Learning and Memory

Trivia Time! Lessons from a megastudy on crystallized intelligence

Let’s get this post started with a cognitive science themed trivia question. What’s the name of the intelligence component comprising declarative and procedural knowledge learnt by an individual throughout their life span? The answer is: crystallized intelligence. Information such as the number of different words a person knows (vocabulary size) and the ability to retrieve […]

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Comparing early and late signers’ links between spatial language and memory

If you watched the Academy Award winning film, CODA (trailer below), you’ll appreciate that the character who played the son is a native signer. That is, he learned sign language from his parents from the start. How do we learn spatial relations? It’s a fundamental ability we pick up early. Much of what we know […]

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Roses are red, violets are blue, rhyme improves memory, for me and for you

Rhyming verses may make you think of Shakespearean sonnets or old-fashioned love poems. Yet, rhymes are ubiquitous in modern life. We remember how to spell words by repeating “i before e, except after c,” and the number of days in the months through “Thirty days hath September …,” Attorneys admonish jurors that “if it doesn’t […]

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Musical spaces or spatial music: Is music reading special or a specialized skill?

In fourth grade, I learned to play the trumpet. Although my very musically inclined father attempted to teach me piano before then, my band director gets the credit for teaching me to read the music. Two key mnemonics were instrumental in my success in remembering the treble clef notes. Treble clef notes are the upper […]

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Don’t look away! How tracking eye movements can help us learn about fear

It feels like, culturally speaking, we’ve developed quite an interest in the role of fear, anxiety, and trauma in shaping our everyday lives. Popular works of fiction explore the trauma and anxieties of their characters in settings that range from the mundane to the fantastical; just look at the popularity of TV shows like Ted […]

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I don’t know what working memory interference is, I’m a musician

Music and language share many cognitive features. Not surprisingly, it has been argued that they may have shared evolutionary origins and are present in every culture. I have a soft spot for cognitive studies in these two areas. When reading my earlier posts, you may notice that I covered topics such as bilingualism, the acoustics of emotions in the voice, […]

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L&B Special Issue on David Sherry: Interview with Sherry

Intro Adding to his long list of awards, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus David Sherry (pictured below) of Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, was awarded the Comparative Cognition Society 2021 Research Award. Recipients of the award give a master lecture at the International Conference on Comparative Cognition and a Special Issue in the Psychonomic Society’s journal, Learning & Behavior, is dedicated to research […]

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L&B Special Issue on David Sherry: Interview with MacDougall-Shackleton

Professor David Sherry (pictured below) is the awardee of the Comparative Cognition Society‘s Annual Research Award for 2021 for his contributions in the field of comparative psychology. The award is associated with a Special Issue in Learning & Behavior in honor of his research. In the interview, I talk with Professor Scott MacDougall-Shackleton (pictured below), on the the Guest Editors of the […]

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Gone (as a DAE) but not forgotten: Interview with Kimele Persaud

Kimele Persaud is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University and a long-serving Digital Associate Editor (DAE; pictured below). Kimele has decided to leave the Digital Content team, much to my chagrin. This post is an interview about her time as a DAE. Having been familiar with her writings, I first met Kimele in real life […]

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