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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August 31, 2006
Category: Development / Aging • Music • Research
Just by listening to music, we can learn a lot about its structures and conventions. For example, even you have no musical training, you can tell that something is wrong with this scale (it's followed by a proper C-major scale):...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:32 PM • 32 Comments
Category: Ask a ScienceBlogger
I try to stay away from answering "Ask a Scienceblogger" when it strays too far from my areas of expertise. This week, the question is the following: I read this article in the NRO, and the author actually made some...
Posted by Dave Munger at 11:18 AM • 14 Comments
August 30, 2006
Category: Opinion
The local newspaper here in Charlotte was aghast that SAT scores (a test used to help determine college admissions in the US) fell in North Carolina this year, even though the article goes on to point out that nationwide the...
Posted by Dave Munger at 11:20 AM • 8 Comments
August 29, 2006
Category: Development / Aging • Language • Research
Listen to this short audio clip: Now listen to this one: Notice any difference? I didn't think so. But if you were a 5-month-old infant named Caroline, the difference would be crystal clear. In the second clip, your name would...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:47 PM • 7 Comments
Category: News
Is the Flynn Effect ending? Are kids getting dumber again? Could it be that after years of striking intelligence gains, we're now actually losing ground? We are if you read this article in the Times Online: After studying 25,000 children...
Posted by Dave Munger at 6:38 AM • 3 Comments
August 28, 2006
Category: News
A judge has ruled against a recent Louisiana law banning the sale of violent video games to children. Since we've been rather outspoken here about the influence of violent games, I did want to reiterate that we've never advocated the...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:05 PM • 0 Comments
Category: News
NPR has a nice report on the motivations behind false confessions. Give it a listen--it's just over two minutes long, and reporter Andy Bowers gives an excellent explanation of why people such as JonBenet Ramsey "killer" John Mark Karr might...
Posted by Dave Munger at 6:27 AM • 1 Comments
August 25, 2006
Category: Casual Fridays
Have you missed Casual Fridays? Our travel schedule over the summer made it impossible for us to keep up with Casual Fridays, but for the 2006-07 school year, we'll be back each Friday with either a new study or the...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:42 PM • 16 Comments
August 24, 2006
Category: Attention • Perception • Research
Last year, my dad got his pilot's license. He took me up with him a couple months later, and while the view was spectacular, the most surprising aspect of flying is how much of a pilot's time is spent...
Posted by Dave Munger at 1:35 PM • 3 Comments
August 23, 2006
Category: News
Television sets and video monitors rely on tricking the visual system into believing it is seeing the full range of possible colors. In reality, they are only generating approximations of the light that would actually enter the eye if we...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:43 PM • 21 Comments
Category: News
The Washington Post has an article claiming that being just a few pounds overweight can lead to premature death: The 10-year study of more than 500,000 U.S. adults found that those who were just moderately overweight in their fifties were...
Posted by Dave Munger at 6:20 AM • 2 Comments
August 22, 2006
Category: Learning and testing • Perception • Research
Learning to navigate through an unfamiliar environment can be a difficult challenge. Could you find your way through the crowded, narrow streets of the city depicted at left -- especially if the signs were in a foreign language (bonus...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:35 PM • 20 Comments
Category: News
A new study finds that 3- to 5-year-olds appear to conflate their future needs with those of the present. Young children who have been fed pretzels and are thirsty are more likely to say they'll need water tomorrow than pretzels....
Posted by Dave Munger at 6:20 AM • 2 Comments
August 21, 2006
Category: Fun and games
Why does Greta look so happy in this photo? Perhaps it's because she's wearing her new neurotransmitter earrings, chosen by CogDaily readers (for the results of our poll, see this post). Seratonin and dopamine were in a dead heat, so...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:30 PM • 2 Comments
Category: News
Slashdot points to an Aljazeera (!) article about dolphin intelligence (or lack thereof). The article quotes scientist Paul Manger, who argues that since dolphins never think to jump out of enclosures such as holding tanks in aquariums, or tuna nets,...
Posted by Dave Munger at 9:20 AM • 13 Comments
August 17, 2006
Category: Development / Aging • Perception • Research
By the time a baby is 4 months old, she has begun to amass an impressive array of skills. She might be able to roll over, as Nora is demonstrating in this picture. She will almost certainly be able to...
Posted by Dave Munger at 10:23 AM • 3 Comments
