A new cognitive psychology article nearly every day
Cognitive Daily reports nearly every day on fascinating peer-reviewed developments in cognition from the most respected scientists in the field.
Greta Munger is Professor of Psychology at Davidson College whose works include The History of Psychology: Fundamental Questions. Dave Munger is co-founder and president of ResearchBlogging.org and a writer whose works include Researching Online. And yes, he is married to Greta.
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September 30, 2005
Category: Development / Aging • Research • Social • Video Games / Technology
As early as 2002, 60 percent of the total Japanese population (this includes infants, the elderly, and the infirm) subscribed to a cell phone service. Though the phones are banned in public schools, parents were buying them for their kids...
Posted by Dave Munger at 12:09 PM • 6 Comments
September 28, 2005
Category: Perception • Research
There are two different ways we might navigate from place to place: we either remember landmarks along the way, or we note how far we go in each direction, and what turns we've made along the way. The landmark system...
Posted by Dave Munger at 1:09 PM • 2 Comments
September 27, 2005
Category: Color perception • Perception • Research
All this talk about stereotypes can get you thinking. Perhaps some stereotypes reflect actual differences. Take color vision, for example: men often refer to themselves as "color-impaired," letting the women in their lives make home design decisions and even asking...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:09 PM • 22 Comments
September 26, 2005
Category: Development / Aging • Research • Social
Gender and racial differences in standardized test scores have received a lot of coverage in the popular press. An article in yesterday's New York Times discussed how simply combining populations with different economic status can result in increased test scores—apparently...
Posted by Dave Munger at 6:09 AM • 1 Comments
September 22, 2005
Category: Perception • Research • Video Games / Technology
There is considerable evidence that using a cell phone impairs driving ability. The research has even reached the popular consciousness: hosts of radio call-in shows ask cell-phone callers to pull over before making their comments; drivers give wide berths to...
Posted by Dave Munger at 5:09 PM • 3 Comments
September 21, 2005
Category: Perception • Research
We know that "average" faces are judged to be more attractive than the faces of the individuals making up the average. But this doesn't tell us what the mechanism for judging attractiveness is. Do we judge faces to be attractive...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:09 PM • 1 Comments
September 15, 2005
Category: Development / Aging • Music • Research • Social
Music can be used to convey a range of emotion, from sadness to happiness, from anger to fear. We use music to help fall asleep at night, and to wake up in the morning. Its effect on our mood may...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:09 PM • 6 Comments
September 13, 2005
Category: Perception • Research • Social
Click on the image below to be taken to a quicktime movie showing 9 different faces. When the movie is finished playing, drag the slider back and forth to pick the face you think is the most attractive. The faces...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:09 PM • 21 Comments
September 12, 2005
Category: Movement and exercise • Research • Social
My favorite bike shop has a photo of bicyclists lighting up cigarettes for each other as they rode along during a 1920s stage of the Tour de France. After getting over our astonishment that they can actually manage to light...
Posted by Dave Munger at 8:09 PM • 8 Comments
September 9, 2005
Category: Perception • Research • Taste
Taste is a notoriously difficult sense to study. My son Jim can't stand baked potatoes, but I can't get enough of them. I don't like watermelon, but the rest of my family gobbles it up. Even more perplexingly, I do...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:09 PM • 1 Comments
September 8, 2005
Category: General / Site news
One of our missions at Cognitive Daily has always been to get our message about the science of psychology out to as large and diverse an audience as possible. So far, the message has been passed along mainly by the...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:09 PM • 2 Comments
September 7, 2005
Category: Learning and testing • Music • Research • Social
How do we reconcile the variety of results that have been found with respect to the Mozart effect—the idea that the music of Mozart can lead to improved performance on spatial ability tests? With some researchers appearing to have found...
Posted by Dave Munger at 12:09 PM • 2 Comments
September 2, 2005
Category: Learning and testing • Music • Research
One of my best friends in college played music incessantly—whether he was studying, writing papers, completing organic chemistry problem sets, or swilling down cheap beer, whatever he did was accompanied by a nonstop 1980s synth-pop beat. This apparently did him...
Posted by Dave Munger at 12:09 PM • 4 Comments
