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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 editor of ResearchBlogging.org and a columnist on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM. And yes, he is married to Greta.
November 29, 2005
Category: Memory
Do you ever wonder if your mood affects the way you think? I'm not talking about behaving more aggressively when you're angry or more passively when you're sad; I'm talking about the subtler impact on cognitive processing. Some recent research...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:11 PM • 8 Comments •
November 23, 2005
Category: Social
Carmageddon 2 (source: Gamespot) is a gory racing game where players control drivers with names like "Max Damage" as they tear through city streets mowing down pedestrians and forcing competitors into bloody collisions. The game settings can be adjusted...
Posted by Dave Munger at 10:11 AM • 18 Comments •
November 21, 2005
Category: Attention
The picture below will link you to a quick animation. The blue ring will gradually get smaller until it obscures the three "8"s, then continue to shrink until the figures are visible again. While they are obscured, the 8s will...
Posted by Dave Munger at 1:11 PM • 6 Comments •
November 18, 2005
Category: Attention
Attentional blink researchers Christian Olivers and Sander Nieuwenhuis noticed something curious when they conducted their experiments. When they were testing their stimuli, they felt that they could do the task better when they were distracted. Their participants also reported that...
Posted by Dave Munger at 1:11 PM • 3 Comments •
November 17, 2005
Category: Memory
One of the gimmicks of the 1948 film Words and Music was the question of which is more important in a song—the words or the music. Source: SoundtrackCollector The movie, a fictionalization of the lives of the legendary team of...
Posted by Dave Munger at 1:11 PM • 5 Comments •
November 15, 2005
Category: Attention
Take a look at the following three animations. Each will flash very rapidly through a set of words (9 words per second!). Your job is to watch carefully and see if you notice a word that describes an occupation that...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:11 PM • 11 Comments •
November 10, 2005
Category: Perception
Eric Durbrow pointed me to this article in the Globe and Mail. Its lead sentence offers a surprising claim: Parents take note: Reading to your preschoolers before bedtime doesn't mean they are likely to learn much about letters, or even...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:11 PM • 11 Comments •
November 8, 2005
Category: Memory
In face to face conversation, we often look away from the person we're speaking with. Somewhat paradoxically, the closer people sit to their conversation companions, the less often they look at them. But other factors influence how often we avert...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:11 PM • 9 Comments •
November 7, 2005
Category: Memory
What does it mean to have a gut feeling that you remember something? You see someone you recognize in a coffee shop. Do you remember her from high school? Or maybe you saw her on television. Could she be the...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:11 PM • 3 Comments •
November 3, 2005
Category: Language
Just listening to music, despite the hype associated with the "Mozart Effect," appears to have little influence on IQ or other abilities. It does seem to make us more aroused and put us in a better mood, which can improve...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:11 PM • 1 Comments •
