The bard, William Shakespeare, was a lover of symbolic imagery and flowers and often used flowers to convey meaning between characters and to the audience. Take Romeo & Juliet, for example. Shakespeare uses the imagery of roses (such as represented below) to represent Juliet’s passionate love for Romeo and to emphasize that their love is […]
If you’ve ever checked your smartwatch to see how stressed you are, you’re part of a growing group of people—and scientists—turning to wearable tech for insights about the body and mind. From smart rings to VR headsets, wearables are everywhere. But for researchers, a big question remains: which of these devices produces accurate, reliable data? […]
Spatial ability – the capacity to mentally visualize, rotate, and manipulate objects – is one of several skills that predict achievement in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). People with strong spatial skills can imagine how a structure fits together, picture a molecule in 3D, or mentally navigate complex environments. These abilities are especially important […]
My collaborators and I have been studying “creativity” in non-human animals, such as dolphins, killer whales, and dogs, using a training technique that promotes variable non-verbal behaviors. (Watch this short video to learn about our marine mammal research.) Using this training technique, dubbed “innovate” or “create”, trainers have taught a variety of animals to produce […]
If you like idioms, you’ll be… head over heels… for this research. Allow me to… break the ice… without… beating around the bush. A new study on idioms by Nicholas Griffen and Ira Noveck is… the bee’s knees. In second-language learning classes, ever notice that idiomatic expressions are covered in the more advanced sections? These […]
There’s a mean (not really) but funny (maybe only to me) trick I like to play on my students that starts with a lesson on an experiment. It works for almost any kind of cognitive psychology study, and I start it by walking my students through the design of an experiment—the research question, important variables, […]
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 […]
I’m embarrassed to admit this, but one thing that I’ve been struggling with lately is finding my glasses on my desk at work. I set them down and suddenly they’re nowhere to be found. I’ve even occasionally had to ask another person to come and help me find them. Why is this so challenging? Even […]
Would you ever hand over your private messages for the sake of scientific research? These days, so much of our social lives happen through texts and social media messages. These interactions are all rich sources of data that social psychologists and other researchers would love to study to better understand real-world social behavior. As a […]
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 […]