There are only a handful of things in life that have the ability to cross social, generational, cultural, and economic boundaries. Music is one of them! Whether you are on stage in a symphony hall, a sold-out concert arena, or in the bathroom shower, there is likely a musician in all of us. But what […]
Musical training encompasses a broad range of skills, which likely rely on a similarly large range of cognitive abilities. Consider the act of sight-reading, in which a musician plays from a piece of sheet music they have never seen before. The musician must read the upcoming notes (a feat of translating visual information into a […]
All around us during the Christmas season are images of God taking human form. A divine baby boy conceived by the Holy Spirit and a virgin mother, born in a stable in Bethlehem two millennia ago. A boy who grows into a man, who teaches widely, who is brutally killed. In most Christian traditions, God […]
When we talk about statistical modeling, we often encounter the concept of “degrees of freedom.” Remember? It’s the n-1 in t[n-1] or the [1] in χ2[1]. In our off-the-shelf statistical procedures, the degrees of freedom refers to the information content of some statistical construct. It can loosely be thought of as the number of independent […]
During the last 10 days we published a series of posts that discussed the latest research on canine cognition, stimulated by a special issue of the Psychonomic Society’s journal Learning & Behavior. The digital event has now been given a permanent home at this portal, from which you can access all posts. Here is a […]
Many parents of three- and four-year old children learn very quickly that tantrums can be averted by dividing a cookie into two parts when the child “wants” two cookies or using two cups that are the same size when serving drinks. These tricks mediate the sense of equity or “fairness” that even young humans feel […]
Dogs’ undeniable loyalty to humans has allowed them to carve out a unique niche in our society, quite unlike the status of any other species. Once predominantly utilized as hunting companions and guardians, dogs are now ubiquitous in human life, offering faithful companionship and service. Thanks to their eagerness to cooperate with humans and unquestioning […]
Theory of mind refers to the ability of one person to infer the contents of another person’s mind by observing their behavior. The concept of theory of mind was advanced by Premack and Woodruff as early as 1978 to explain the behavior of chimpanzees. In a landmark article, Povinelli, Nelson, and Boysen reported the classic […]
According to some estimates, there are about 1 billion dogs sharing Planet Earth with us. Most live in largely unrestricted conditions as village or pariah dogs, while only a small percentage of the world’s dog population live independently from humans. Most dogs have to maintain regular connections with humans to share our resources, which is […]
Looking into the eyes of our new puppy, Kit Kat, it is hard not to feel as if she understands me. While I usually describe myself as a cat person, our family cats have never evoked the same feeling of “understanding” for me as our family dogs have, even though the cats arguably spend much […]