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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April 28, 2006
Category: Casual Fridays
When we are wronged, we expect the wrongdoer to apologize. But some apologies just don't seem to cut the muster. As a teacher, my least favorite excuse was always this one: "Can I have an extension on the assignment? I've...
Posted by Dave Munger at 5:43 PM • 12 Comments
Category: Casual Fridays
Last week's study generated plenty of interest: it was the fastest we've ever gotten 400 responses. The study was based on a claim by this web site that they could influence your thoughts with 98 percent accuracy using a simple...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:44 PM • 20 Comments
Category: General / Site news
The transfer of archives from the old Cognitive Daily site is now complete; all of our archives are now available here at ScienceBlogs! There really are some amazing articles back there. Here are some of my favorites from CogDaily's adolescent...
Posted by Dave Munger at 6:32 AM • 1 Comments
April 27, 2006
Category: General / Site news
I've now finished posting archives up through June of 2005. There's some great stuff in there -- here are some highlights: Drumbeats alone can convey emotion Is memory better for shocking events? Why we can't all be divas What makes...
Posted by Dave Munger at 6:27 AM • 0 Comments
April 26, 2006
Category: Movement and exercise • Research
When two athletes are the same size and strength, what makes one better than the other? In many sports, the best athletes are the ones who can react more quickly to game situations than others. Are they just generally better...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:39 PM • 0 Comments
Category: General / Site news
Over the next few days I'll be dusting off the old Cognitive Daily posts and moving them over to this site. If you'll scroll down a bit to the archives section on the sidebar to the left, you'll notice that...
Posted by Dave Munger at 6:50 AM • 0 Comments
April 25, 2006
Category: Attention • Research • Social
A number of studies have found cultural differences in visual cognition. For example, Takahiko Masuda and Richard Nisbett found that when Americans watch a short video clip of an underwater scene, they tend to recall the items in the foreground:...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:30 PM • 4 Comments
April 21, 2006
Category: Casual Fridays
Cognitive Daily reader "Jokermage" pointed us to a web site which claimed that it could predict with 98 percent accuracy what site visitors would be thinking after a short quiz. I tried the quiz, and indeed, the site appeared to...
Posted by Dave Munger at 5:06 PM • 17 Comments
Category: Casual Fridays
Last week, we asked our readers a few questions about procrastination: how long it takes them to wake up on a typical morning, how close to the deadline they finish computing their taxes, and so on. The basic question was,...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:24 PM • 5 Comments
April 20, 2006
Category: Research • Video Games / Technology
If you're older than about 20, you'll probably recognize the image to the left from an anti-drug campaign from the 1980s. The image was supposed to represent the effects of drugs on the human brain. While the effectiveness of the...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:50 PM • 36 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
April 19, 2006
Category: Development / Aging • Research • Social
The average 3- to 10-year-old girl in the U.S. owns eight Barbies. Only one percent of this group owns no Barbies. And every girl seems to go through similar stages with her Barbies -- first, adoration, next, ambivalence, and finally,...
Posted by Dave Munger at 12:25 PM • 16 Comments
April 18, 2006
Take a look at these two faces. One of these women can't recognize that the other is afraid, but when asked to express fear, is still able to produce a fearful expression. Can you tell which is which? We know...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:10 PM • 12 Comments
April 14, 2006
Category: Casual Fridays
When I was in college, I put off everything until the last possible instant: I got out of bed just moments before class started; I finished papers minutes before they were due. But I rarely actually missed a deadline for...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:56 PM • 11 Comments
Category: Casual Fridays
Last week's Casual Friday study seemed like a great idea. Playing off the study we recently analyzed which revealed that the orientation of shapes could convey emotion, we thought we might be able to demonstrate a similar phenomenon with scenes....
Posted by Dave Munger at 11:09 AM • 9 Comments
April 13, 2006
Category: Music • Research • Social
If you have normal hearing and an amygdala, you can probably tell which of these two songs is "happy," and which is "scary." Song 1 Song 2 However, for extreme cases of epilepsy, one treatment is to surgically remove the...
Posted by Dave Munger at 11:52 AM • 7 Comments
April 11, 2006
Category: Attention • Face perception • Learning and testing • Research • Social
Yesterday's post brings up an interesting question: How can you be unaware of having even seen an image, and yet be able to make reliable judgments about that image? That article is just one example of a variety of situations...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:18 PM • 8 Comments
