June 30, 2005
Category: Development / Aging
Most religions, from Anabaptism to Zoroastrianism, feature some version of Christianity's "Golden Rule": Do undo others, as you would have them do unto you. Aside from being a nice concept, how do we benefit from helping others? From an individual...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 1:06 PM • 4 Comments •
June 28, 2005
Category: Learning and testing
Though you'll never hear her tell you, Greta is an excellent musician. She's a brilliant English horn and oboe player, and she can also handle the piano keyboard. When a nonmusician hears her play, they'll often tell her how they...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 2:06 PM • 8 Comments •
June 24, 2005
Category: Memory
I like rock music, but my father-in-law doesn't. My son Jim likes horror movies, but his mom doesn't. While some of our preferences can be explained easily—for example, we usually don't like things that cause us pain—others are more difficult...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 11:06 AM • 13 Comments •
June 22, 2005
Category: Memory
Today's research psychologists typically don't think much of Sigmund Freud. His theories, which tended to be based on literary analysis and interviews with his patients rather than controlled experiments, have been largely discredited (though they continue to be influential in...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 1:06 PM • 35 Comments •
June 20, 2005
Category: Social
Every parent wants his or her child to do well in school. They help the kids with their homework, volunteer in the classroom, do everything they can think of to help their children succeed. But what type of elementary school...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 5:06 PM • 1 Comments •
June 17, 2005
Category: Perception
There's been a great deal of research on appetite and satiation, both on animals and humans. For humans, of course, the motivation is often focused on how we can lose weight. Almost everyone believes they would look better if they...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 7:06 AM • 11 Comments •
June 15, 2005
Category: Language
It has been known for some time that cell phones can lead to driving accidents. After watching the behavior of some other drivers on the road, I'm sometimes surprised that there aren't more cell-phone-related accidents than there already are. With...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 12:06 PM • 11 Comments •
June 13, 2005
Category: Perception
Adults have been found cross-culturally to prefer blue to other colors. It's a nearly universal preference. But does this preference occur naturally, or do children and infants have different preferences? Prior to 2001, there wasn't a definitive answer to this...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 9:06 PM • 10 Comments •
June 10, 2005
Category: Perception
When I was about twelve years old, I came up with an idea for a massive practical joke to play on an unsuspecting baby. For its entire childhood, everyone around the baby would conspire to convince it that the sky...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 2:06 PM • 1 Comments •
June 8, 2005
Category: Memory
When I started work on a memoir about my childhood, I thought remembering what actually happened would be the easy part. I had very specific memories of very specific events, and I wrote them down exactly as I remembered them....
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Posted by Dave Munger at 7:06 PM • 3 Comments •