track, cycling, fencing, soccer—you name it, I have probably tried it. Even though I loved working hard and competing, I still remember boys snidely remarking, “Girls can’t play sports” or “You run like such a girl!” I tried not to listen, but I would be lying if […]