dmunger | March 2, 2007How good are humans at identifying faces? Amazingly good, even with only a few sparse pixels' worth of information. Inspired by the research of Pawan Sinha, who had found that people can recognize faces using just 12 × 14 pixels' worth of information, we wondered if people can distinguish between faces and non-faces with even less information. So, last Friday, we asked CogDaily readers to try to identify faces as small as one-quarter the size of those used in Sinha's study: just 6 by 7 pixels. Readers rated 8 different photos in four different sizes ranging from 20 pixels wide to just 6…
dmunger | March 2, 2007If you haven't heard of the internet phenomenon Second Life, you probably will soon. It's an online world where players create virtual representations of themselves, or rather, themselves as they'd like to be. Then they go about "life" in the way they would if the tedious flaws of everyday life -- gravity, jobs, cellulite, and so on -- didn't exist. It's not that people don't work in the world of Second Life. In fact, people have made thousands of real-world dollars by selling items they created in Second Life.
Now Second Life is about to get an upgrade. Currently, to "talk" to others in the…
dmunger | February 28, 2007
Two new articles tackle the issue of whether most research is false... Which raises the question: how do we know whether this research is true? Or whether any of the links which follow are true? Undaunted, I'll continue...
Chris of Mixing Memory has a thoughtful article discussing research suggesting religion can have harmful effects.
When it comes to piloting planes, older pilots are generally better.
Subliminal messages found in Canadian slot machines. Really. Even though they probably don't work.
Come to think of it, it's odd that they'd need to. After all, money is the best incentive.…
dmunger | February 28, 2007Brain Maps offers over 50 terabytes of high-resolution pictures of brains from several different organisms. You're probably familiar with the brain off to the right -- it's good ol' Homo sapiens.
The brain at left may be a bit less readily identifiable. It's Tyto alba, or the barn owl.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of the Brain Maps site isn't its elegant interface or its massive database -- it's its liberal use policy. Anyone can use the database for personal or scientific use, no questions asked. Anyone can use screenshots from the site for any use, even commercial uses, as long as…
dmunger | February 27, 2007
Chris Chatham explains a new two-part model of working memory.
Older adults have too much confidence in their memory.
Genetic research may neglect effects of environment.
Do you miscommunicate more with people you know better? This may explain why.
To spank or not to spank: The Chicago Tribune assesses the research.
A new model for consumer self-discipline.
dmunger | February 27, 2007Our visual system is exceptionally good at detecting change -- as long as the change takes place while we're looking. If you glance at a scene, then look away for a moment, your ability to detect a change is substantially impaired. Changes that would be obvious when we're looking can become maddeningly difficult to detect if we're distracted for even a tenth of a second.
Take a look at this quick movie (QuickTime required) -- the picture will alternate flashing with a distractor pattern. Each time the picture flashes, a portion of the picture will change in some way. Can you see what's…
dmunger | February 27, 2007Researchers have developed a new method of creating laser beams which they believe may pave the way for practical laser X-rays:
Most of today's X-ray lasers require so much power that they rely on fusion laser facilities the size of football stadiums, making their use impractical.
"We've come up with a good end run around the requirement for a monstrous power source," research Henry Kapteyn said.
Once this hurdle is overcome, the researchers say, a small, inexpensive X-ray laser becomes practical. Instead of shadowy, fuzzy X-ray images, X-rays could become incredibly precise -- perhaps even…
dmunger | February 26, 2007Did you miss the cut-off for the Casual Fridays study last week? Now's your chance to see more mystery photos. In this post, you'll find eight new versions of the photos -- ones which didn't appear in the original study. Each photo is followed by a poll so we can track responses. The idea is to see how little information it takes to recognize and possibly identify a face. It's been established that people can reliably discern faces from non-faces with 12 × 14 pixel images, but how about for smaller images?
As you can see, these pictures vary from 20 pixels wide down to just 6 pixels wide, so…
dmunger | February 23, 2007Remember these photos from earlier this week?
Readers were intrigued with the idea that we can tell which photo is a face, despite the fact that the photos are just 12 by 14 pixels! That brings the question: can we identify faces with even *less* information? This week's study may help answer that question. You'll be presented with eight images of different resolutions. Some will be faces, and some won't be. Can you tell the difference?
Click here to participate
As usual, the study is brief, with just 8 quick questions, so it should only take a minute of your time. You have until 11:59 p.…
dmunger | February 22, 2007
Do you read Cognitive Daily via Google Reader's "Science" bundle? Then you'll also want to subscribe to the ScienceBlogs Select feed. It was formerly only available internally to ScienceBloggers and editors, but now it's been made public. I think it's the best science feed in the world -- it consists of two or three handpicked posts per week from each blog on the network. It aggregates the posts the bloggers themselves most want to share with each other, and now it's available to you, too. Go check it out!
