When hand waving turn pistons into engines: The role of gestures in creating understanding

Conversations in Milan, Rome, or Madrid seem ever so much more animated and exciting than those polite chats over a tea cozy in Oxford, London, or Wetwang (Yorkshire). At least in part, this may reflect the greater physical rigor that denizens of the Mediterranean exhibit during their speech. As the New York Times put it: […]

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#goCRPI: A note from the Editor in Chief

(Editor in Chief: Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications) Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications (CRPI) is a new journal with ambitions. Not only do we want to publish first-rate cognitive research, we want to change the standard way that our discipline thinks about basic and applied research. The standard view is dichotomous: Is your research basic, […]

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Seeing the unseen from hands to minds: #goCRPI

The Psychonomic Society launched its latest journal, Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications last week. We will celebrate the new journal, under its acronym CRPI—which is pronounced “Creepee” but in a nice way—for the remainder of this week. Tomorrow we will hear from the founding editor, Jeremy Wolfe, and his thoughts about how the journal will […]

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Zombie apocalypse? Or Zombie bigger bang for the cue?

One of the most hair-raising thought experiments in philosophy of mind is the philosophical zombie, a being that is physically and behaviorally identical to a normal human, but is not conscious of having any mental states, like the fellow on the right in the figure below.     The existence of such a being provides […]

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She’ll eat the red … ladybug: Exploiting constraints during language processing

For a long period of time in language research, people made the assumption that language processing and other aspects of cognition were distinct from each other. For example, most people have the impression that talking while driving is easy, even though talking on the phone can make driving more dangerous. In addition to the idea […]

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Mechanisms of Attentional Control: A Special Issue in Honor of the Contributions of Steven Yantis

Steve Yantis was a leading researcher in attention and cognitive neuroscience who passed away two years ago. In recognition of his work for the Psychonomic Society, one of the Society’s Early Career Awards is named in his honor. And just this week, a special issue of the Psychonomic Society’s journal Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics appeared in honor of the contributions […]

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Why does your tummy hurt: The place or the food?

When we were first married, my husband and I frequented a local BBQ restaurant. He ordered the fried chicken – all drumsticks – and I loved the brisket sandwich. One weekend, we both developed tummy troubles the morning after we ate there, and automatically thought “It must have been the BBQ food!” My husband and […]

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When marine mammals beat the WNBA: Welcome to Heather Hill

It gives me great pleasure to introduce our new Digital Associate Editor, Dr. Heather Hill, who joined our team a few weeks ago. Welcome, Heather, great to have you. Heather’s area of expertise is animal cognition, and her appointment therefore comes with a twinge of sad news because she is replacing Anna Wilkinson.  Anna has been […]

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“My brain made me do it”: Reading our free will(usion)

The waiter asks whether you’d prefer potatoes or rice with your entrecote. Are you free to make that decision based on, well, free will? Or should you respond with “Look, I am a determinist. I will just wait and see what I order because I know that my order is determined”? At first glance, the […]

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The socially protected sex after traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public-health problem around the world. In the United States, around 1 in a 1,000 people suffer TBI—around 1.7 million people every year—although the number can be much higher in other countries, as shown in the figure below. The impact of TBI on survivors and loved ones can be devastating. One […]

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