Years ago, I was staying with a few flatmates during an exchange program. Conversations in this type of setting tend to have a good dose of randomness, and here is a funny one that I remembered while writing this post. One day, one of my flatmates asked: “Have you seen a red and purple toothbrush?” […]
Learning and Memory
Humans are quite skilled at detecting patterns subconsciously. If you listen to a new song for the first time, you can probably follow the beat or predict how the melody will change next. If you go into a new grocery store, you can probably navigate to the potatoes based on your experience in other stores. […]
It feels a bit odd to say this as an academic, but I am largely very glad to not be a student anymore. I do not miss sitting in crowded lecture halls, or taking exams, or studying for long hours into the night before said exams. I especially don’t miss feeling like I wasted so […]
In this podcast episode, Jonathan Caballero interviews Oliver Bontkes and Dr. Eva Rubínová about their recent paper published in Memory and Cognition about repeated‑event memories and how their position on the semantic–episodic continuum can differ. Transcript Kosovicheva: You are listening to all Things Cognition, a Psychonomic Society podcast. Caballero: I’m Jonathan Caballero, and I will […]
Is your dog happy to see you when she wags her tail? Is your cat content because he is “making biscuits” or kneading your head? Is your bird annoyed because she just squawked? Like Charles Darwin, most people have no trouble believing that animals have emotions. Darwin believed that emotions were universal, inherited, and reflective […]
Ever confuse two people you’ve met, particularly if they’re both of a different race than you are? It’s likely that part of why this is hard for you is the Other Race Effect, where we find people whose appearance differs from our own to be harder to tell apart. This happens even when we’re motivated […]
Every so often, I get random chest pain and immediately spiral – is this it? Am I having a heart attack? Then I remind myself that I’m 25, probably overcaffeinated, and maybe just a little stressed. This type of irrational leap (thankfully) isn’t unique to just me. In fact, doctors are trained to avoid jumping […]
In this podcast episode, Anthony Cruz interviews authors about a recent paper published in Memory & Cognition on the confidence of LLMs. Transcripts Kosovicheva: You’re listening to All Things Cognition, a Psychonomic Society podcast. Cruz: Hello, you’re listening to All Things Cognition, a Psychonomic Society podcast. I will be your host today, Anthony Cruz. Confidence […]
You’ve heard the saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” which captures the idea that beauty is subjective. The same could probably be said about truth, especially when it comes to memory. Perceptions of how accurate a communicated memory is aren’t necessarily shaped by how accurate the memory actually is, but by the […]
Whether you are an air traffic controller, a transportation security officer, a gamer, a student studying for finals, a writer trying to meet a deadline, or a parent, the ability to maintain attention for extended periods without getting distracted can be crucial. However, as many humans have experienced, sustaining attention to a task, especially one […]