Psychology:
There have recently been several articles in the media about brain enhancers, so-called Nootropics, or "smart drugs". They have been abused by college students for many years now, but they are now seeping into other places where long periods of...
Posted on April 1, 2008 11:47 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In 1986, 22-year-old Boston Celtics forward Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose. This week, DrugMonkey argued that Bias' death--as opposed to educational programs like DARE--was the major reason why self-reported rates of cocaine use by 20-year-olds dropped from 20%...
Posted on March 5, 2008 8:47 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Thanks to John Wilkins, I want to point you to an excellent review on the current state of research (both scientific and philosophical) in Animal Cognition....
Posted on January 8, 2008 9:23 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is the third post in the series. I mentioned before that my Mom taped her story for the Shoah project. You can access the tapes through the RENCI site. Also, regulars here know that my Mom reads this blog...
Posted on December 26, 2007 10:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
My son is working on a paper for school and he picked the topic of video games and how they affect behavior. He primed himself by playing Assassin's Creed for a couple of days, so he could aggressively look for...
Posted on December 8, 2007 4:24 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Hmm, I did not know this - apparently the left hemisphere of the human brain falls asleep first, and the right one a little bit later in most people. I wonder if that has any connection with the reason we...
Posted on December 6, 2007 8:42 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The other day, Kate wrote an interesting post about inter-species relationships, in particular the cases of inter-species adoption and parenting. In her post, she mentioned a paper that immediately drew my attention - Influence of various early human-foal interferences on...
Posted on December 3, 2007 10:59 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
..that is adolescence. And the research on what adolescents find attractive. For a few years. Until they gain the gift of speech and hearing, look up, and find beauty in the mind. Unfortunately, some never do....
Posted on November 26, 2007 9:25 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Rockridge Institute published a set of articles (and a video ad) that I found quite interesting about the way to frame health care. See for yourself: Introduction to Rockridge's Health Care Campaign: Framing for Rockridge is about the honest expression...
Posted on October 30, 2007 10:46 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
No Girrafes On Unicycles Beyond This Point...
Posted on October 28, 2007 1:15 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
New Journal Club!
Posted on October 16, 2007 9:07 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Galilei kicked us out of the Center of the Universe. Darwin kicked us off the Pinnacle of Creation Freud kicked the Soul out of our Brains. Few remain adherents of Geocentrism. The opponents of evolution are legion and very vocal...
Posted on October 3, 2007 2:37 AM • 36 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Come see Sapolsky, Deacon, de Waal, Rosenberg, Dennett, Fox Keller and others talk about what it means to be human (or chimp).
Posted on September 14, 2007 9:16 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Over the past several months, Alvaro of SharpBrains blog interviewed eleven neuroscientists on the topic of the ability to use various techniques to affect the way our brains function - brain training. He has now put together a collection of...
Posted on September 6, 2007 9:50 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It is certainly possible. Compared to some people I know, I am definitely not. I have read each of the books once (more than halfway through the 7th - so do not give me spoilers yet!) and I have seen...
Posted on July 26, 2007 2:12 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Echidne, Amanda Marcotte, Laelaps and Larry Moran beautifully destroy the "Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature" article from the recent issue of 'Psychology Today', the latest garbage from the Evolutionary Psychology crowd. Much fun was had by all.......
Posted on July 12, 2007 9:56 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I don't know, but Grrrl and Archy tried to answer that question......
Posted on July 3, 2007 10:40 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
What Archy says... Related......
Posted on June 28, 2007 12:32 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Two ancient posts of mine, Why Creationists Need To Be Creationists and Creationism Is Just One Symptom Of Conservative Pathology are getting heavy traffic right now from Stumbleupon and Reddit. I posted a comment there trying to get people to...
Posted on June 3, 2007 1:26 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In the May 18th issue of Science there is a revew paper by Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg. An expanded version of it also appeared recently in Edge and many science bloggers are discussing it these days. Enrique has...
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Posted on May 31, 2007 1:28 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A must-read by Sara Robinson. You can use it to understand the persistence of Creationism. Or the lack of Internal Locus of Moral Authority in people belonging to Moral Majority....
Posted on May 17, 2007 9:50 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Here, have a go at it. Even better, if you can get the actual paper and dissect it on your blog, let me know so I can link to that. Have fun! Good Behavior, Religiousness May Be Genetic: A new...
Posted on April 8, 2007 2:55 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
My SciBlings Chris Mooney and Matt Nisbet just published an article in 'Science' (which, considering its topic is, ironically, behind the subscription wall, but you can check the short press release) about "Framing Science" Carl Zimmer, PZ Myers, Mike Dunford...
