dmunger | June 4, 2009It's pretty obvious to most people that the two shoes in this picture are the same size:
But if you actually took a ruler to your computer display it would show that the image of my right shoe is nearly twice as wide as the image of my left shoe. Young children will mistakenly say that the real left shoe is smaller than the right shoe; it's only gradually that we learn to take the context of the photo into account and conclude that the shoes are the same size: the shoes appear to be a matched set; the left shoe is a bit out of focus, the railing to the left shows that the left shoe is…
dmunger | June 1, 2009The second edition of Cognitive Monthly is now available. "Duke Nukem Comes to Dinner: Do Violent Games Make Violent Kids?" synthesizes and expands on our coverage of the impact of violent video games.
Whenever kids are involved in a violent crime, speculation about their upbringing inevitably takes center stage. Were they abused or neglected? Is there something their parents could have done to prevent the tragedy? Most recently, video games have been targeted as the possible root of the problem. But are video games really to blame for horrific massacres like the shootings at Columbine and…
dmunger | May 29, 2009Last week we asked readers to rate a set of statements they might see on Twitter. The premise of our study was that sometimes it's difficult to decide whether someone is insulting you or complimenting you. But we were actually examining a slightly different question: what effect does an emoticon have on a statement? Can you make a negative comment seem "nice" just by adding a smiley or a wink afterwards?
Everyone saw the same 13 statements, presented in random order:
That's the most incisive comment I've ever seen
You are just so *interesting*
Yawn
You're as brilliant as you are attractive…
dmunger | May 28, 2009Take a look at this video. Your job: decide which person speaks first:
Click to view Video 1 (QuickTime required)
Let's make this a poll:
Which person in Video 1 speaks first?(web poll)
Now, try another one. Once again, decide which person speaks first:
Click to view Video 2 (QuickTime required)
Make your response here:
Which person in Video 2 speaks first?(opinion polls)
David Rose and Tanya Clark showed videos like this to 17 student volunteers, and asked the same question: who spoke first in each video? The videos are point-light displays, which show movements of particular points on…
dmunger | May 27, 2009A common defense in murder cases is "focal retrograde amnesia": the defendant claims to have simply forgotten what occurred around the time of the crime (perhaps due having consumed too much alcohol or other drugs). In fact, "amnesia" is claimed in as many as 45 percent of murders. Psychologists know that this sort of amnesia is actually quite rare, so it's very likely that most, if not all of these defendants are faking amnesia.
We can confirm that many of these cases are faked: when defendants are given multiple-choice questions about the crime, they get the answers wrong too often. Think…
dmunger | May 25, 2009Encephalon, the biweekly collection of the best psychology and neuroscience posts on the web, is now available at Neuroanthropology.
In addition to great science, there's a collection of clips from a classic movie about Italian food, "Big Night." Here's my favorite:
dmunger | May 25, 2009[This article was originally posted in December, 2006]
I'm not bitter about this, honest I'm not, but it does often seem that people who know you very well end up buying really lousy gifts. What I really want to find out is this: why do they do that? It turns out, market researchers want to know, too. How can they have a prayer of selling people things they don't want when people can't even convince their loved ones to buy them things they do want?
Davy Lerouge and Luk Warlop have designed a clever study to examine this very issue. They wanted to know whether couples who've been together for…
dmunger | May 22, 2009It's never been easy to communicate clearly online (or in person, for that matter). Often a statement meant as a compliment can be taken the wrong way. Or someone can mistake a statement made in jest for a serious statement. Now with tools like Twitter and texting limiting the total number of characters in a message, it may be even more difficult to convey nuance. Does everyone read these messages the same way? Or are some of us better-prepared to understand the nuances of online communication?
I think I may have come up with a (non-scientific) way to shed some light on those questions. You'…
dmunger | May 21, 2009Last night in the U.S. many televisions were tuned to one of the biggest spectacles of the year: the American Idol finale, where America would learn which singer had been chosen as "America's favorite" (or, more cynically, who inspired the most teenagers to repeatedly dial toll-free numbers until all hours of the night). Greta and I are suckers for this sort of thing, so we watched along with the rest of the nation.
What impressed me about the show wasn't so much the prodigious vocal talents of the two finalists, but how everything was put together so hastily: there had been only six days…
dmunger | May 20, 2009When I was in elementary school, we had two recesses every day: 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon. Plus, we had a 30-minute lunch period, and as soon as we finished eating we were free to go outside and play until the bell rang.
So I was a little surprised when our kids started elementary school 30 years later and found that there was almost *no* recess. Even at lunchtime, they all lined up and headed straight for the lunchroom. When they finished (after just 20 minutes), they had to march right back to the classroom for more lessons. The only physical activity they…
dmunger | May 19, 2009For nine months, you've been able to read posts on ResearchBlogging.org in German and English. Soon, the site will be launching support for Spanish. Evaristo Rojas-Mayoral has created a blog to collect the names and URLs of interested blogs. If you blog in Spanish, or you know someone who does, send them to http://spanish.researchblogginglanguages.org/, where they'll find Spanish-language instructions and information about the new site.
