For questions focusing on the interaction of many internal mental processes. If your question involves only one of memory, attention, language, decision-making, or perception then use the associated specialized tag instead of cognitive-psychology.
3
votes
0answers
409 views
What reasoning processes underlie the Logima Strictica 36 and Logicaus Strictimanus 24?
I am conducting research in creating an AI with high IQ.
I am interested in the tests Logima Strictica 36 Test and Logicaus Strictimanus 24. Further links are here
What is the logic of these test ...
9
votes
1answer
310 views
Why people choose “boring” colors for new cars?
I've been interested in this question for a few years, sorry if this is not the right place to ask it.
As I've been driving around the US for the last few years, I noticed that some community parking ...
5
votes
1answer
82 views
Can Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) present symptoms from very particular stimuli?
Sensory processing disorder can cause over or under reactions to sensory input, like loud sound. Can those afflicted with this disorder be okay from a particular sound played at a particular volume ...
4
votes
1answer
59 views
Are there professional cognitive science test subjects?
I'm interested in how cognitive science experiments are designed and executed. Up until now, all of the papers I've seen dealing with cognition use availability of test subjects as one of the major ...
7
votes
1answer
67 views
How repeatable are cognitive science findings within the same individual?
Thanks to this website, I've seen a number of papers and scholarly articles that deal with cognition. I'm interested in how repeatable the findings are that are discovered as a result of experiments.
...
6
votes
0answers
140 views
Is there psychoactive music?
Listen to this music for X minutes to observe Y result. Is there something like that that has been demonstrated to work for general public?
The only example of an experiment that is similar that ...
2
votes
0answers
67 views
Does the person's walking say anything about the person's cognition?
This afternoon I've been observing people at a local park and came up with some observations that lead me to this question:
Can the person's gait (manner of walking) say something about the person's ...
4
votes
1answer
67 views
A psychological theory that explains why people remember only the outcome?
I've read somewhere about a psychological theory that people often remember the end results or the outcome of a certain situation/discussion/conversation/etc, but not the details of it.
In other ...
6
votes
1answer
152 views
How does the mind build a model of reality?
I'm interested if there has been any research or experiments that deal with how the human mind creates and perpetuates the idea of knowing something.
I'm struggling to concisely express the question, ...
4
votes
1answer
189 views
Closure, an actual psychology term relating to filling in information?
I'm currently reading a book called "Understand Comics" and a term has come up called closure. I've understood this concept before and the book describes closure as the process the brain goes through ...
6
votes
1answer
154 views
How do people visually recognize their own reflection?
I'm interested in how the brain processes and recognizes the image of the person's own face.
A bit of background:
A while ago I've developed an overlay-camera like app for iPhone that allows me to ...
3
votes
1answer
72 views
Abstract idealized mental visualization improves motor task performance
I practice martial arts (Aikido), which involves a lot of rotation.
When practicing, I find that holding an abstract image in my head, instead of thinking about the actual technique, improves my ...
8
votes
1answer
230 views
Attention Theory: is it impossible to avoid distraction?
I remember reading at some point in the literature that humans are unable to avoid distraction from a certain primary task if this task isn't using up close to all available 'resources' - basically ...
2
votes
0answers
82 views
Does Cognitive Tunneling apply to daydreaming as well?
I've been reading a paper by Jarmasz J. (2005) on cognitive tunneling and am wondering if it applies to daydreaming?
For instance, if for some reason I'm already thinking about something that has no ...
13
votes
1answer
45k views
How valid is Lumosity's Brain Performance Index and what normative information is available?
Background
There is a test called Lumosity's Brain Performance Index.
A sample profile of scores might be:
...
4
votes
1answer
78 views
Psychological research on memorability of passwords?
There are lots of ad-hoc rules that people are happy to propose about passwords, such as:
Pick a phrase you can remember easily, and then use the initial letters.
A random short sequence of letters, ...
8
votes
2answers
175 views
Is it possible to run multiple thought processes concurrently?
For example, let's say I have a friend sprinting a 50m distance and that friend wants me to time the race, but I don't have a stopwatch so I have to count "manually". Can I count while simultaneously ...
8
votes
1answer
90 views
Could Fitts Law be used to measure difficulty in platform genre games?
I've been learning about Fitts' law and am wondering if it's applicable to measuring the difficulty of platform type games where the challenge is to hit the platforms?
If so, this could be used to ...
8
votes
1answer
80 views
What happens when a person “imagines” how food could taste like just from looking at it?
What processes are triggered by imagining the taste of food (let's assume it's sealed so that its smell doesn't reach the test subject's nose) only by looking at it, based on memories of food with ...
5
votes
0answers
86 views
Chunking Patterns and Enjoyment of Applying Patterns
I've been reading a book "The Theory of Fun in Game Design" it talks about two concepts of psychology that I wanted to confirm are true. The writer the book isn't a psychologist.
The two concepts ...
18
votes
1answer
964 views
What makes people easily subscribe to pseudoscientific theories?
There are many theories/disciplines that have been categorized as Pseudoscience in the Scientific community.
The list includes many things that are regularly even quoted in media like Graphology, ...
7
votes
0answers
72 views
Is the theory of Information Metabolism a reasonable scientific theory?
Background
I have been checking out various personality typing assessments lately when I came across a Personality typing system known as Socionics which aims at explaining relationships between ...