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Posted on April 7, 2007 3:33 AM • 29 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Energy Use Study Demonstrates Remarkable Power Of Social Norms: Most people want to be normal. So, when we are given information that underscores our deviancy, the natural impulse is to get ourselves as quickly as we can back toward the...
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Posted on April 6, 2007 2:04 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
When I ask a guy for something, I may get Yes as an answer half the time and No half the time. Yes mostly means Yes and No means No. If the answer is "Let me think about it", that...
Posted on March 31, 2007 2:29 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Eavesdropping Nuthatches Appear To Understand Chickadees In Distress: If Dr. John Watson had been chronicling the work of Christopher Templeton rather than the exploits of Sherlock Holmes, he might have entitled the latest research by Templeton "The Adventure of the...
Posted on March 21, 2007 8:12 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Escalating Truth: Words have meanings; they express ideas and ideas are important. The word "surge" came with the idea of a relatively small short-term increase in force that would be effective. Such previous troop increases had been ineffective and the...
Posted on February 16, 2007 9:50 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Slow-wave Activity During Sleep Affected By Quality, Intensity Of Wakefulness: A study published in the February 1st issue of the journal SLEEP provides a first direct demonstration that the "quality" and "intensity" of wakefulness can affect slow-wave activity (SWA) during...
Posted on February 6, 2007 10:19 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A study that would have been much better if the authors could have had free access to the literature...
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Posted on February 5, 2007 11:54 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is two years old (February 16, 2005) but still as provocative....(also my belated contirbution to the Blog For Choice Day) and I'll repost the second part of it next Friday....
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Posted on January 26, 2007 11:09 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
There is a new manuscript online which I will undoubtedly find interesting, I bet, once I find time to read its 52 pages (OK, double-spaced TXT with a long list of references and an Appendix of stats): The Secret Lives...
Posted on January 9, 2007 10:58 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
According to this article (and the podcast of the NPR show linked there), you should like my deep voice. I got it from my Dad. He sang the deepest Bass in many choirs over decades, toured the world and cut...
Posted on December 17, 2006 1:36 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Let me state up front that this is not a topic I know anything about, but I have always had a curiosity for it, so let me just throw some thoughts out into the Internets and see if commenters or...
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Posted on December 13, 2006 11:58 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3...
Posted on December 11, 2006 12:42 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
You know that Bush-apologists say crazy things. They get cited, chastized and mocked for it every day on the liberal blogs, after all. You may have also wandered, by mistake, onto comment threads on Little Green Foodballs, or The Corner,...
Posted on November 29, 2006 11:57 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Another one on psychology of political ideology (form April 08, 2005):...
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Posted on November 17, 2006 10:51 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Earlier today I was listening to The Story with Dick Gordon on WUNC91.5FM and it was about the persuasive power of the human voice. This is something I was always interested in. The guest was Anne Karpf, author of Human...
Posted on November 3, 2006 2:55 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Dave proposes Sara disposes You comment....
Posted on November 2, 2006 11:42 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Humans do it, great apes do it, dolphins do it, now elephants (also here) have also been shown to do it - recognize themselves in the mirror, i.e., realize that the image in the mirror is the image of themselves...
Posted on October 31, 2006 10:33 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Go help Chris do a study on framing in politics....
Posted on October 25, 2006 8:58 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
NOTE: Bumped to top to draw attention to added links: Provocative and excellent post by Sara Robinson: There's Something About The Men. Most definitely read the comments as well. Then come back here in half an hour and read an...
Posted on October 23, 2006 9:57 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Meandering Musings on evolutionary psychology and many other things....
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Posted on October 11, 2006 11:00 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It's looking good. Certainly much smaller than the roomful of metal we are used to seeing in hospitals. Do you remember when computers used to fill entire rooms? Now take a look at your cell phone. Now think MRI in...
Posted on September 17, 2006 11:03 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Nicotine Lessens Symptoms Of Depression In Nonsmokers: Nicotine may improve the symptoms of depression in people who do not smoke, Duke University Medical Center scientists have discovered. The finding does not mean that people with depression should smoke or even...
Posted on September 14, 2006 11:58 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Obligatory Readings of the Day: Amanda: Disney emerges from the grave, demands right wing propaganda so he can stop spinning Publius: ABOUT THAT LENIN ANALOGY David Neiwert: Projecting fascism Sara Robinson: Tunnels and Bridges: A Short Detour RobertDFeinmanOvercoming the Authoritarian...
