September 30, 2005
Category: Social
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...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 12:09 PM • 6 Comments •
September 28, 2005
Category: Perception
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...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 1:09 PM • 2 Comments •
September 27, 2005
Category: Perception
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...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 4:09 PM • 22 Comments •
September 26, 2005
Category: 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...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 6:09 AM • 1 Comments •
September 22, 2005
Category: Perception
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...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 5:09 PM • 3 Comments •
September 21, 2005
Category: Perception
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...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 3:09 PM • 1 Comments •
September 15, 2005
Category: 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...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 3:09 PM • 6 Comments •
September 13, 2005
Category: Perception
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...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 4:09 PM • 25 Comments •
September 12, 2005
Category: 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...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 8:09 PM • 8 Comments •
September 9, 2005
Category: Perception
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...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 4:09 PM • 1 Comments •