July 28, 2005
Category: Perception
Imagine sitting in a coffee shop, having a nice conversation with your friend Dave. If Dave looks at something, your eyes will reflexively move to look at the same item. This is actually quite convenient, because it may help you...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 9:07 AM • 3 Comments •
July 25, 2005
Category: Social
With my high school reunion coming up, memories just seem to well up out of nowhere. One of the most powerful was that of my cross-country coach's booming voice yelling "stride, Munger, stride!" across the track. I wasn't the best...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 8:07 AM • 0 Comments •
July 22, 2005
Category: Memory
I've created a quick animation of distorted pictures of my son Jim, together with some normal ones. Take a minute or so to watch the animation, then decide if the last picture you're shown looks "normal" to you. Click on...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 8:07 AM • 13 Comments •
July 20, 2005
Category: Perception
We've posted on boundary extension before, here, here, and here, but we've never written about boundary extension and kids. Boundary extension is when we remember more of a picture than was actually shown to us, as if our mind is...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 5:07 AM • 0 Comments •
July 18, 2005
Category: Perception
Baby rats, only 5 days old and still very much reliant on their mothers for food, can be artificially dehydrated by injecting them with a saline hypertonic solution. If a source of water is placed very close to the rat's...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 9:07 AM • 0 Comments •
July 15, 2005
Category: Memory
We've reported on flashbulb memory before, with the Talarico and Rubin study and the MacKay and Ahmetzanov study. First observed in 1977 by Brown and Kulik, flashbulb memories—memories about shocking events—were supposed to be more vivid and long-lasting than normal...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 5:07 AM • 1 Comments •
July 13, 2005
Category: Perception
Take a look at this picture I took last year when we went to Venice. Look at it fairly closely, because there will be a "test" at the end of this post. We have posted on boundary extension before: it's...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 8:07 AM • 7 Comments •
July 11, 2005
Category: Perception
There's something about kids and dogs. The phrase "A boy and his dog" brings up quite a range of images: from the sweetness of Norman Rockwell to what sounds like a truly bizarre movie from 1975. Despite not being a...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 9:07 AM • 16 Comments •
July 8, 2005
Category: Perception
Are attractiveness and distinctiveness related? Are we more likely to remember a pretty face than an ordinary one? This data suggests not: When people are asked to rate faces for attractiveness and deviation from an average face, there's a clear...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 11:07 AM • 0 Comments •
July 6, 2005
Category: Memory
Today's article is one of my all-time favorites. It was originally written by Katherine Kiechel, an undergraduate at Williams College as part of her honors thesis, and could serve as a model for others in its simplicity and ingenuity (the...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 1:07 PM • 2 Comments •