Posted on September 6, 2006 10:12 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This article looks into the possible causes of the recent crash in Lexington....
Posted on September 4, 2006 8:57 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Where does one start with debunking fallacies in this little article? Oy vey! Dolphins and whales are dumber than goldfish and don't have the know-how to match a rat, new research from South Africa shows. For years, humans have assumed...
Posted on August 28, 2006 9:03 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Bumble Bees Can Estimate Time Intervals: In a finding that broadens our understanding of time perception in the animal kingdom, researchers have discovered that an insect pollinator, the bumble bee, can estimate the duration of time intervals. Although many insects...
Posted on August 26, 2006 2:41 PM • 2 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
It is great when you write a blog post about somebody, then that somebody shows up in the comments and clarifies his position thus starting an interesting conversation (both in the comments and via e-mail), then you realize that his book-signing tour is bringing that somebody to your town, so you go there and meet that somebody in person and have a great conversation, which inspires you to write yet another blog post - the one under the fold....
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Posted on August 25, 2006 11:54 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is not a real book review - I never got to writing it - but it is about a book I mention quite often in my blog posts and think is one of the most insightful about the conservative mindset.
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Posted on August 21, 2006 11:58 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The third part of the series on authoritarian psychology by Sara Robinson is now up on Orcinus. It tackles the strategies for dealing with (and hopefully healing and converting) the victims of authoritarian upbringing who turned out authoritarian themselves. The...
Posted on August 16, 2006 10:30 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is interesting: Landscapes And Human Behavior: On Arizona State University's (ASU) Polytechnic campus, graduate student families in the cluster of six houses abutting lush lawns and ornamental bushes spend time together talking while their kids play outside. Meanwhile, the...
Posted on August 10, 2006 10:29 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
New Depression Findings Could Alter Treatments. Kids on antidepressants more likely to commit suicide? I have heard about this several times before, but I believe this is a first study directly asking this question: "The researchers found no link between...
Posted on August 8, 2006 1:28 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Sexual Lyrics Prompt Teens to Have Sex: Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study found. Whether it's hip-hop, rap, pop or rock, much of...
Posted on August 7, 2006 12:53 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is a test balloon to see how my new, expanded readership will respond to my political rants.
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Posted on August 1, 2006 4:42 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Survey questions themselves may affect behavior: Simply asking college students who are inclined to take drugs about their illegal-drug use in a survey may increase the behavior, according to a study that's making researchers understandably nervous. "We ask people questions,...
Posted on July 21, 2006 4:25 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A reaction to the misunderstanding of Lakoff's term "Nurturant Parent".
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Posted on July 21, 2006 10:59 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This post was a response to a decent (though not too exciting) study and the horrible media reporting on it. As the blogosphere focused on the press releases, I decided to look at the paper itself and see what...
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Posted on July 12, 2006 10:59 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I just finished listening to Fresh Air on NPR. Terry Gross had an interview with Geoffrey Nunberg whose book, Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show just...
Posted on July 6, 2006 4:08 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
OK, today I'd like you to superimpose a couple of very different articles that all look at the difference between patriotism and nationalism, but each from a different angle and see if, and how, they inform each other. First, I'd...
Posted on July 6, 2006 1:15 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is a quick, rough translation of an article that ran in a Serbian newspaper a few days ago. It is written by a professor of psychology at the University of Belgrade, Prof.Dr.Zarko Trebjesanin, whose book about psychology of Tesla...
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Posted on July 3, 2006 8:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This post takes a critical look at some UCLA studies on brain responses of partisan voters exposed to images of Bush and Kerry.
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Posted on June 30, 2006 10:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Trying to figure out the psychology (and politics) underlying refusal to understand evolution.
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Posted on June 28, 2006 10:59 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Bush Is Not Incompetent by George Lakoff: Progressives have fallen into a trap. Emboldened by President Bush's plummeting approval ratings, progressives increasingly point to Bush's "failures" and label him and his administration as incompetent. Self-satisfying as this criticism may be,...
Posted on June 26, 2006 4:20 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Synapse, new carnival of neuroscience - from molecules to cognition and everything in-between - is the first carnival that originated here on SEED scienceblogs.com. Today, the first edition saw the light of day, so you should go over to...
Posted on June 25, 2006 2:10 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Yes, I know that I am supposed to be the resident expert on all things temporal (check the name of this blog, after all), and I am actually very interested in the topic of subjective perception of time (in humans,...
Posted on June 20, 2006 11:57 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
