October 31, 2005
Category: Development / Aging
One of the most difficult things to demonstrate scientifically is cause and effect. Often a study will show that two items—say, smoking and lung cancer—are associated with one another. But it's another thing entirely to suggest that smoking causes lung...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 6:10 PM • 5 Comments •
October 28, 2005
Category: Social
More and more human conversations are taking place online. While I don't do instant messaging the way my kids like to, I'm much more likely to contact a friend via e-mail than to pick up the phone. Here at Cognitive...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 1:10 PM • 5 Comments •
October 26, 2005
Category: Memory
I had a friend in college who was a baseball genius. He could offer up the career stats of every player in the hall of fame; he knew which teams had won the World Series in each year since its...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 1:10 PM • 7 Comments •
October 24, 2005
Category: Perception
Psychologists have known for decades that people perceive music as happier when it's played faster, and in a major key (mode). Take a listen to the following sound clips I created using a synthesized flute. Each plays the same melody...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 5:10 PM • 7 Comments •
October 21, 2005
Category: Perception
I'm usually disappointed when I try to take a picture of a steep precipice—it never seems as impressive in the photo as it did when I was standing right there. Take this photo, for example. It's a nice shot of...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 2:10 PM • 3 Comments •
October 20, 2005
Category: Perception
If you're a perception teacher, a great way to show how the vision system adapts is to use prism glasses to shift a volunteer's vision. While various types of glasses are available (the most common is designed to allow a...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 3:10 PM • 2 Comments •
October 18, 2005
Category: Social
When asked to indicate their "deepest, closest, most intimate relationship," thirty-six percent of college students name a friend (as opposed to a family member or boyfriend/girlfriend) Friendships are clearly important, but there have been many fewer studies of friends than...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 12:10 PM • 7 Comments •
October 13, 2005
Category: Social
Dozens of studies have confirmed both psychological and physical benefits of exercise. The results seem clear enough: a regular program of cardiovascular exercise has been shown not only to promote physical well being, but also to abate depression, decrease anxiety,...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 3:10 PM • 1 Comments •
October 12, 2005
Category: Social
When 64-year-old teacher Robert Davis was beaten by the New Orleans police for public drunkenness despite the fact that he hadn't had a drink for 25 years, you might expect him to feel angry about it. You wouldn't be surprised...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 12:10 PM • 2 Comments •
October 10, 2005
Category: Perception
This weekend, robot cars competed in a challenge that most humans would find trivial: drive 132 miles in 12 hours without crashing. Yet crash, they do. The difficult part isn't so much the steering and acceleration, it's determining the difference...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 6:10 AM • 6 Comments •