Scientific Practice

#WeNeedEDI digital event introduction

For the next two weeks, we are running a digital event called “#WeNeedEDI: Striving for equality, diversity, and inclusion throughout academics’ careers.” The event focuses on the experiences of underrepresented academics and potential ways to increase equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) as we go from early-career academics to emeriti.  The Psychonomic Society “recognizes the strategic […]

Continue Reading

Reducing the noise in scientific literature

Spoilers for Everything, Everywhere, All At Once: In the best movie of the year, protagonist Evelyn Wang (portrayed by the inimitable Michelle Yeoh) navigates, among many things, her taxes, complicated family dynamics, at least one raccoon, intense fight sequences (both kung fu and metaphorical in nature), and some unconventional uses of professional accolades in order […]

Continue Reading

The Goldilocks zone of sample size: Getting it just right

“This chair is too big!” she exclaimed. So she sat in the second chair. “This chair is too big, too!” she whined. So she tried the last and smallest chair. “Ahhh, this chair is just right,” she sighed. But just as she settled down into the chair to rest, it broke into pieces! –  Southey […]

Continue Reading

Playing with words: How the Brysbaert lab developed a new battery of language tests

“The impious warbler delved into the paltry aperitif and anointed the pumice with ineffable rigmarole.” That’s a sentence with a lot of big words (and I hope it’s never been uttered before), but if you understood that I was referring to a nasty little bird that wiped some booze on a rock, then you may […]

Continue Reading

Bayes prevails in implicit learning categorization and beyond

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 […]

Continue Reading

Is it a bird or a plane or maybe Superman? Can we measure the moment this decision was made?

Let’s set the stage with a series of images.       Each of these pictorial examples represents a different aspect of decision-making, which requires the ability to compare incoming stimuli quickly to behave appropriately. In the case of the flying stimuli in the first set of images, a human might be asked to categorize […]

Continue Reading

The dark side of older adults’ motivation to do well in the lab

Older adults are more motivated than younger adults to do well in lab studies.  What does this mean for our understanding of cognitive aging? If you’re a psychologist who studies cognitive aging, chances are you recruit younger adults (18-22 years) from the college or university and older adults (65+ years) from the community and have […]

Continue Reading

How do we build a better online environment for crisis-relevant science?

At the Psychonomic Society Digital Event, Research in Time of Crisis, in May 2020, members contributed ideas on how to do “science without the drag.” That is, how do we produce, evaluate, and disseminate high-quality research to match the rapid pace of decision-making needed in the face of COVID-19? Below are the links to the […]

Continue Reading