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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March 30, 2007
Category: Casual Fridays
This week's Casual Friday study attempted to get to the bottom of the age-old thermostat battle. In every office, classroom, and home, it seems, no one can agree on the proper temperature to set the thermostat. While one person is...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:53 PM • 16 Comments
March 29, 2007
Category: Reasoning • Research
Earlier today I posted a poll challenging Cognitive Daily readers to show me that they understand error bars -- those little I-shaped indicators of statistical power you sometimes see on graphs. I was quite confident that they wouldn't succeed. Why...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:24 PM • 33 Comments
Category: General / Site news
Cognitive Daily gets a lot of complaints about graphs, mostly from readers who say the graphs are useless without error bars. My response is that error bars are confusing to most readers. But perhaps I'm wrong about that. Now I'm...
Posted by Dave Munger at 12:22 PM • 15 Comments
Category: News
Computers have become such an integral part of life that it's often tempting to believe that they work just like the human brain (or that the brain works just like a computer). However, those of us who've spent time programming...
Posted by Dave Munger at 7:59 AM • 2 Comments
March 28, 2007
Category: News
John Tierney wonders whether doctors should be prosecuted for prescribing too much pain medication. Tierney makes some good points. One "warning sign" that a patient may be abusing drugs is that they come back for a refill early because their...
Posted by Dave Munger at 11:33 AM • 3 Comments
March 27, 2007
Category: Development / Aging • Memory • Movement and exercise • Research
When we see a familiar face, or even a photo of a favorite car or pet, we're often flooded with memories from our past. Sometimes just seeing a person or object that's similar to the ones in our memory will...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:38 PM • 15 Comments
Category: News
This week's edition of Encephalon and an email from the Neurophilosopher has reminded me that I've been rather negligent of my blogroll lately. I believe a blogroll should represent the sites a blogger visits frequently; it's an invitation into that...
Posted by Dave Munger at 9:12 AM • 2 Comments
March 26, 2007
Category: News
A rat's brain has millions of neurons, each with up to 10,000 connections to other neurons. This "simple" animal's neural network is mind-bogglingly complex. Yet a Swiss laboratory has achieved remarkable success duplicating a vast region of a rat's brain...
Posted by Dave Munger at 9:05 AM • 8 Comments
March 23, 2007
Category: Casual Fridays
Last weekend Greta and I had a joint party celebrating our fortieth birthdays (my birthday was in January, Greta's is in May, so we split the difference). Naturally, the conversation turned to the changes that occur as we get older....
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:59 PM • 17 Comments
Category: News
Greta has a jar of candy in her office, and she eats exactly one piece of candy per day (as well as offering it to her students whenever they visit). By contrast, if I have candy within 50 yards of...
Posted by Dave Munger at 9:02 AM • 10 Comments
March 22, 2007
Category: Emotion • Face perception • Film • Research
The Kuleshov Effect, discovered nearly a century ago by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov, posits that the context in which we see an image of an actor's face will determine the emotion the face portrays. For example, take a look at...
Posted by Dave Munger at 5:10 PM • 9 Comments
Category: News
The New York Times has a great article on the Japanese gaming company responsible for the Sudoku craze. The article is interesting, but be sure to check out the sidebar, where you can try three up-and-coming rivals to Sudoku. Personally...
Posted by Dave Munger at 8:22 AM • 14 Comments
March 21, 2007
Category: In other news
PsyBlog has completed its list of the top 10 psychology studies. You can now vote for your favorite. What are the odds of a three-way tie in Jeopardy!? What's special about beef, cream, and orange? Chris disses the simulation theory...
Posted by Dave Munger at 5:02 PM • 0 Comments
Category: News
Several news outlets are reporting on a study, in some cases claiming that racing video games "cause" accidents or reckless driving. But causality is difficult to demonstrate in psychology research. Do the games really cause accidents? Many of the irate...
Posted by Dave Munger at 7:55 AM • 9 Comments
March 20, 2007
Category: Emotion • Film • Research
On the opening episode of the Colbert Report, faux conservative Stephen Colbert expressed his preference for "guts" over facts: That's where truth comes from -- the gut. Facts come from the brain -- and some people think that makes facts...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:09 PM • 14 Comments
Category: News
Eric Schwitzgebel offers an interesting paradox: When I was a graduate student, a girlfriend asked me what, of all things, I most enjoyed doing. Eschewing the obvious and half-clever reply, I answered skiing -- thinking of those moments of breathing...
Posted by Dave Munger at 7:13 AM • 6 Comments
