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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October 31, 2008
Category: Casual Fridays
With the U.S. presidential election just a few days away, many of us are in a frenzy to get information about the polls and who might be the winner. And everyone has an opinion about who'll win. Today, you can...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:50 PM • 3 Comments
October 30, 2008
Category: Perception • Reasoning • Research
Carmen Miranda is probably best-known today as the former spokesperson for Chiquita bananas, but she was equally famous -- and outrageous -- as an actress, singer, and dancer in the 1940s and 1950s. Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon that...
Posted by Dave Munger at 11:16 AM • 14 Comments
October 28, 2008
Category: General / Site news
Encephalon is up at Mind Hacks! Go check it out! Greta and I are off to vote today, so you'll have to get your psychology fix over there. Oh, and out of curiousity: Have you voted yet? ( surveys)...
Posted by Dave Munger at 10:16 AM • 5 Comments
October 27, 2008
Category: Research
When Jimmy was around 18 months old, Greta and I were both in graduate school. I attended classes at night and Greta taught and worked in the lab during the day. In the late afternoon I'd drive into the city...
Posted by Dave Munger at 5:30 PM • 15 Comments
October 24, 2008
Category: Casual Fridays
Aren't grandparents adorable? They're sweet and kind, they've been married for decades, and they've got wonderful archaic 1920s names like Edward and Edwina. Last week, based on the anecdotal evidence of my own grandparents and a couple from an NPR...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:22 PM • 12 Comments
October 22, 2008
Category: Development / Aging • Language • Research
Nora was an excellent talker, starting at a very young age, but that didn't mean that she couldn't express herself in other ways. Here, for example, she points to a the item she wants. It's entirely possible that she didn't...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:58 PM • 14 Comments
October 21, 2008
Category: News
Yesterday Dan Ariely came to Davidson to give a few lectures and meet with faculty in the Economics, Philosophy, and Psychology departments. Greta attended two of the lectures and had dinner with him (along with the rest of the Davidson...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:35 PM • 34 Comments
October 20, 2008
Category: Emotion • Reasoning • Research
You're given $15. Which of these bets would you gamble your $15 on? An 80 percent chance of winning $18.75 A 40 percent chance of winning $37.50 A 20 percent chance of winning $75 A 5 percent chance of $300...
Posted by Dave Munger at 1:23 PM • 23 Comments
October 17, 2008
Category: Casual Fridays
My grandfather's name was Vern, and he married a woman named Verna. They were together for more than 30 years until she died. Then he married Elvira. That's them (and great-granddaughter Nora) off to the right. They were together another...
Posted by Dave Munger at 11:52 AM • 29 Comments
October 16, 2008
Category: Emotion • Research • Social
Ben and Bernice Finn have been married for 60 years. And they still remember their first date. "I was very nervous," Ben said. "She was so pretty." "I remember that day very well," Bernice said. "And no, you weren't pretty."...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:22 PM • 8 Comments
October 14, 2008
Category: Emotion • Face perception • Perception • Research • Social
Yesterday we tried to replicate the effect that John Eastwood, Daniel Smilek, and Philip Merikle observed -- that negative facial expressions distract us from even the simplest tasks more than positive facial expressions. Hundreds of our readers watched one of...
Posted by Dave Munger at 1:26 PM • 2 Comments
October 13, 2008
Category: Perception • Reasoning • Research • Social
Here's a really interesting experiment that we may be able to replicate online. Take a look at this very short video. You'll be shown a set of 12 arcs. Some of the arcs will be upturned and some of them...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:47 PM • 9 Comments
October 10, 2008
Category: Casual Fridays
Last week we asked our readers about an illusion (created by Nobuyuki Kayahara) that's been circulated very widely recently: While the illusion can't actually determine whether you're "right-brained" or "left-brained," we were curious about what actually affects people's perception of...
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:38 PM • 69 Comments
October 9, 2008
Category: Movement and exercise • Perception • Research • Video Games / Technology
Take a look at this video: You may have seen it before -- it's the work of a CGI animation studio that takes the motions of human actors and turns them into animated models, giving them the ability to put...
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:17 PM • 7 Comments
October 7, 2008
Category: Face perception • Perception • Research
When Sarah Palin was introduced to the country, most Americans had never heard of her -- but many people noticed that she looked very similar to the then-more-famous actor Tina Fey. Can you tell which is which? Let's make this...
Posted by Dave Munger at 4:19 PM • 24 Comments
October 3, 2008
Category: Casual Fridays
You've probably seen the "spinning woman" illusion as it circulated around the internet, complete with bogus claims that it can somehow be used to determine whether you're "right-brained" or "left-brained" (themselves concepts of amorphous meaning and validity). But nonetheless it's...
Posted by Dave Munger at 1:46 PM • 29 Comments
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