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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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July 31, 2008
Category: Reasoning • Research
[This post was originally published in March 2007] Earlier today I posted a poll [and I republished that poll yesterday] challenging Cognitive Daily readers to show me that they understand error bars -- those little I-shaped indicators of statistical power...
Posted by Dave Munger at 10:57 AM • 22 Comments
July 30, 2008
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. Last year...
Posted by Dave Munger at 11:41 AM • 36 Comments
July 28, 2008
Category: Development / Aging • Research • Social
One of the key components of "normal" child development is social competence. We expect kids to become gradually better at behaving respectfully towards peers, to comply with requests made by others, to understand the thoughts of others, to play together...
Posted by Dave Munger at 9:42 AM • 7 Comments
July 25, 2008
Category: General / Site news
I'm about to head out of town for three weeks. You may have noticed posting getting lighter the last couple weeks as I attempted to tie up loose ends before the trip. Posting will be getting even lighter for the...
Posted by Dave Munger at 12:23 PM • 19 Comments
July 24, 2008
Category: Memory • Music • Perception • Research
Several recent large-scale studies have confirmed a curious finding: Asians are much more likely to have "perfect pitch" than non-Asians. Perfect pitch, more properly called "Absolute pitch," is an extremely rare phenomenon, but it's several times more likely to occur...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:47 PM • 20 Comments
July 21, 2008
Category: Development / Aging • Perception • Research
A number of studies have found that older adults aren't as good at certain visual tasks compared to younger adults. Mental rotation, for example, is both slower and less accurate. But other studies have found that for certain types of...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:42 PM • 1 Comments
July 17, 2008
Category: Attention • Perception • Research • Video Games / Technology
When we're in a crowded space, making visual judgments becomes more difficult. But it doesn't take much to trigger a crowding effect. Clicking on the picture below will take you to a quick movie (QuickTime required) that should demonstrate the...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:21 PM • 7 Comments
July 16, 2008
Category: In other news
Bora's hosting the first-ever edition of a new history of science carnival, "The Giant's Shoulders," which promises to focus attention on great research from years past, once a month. All participants review a journal article or other report of science...
Posted by Dave Munger at 10:50 AM • 0 Comments
July 15, 2008
Category: Movement and exercise • Perception • Research
Imagine yourself in a room surrounded by eleven objects arranged in a circle. You memorize the position of the objects, then you close your eyes, and rotate a third of the way around (120°). Keeping your eyes closed, can you...
Posted by Dave Munger at 8:00 AM • 10 Comments
July 9, 2008
Category: Perception • Reasoning • Research • Social
In 2005, E. Ashby Plant and B. Michelle Peruche tested 48 Florida police officers and found that they were initially more likely to shoot unarmed Black "suspects" in a crime-fighting simulation than White people holding similar objects. Interestingly, however, as...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:57 PM • 8 Comments
July 8, 2008
Category: General / Site news
Last year when the family was in Europe I snapped this photo of Jim looking at a triptych of three blank canvases: The accompanying blog post generated heated discussion about whether the work depicted in the photo was "art" (the...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:31 PM • 34 Comments
July 7, 2008
Category: Perception • Reasoning • Research • Video Games / Technology
Last year we discussed a great deal of research about the gender disparity in math and science. Even while women are more successful overall in school than men, in certain fields there is a very large deficit in the number...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:03 PM • 29 Comments
July 3, 2008
Category: Language • Research • Social
Have you ever seen Singin' in the Rain? One of the movie's most hilarious moments is when the beautiful silent movie star Lina Lamont is asked to start making "talking pictures." As soon as this gorgeous screen siren opens her...
Posted by Dave Munger at 12:17 PM • 27 Comments
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