Once the site has assembled a critical mass of bloggers, they'll select administrators and start signing up Spanish-language blogs.
In principle, there is no…
dmunger | May 18, 2009If, like me, you grew up in the U.S. in the 1970s and 80s, you probably remember the game show Name That Tune, where contestants heard brief snippets from popular songs and had to name them as quickly as possible. Even though I didn't know most of the music, which was primarily American Standards from the 30s, 40s, and 50s, I still found the show fascinating. My favorite part of the game was when the two contestants engaged in a bidding war, where a clue was given and the contestants bet on how few notes it would take them to recall the title of the song. Sometimes a contestant could actually…
dmunger | May 15, 2009Last week, we asked our readers whether certain characters or "stories" were sexist. I said that the survey was inspired by the story I had told the previous day:
Joe and Michelle are having dinner at a romantic restaurant. It's their first anniversary, and everything is perfect -- until an attractive woman walks past the table. Michelle notices that Joe casts a quick glance at the woman. Michelle flashes an annoyed glare at Joe, who knows he's in trouble. "I didn't mean to look at her," he pleads, "guys just can't help it when a pretty woman walks by." Michelle gasps. "B-but she's not as…
dmunger | May 13, 2009A few weeks ago, a new study made headlines in major newspapers across the country: Study Finds Some Youths 'Addicted' to Video Games, proclaimed the Washington Post. The Post article cited a figure of 8.5 percent of gamers age 8-18 nationwide showing signs of a behavioral addiction. Since the study found that 88 percent of children play video games, the scale of this problem is potentially vast -- as many as 3 million kids, addicted to video games.
The claim of "addiction" is quite serious. Just doing something a lot isn't enough to qualify as an addiction, it must have a detrimental effect…
dmunger | May 11, 2009I'll never forget the one and only time my mom made quiche for dinner. I was in fourth grade, and she had proudly followed the recipe in "Joy of Cooking" to create an exciting gourmet treat. Naturally, my sister and I absolutely hated it, but mom made us clean our plates. Choking down that quiche (which I now love) is one of my most vivid childhood memories.
This scene, or some version of it, has been repeated countless in kitchens around the world as parents try to introduce new foods to kids who prefer the tried-and-true meals they've grown accustomed to. For some, it might be Brussels…
dmunger | May 8, 2009Yesterday, some commenters complained that the story I used to introduce the study I was discussing was sexist. They might be right. So let's see what our readers think -- what is sexist, and what's not?
In this study, you'll see eleven different scenarios, and you'll be asked to evaluate how sexist a person in the scenario is, or the scenario as a whole is. Next week, we should be able to have some idea of what types of things are seen as most obviously sexist, and whether there are differences in individuals' perceptions of sexism.
Click here to participate
As usual, the survey is brief,…
dmunger | May 7, 2009Joe and Michelle are having dinner at a romantic restaurant. It's their first anniversary, and everything is perfect -- until an attractive woman walks past the table. Michelle notices that Joe casts a quick glance at the woman. Michelle flashes an annoyed glare at Joe, who knows he's in trouble. "I didn't mean to look at her," he pleads, "guys just can't help it when a pretty woman walks by." Michelle gasps. "B-but she's not as pretty as you," Joe stammers, unpersuasively.
Is it really true that we can't help looking at a pretty face? There's a lot of research suggesting that we notice…
dmunger | May 4, 2009The SNARC effect is a fascinating phenomenon (and no, it has nothing to do with cheeky one-off blog posts). When asked to recognize numbers, people react faster with their left hand for low numbers, and faster with their right hand for high numbers. Take a look at this graph:
This shows the results of an experiment led by Samuel Shaki: Twelve Canadian university students were shown a series of single-digit numbers. Their task was simple: as quickly as possible, press one button if the number is odd, and another button if the number is even. This graph charts reaction time of the right hand…
dmunger | May 1, 2009Listen to the following music clip.
Last week on Casual Friday, we asked our readers to explain what it's about, in concrete terms. Did you get it right?
Chances are, you did not. It's a selection from Claude Debussy's La Mer, from the movement intended to represent the wind and the sea. Only 36 of 357 respondents answered correctly. Even when I gave half-credit for mentioning either the wind, or a storm, or waves, or a boat, only an additional 90 got it. Most respondents -- over 200, in fact, got it completely wrong.
I picked seven different clips like this, from seven different works that…
dmunger | April 30, 2009Today we're introducing a new feature on Cognitive Daily. Every month, in addition to our regular blog posts, we're going to create a downloadable mini-book (or maxi-article, take your pick) about an issue related to cognitive psychology. Surprise, surprise, it's called Cognitive Monthly.
Although based on posts that have appeared in CogDaily, it goes beyond what's in the blog, synthesizing and incorporating interviews and other insights. The first issue (May 2009) comes out today!
This month's report, "The Illusion of Theater," covers the remarkable science behind what theatrical…