Speaking of ScienceBlogs, why not check out the newest blog on the network, Rob Knop's…
dmunger | February 22, 2007When you look out the window and then look away, how do you remember what you saw? Do you hold a picture of the window in your head, frame and all? What about a photo? Do you remember the physical photo, or do you imagine the real scene it represents? If you remember the scene, and not the photo, then how do you form the boundaries of the scene? Does your memory end precisely where the photo does?
Here's a little test to see how accurate your short-term memory of a photo is. When you play the movie below, you'll have a second to get ready, then a photo will flash for just a half-second. It…
dmunger | February 22, 2007As was noted with irony a few days ago, many psychologists feel obligated to describe the abilities that make humans unique. Perhaps this trait itself is part of human nature: we're constantly seeking to justify our actions -- many of which harm other organisms.
When we learn that an animal can, for example, recognize itself in a mirror, we begin to wonder if we're really so different from the other animals; whether our dominance over the world is really merited. The latest study covering such ground involves the scrub jay, a remarkable bird which hides its food in thousands of caches,…
dmunger | February 21, 2007
Mind Hacks has an intriguing post suggesting that databases used for identification might also track personality differences.
Could, for instance, a retinal scan identify an alcoholic?
Yet another neuroscientist tackles consciousness.
Does a flock of birds have consciousness?
How smart are chickens? They're definitely tasty!
dmunger | February 20, 2007I've been accumulating "in other news" items all weekend and only just now had the time to post them all. Enjoy!
Scientific American covers the stereotype threat (discussed on CogDaily last week).
Is "reform" math responsible for declining math performance? This is more convincing than the last video, but someone should tell this guy to stop reading his talk directly from his PowerPoint slides.
A guaranteed way to destroy public education.
Doctors may have discovered a way to teach patients about probability. But can they teach long division? (For more on patients and probability, see here)…
dmunger | February 20, 2007When Greta and I met with her surgeon a few years back in preparation for a minor surgery, he offered an unusual qualification for the job: he was an avid video game player. He believed that playing video games improved his ability to perform surgery. Many surgeries are now performed remotely, with a very small incision and a video camera to monitor progress, and he claimed the skills involved weren't much different from those he had acquired from years of zapping aliens on his TV.
Turns out, he was probably on to something. A new study has confirmed that surgeons who spend more time playing…
dmunger | February 19, 2007Last week, we asked readers if they could tell which of these two photos, offering only 12 × 14 pixels of information apiece, represented a face:
Nearly three-quarters of respondents accurately identified the photo on the right as a face. But what face? It only took 6 guesses for readers to guess that it's a picture of Greta. No one successfully identified the subject of the photo on the left, though.
One thing a couple readers noticed as they participated is that blurring their vision or stepping back from their monitors helped them select the right picture. When I was creating the…
dmunger | February 16, 2007If you didn't participate in last week's Casual Friday study, you should definitely see what it's like to experience the flash-lag effect:
When the blue rectangle flashes, it's always precisely aligned with the gray bar, yet it appears to be behind the bar. Cool, isn't it? You can stop the movie and check for yourself that there's no funny business going on.
Another illusion we've discussed recently is a visual-sound illusion. Here, the dot flashes just once, but when it's accompanied by two beeps, it appears to flash twice:
Clearly sound can affect what we see. So can sound affect the…
dmunger | February 16, 2007Anyone who has tried to capture a fly or other insect can't help but marvel at their aeronautic prowess. Their reflexes are lightning-fast, and they seem to avoid obstacles before they are even perceptible. The brain of a fly or a honey bee is as little as a millionth the size of a human brain, with as few as a hundred thousand neurons compared to our hundred billion. How can such small computing power lead to such effective flight?
Yet flying insects also exhibit curious behavior. They land when flying into a headwind, and gain elevation with a tailwind. Some honey bees will land on the…
dmunger | February 15, 2007
The Washington Post on the neurological basis of love.
Chris Chatham shows why dopamine is more than just the neurotransmitter of love.
Can praising kids' intelligence backfire?
Can vasectomies backfire?
Do chimps pass down skills?
Not like humans do.
Finally, for P.Z.: I don't think squid are beautiful, but they are mighty tasty! Thank God for squid!
dmunger | February 15, 2007The setting was an integrated suburban middle school: nearly evenly divided between black and white students. As is the case in many schools, white students outperformed black students both in grades and test scores. But how much of this difference is attributable to real differences in ability? After all, black kids grow up "knowing" that white kids do better in school. Perhaps this was just an example of kids living down to expectations.
A simple experiment would help find out. A team led by Geoffrey Cohen found a group teachers who taught the same 7th-grade course and were willing to…