8
votes
1answer
110 views
Problem understanding the calculation of normative (Bayesian) base rates
I am having trouble understanding Table 1 of Gigerenzer, Hell, and Blank (1988, PDF, table on page 516):
Focusing on the Jack row, it is stated that the mean probabilities of Jack being an engineer ...
7
votes
0answers
219 views
How much sleep is required to restore maximum cognitive functioning?
Background: Recently I have really messed up my sleep schedule due to my procrastination. The internet points to some very basic conclusions but I would like to see actual experiments on effects of ...
4
votes
0answers
81 views
When one activity makes you less distracted doing another activity? [closed]
Background: When I'm coding, I sometimes make tea, and as long as I'm drinking the tea, I find myself more focused. Drinking tea seems to make me focus more. Thus, it seems that while doing something ...
10
votes
0answers
101 views
Do cultures differ in the perception of emotions from body expression?
In their classic study, Ekman and Friesen (1971) identified seven facial expressions recognised by people universally across all cultures as depicting certain emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, ...
9
votes
1answer
150 views
Are intelligence scores correlated with detection of second stimulus in an Attentional Blink test?
Definitions
Attentional Blink: An attentional blink is a phenomenon where when presented with rapid visual stimuli if you are asked to track two particular stimuli you will fail to notice the second ...
7
votes
1answer
130 views
Can psychosomatic reactions be completely unconcious?
I had always considered that psychosomatic reactions, such as Psychogenic pain, while "real" to the person experiencing them, would be a concious reaction at some level. That is to say, if the person ...
7
votes
1answer
85 views
Are there shapes defined by 3 (or more) generative parameters whose mapping to psychological similarity space is known?
I am trying to generate 4 shapes that are equidistant in psychological similarity space - meaning that they are all equally discriminable from one another - which differ in 3 parameters, such that ...
7
votes
1answer
126 views
What research has modelled the difficulty of mental mathematical calculation?
I posted this also on mathoverflow.
What research has modelled the difficulty of evaluating a formula mentally (for your average, numerate, person, not a trained mental calculator)?
For instance, ...
8
votes
1answer
131 views
Why do participants prefer to give input values that are “round numbers”?
Background
I have just been analysing some data where participants attempt to control a dynamic system with integer numeric inputs between 0 and 100. I've noticed that there is a general tendency for ...
7
votes
4answers
164 views
Why is it easier to remember the correct response for problems with many options rather than just two?
Sometimes it seems easier, at least for me, to remember an answer, when there are more than 2 options to choose from.
For example, I easily remember my pin (14 bit), but hardly the lighter switch (up ...
3
votes
2answers
77 views
Does pain reduce cognitive abilities?
Does subjecting a person to pain reduce his cognitive abilities?
If so, what is the process that reduces the ability? (By process, I mean the changes happening in the nervous system as a result of ...
12
votes
1answer
180 views
What factors improve mood and increase cognitive functioning when people wake up?
I'm a software engineer doing some research in order to figure out if developing some applications are worth the effort. This work is applied to computational devices including mobile devices and even ...
7
votes
2answers
153 views
What are the appraisals tendencies for fear and anger?
I understand the actions tendencies for fear and anger. For example: We might verbally insult someone when we are angry. We might feel like running away when we are afraid.
According to appraisal ...
4
votes
1answer
149 views
Is learning to do a task automatically an example of intuition?
I'm looking for some examples to understand what people call their intuition at work when making their decisions.
For example:
We learn to type and then after some time we begin to type
by ...
12
votes
2answers
417 views
Effect of words highlighting on reading comprehension
I'm interested if there are studies dealing with text understanding and POS (part of speech) coloring, or coloring syntactic/semantic information. The studies should solve the questions like:
Which ...
14
votes
5answers
646 views
What is the current “accepted” science behind dream interpretation?
I'm doing some casual reading about dream interpretation (meaning I'm reading the wikipedia entry) and the article mentions that there are several ways of thinking about dreams from a psychological ...
6
votes
3answers
242 views
How can one find out if he/she is brainwashed?
By brainwashed I mean indoctrinated with some political, religious or other type of propaganda.
I assume that you can't be aware of this, because the lack of that awareness is the point of propaganda ...
9
votes
1answer
222 views
What are biological primary mathematical skills?
In doing a bit of background reading for this question I came across a section in the book Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind on page 602 stating:
There are no sex-related differences ...
3
votes
1answer
447 views
What is the difference between IQ and Executive Function?
I was reading an article today that stated that people with high IQ's that have trouble with social skills, memory, being punctual (on time), emotional control, and "growing up" are likely to have ...
10
votes
1answer
240 views
Under what conditions does 60hz video produce visual artifacts?
There are some important thresholds of frame rate in video playback that effect whether or not animation appears fluid. This wikipedia page about Visible Frame Rate suggests that a framerate of 60 ...
3
votes
0answers
94 views
Why is a lack of response to punishment in adults considered significant in diagnoses?
It seems that a lack of response to punishment is often considered useful in diagnosing conditions or symptoms. A good example of this may be in diagnosing psychopathy, in which a lack of response to ...
7
votes
1answer
108 views
What is the effect of merely expecting an interruption on performance?
There's a lot of research about how interruptions affect cognitive performance.
Are there any studies that have looked at the effect of merely expecting to be interrupted (withou being actually ...
3
votes
2answers
151 views
Is it a good idea to play an instrument while studying? If so, what are the benefits?
We've all heard that listening to classical music and such while studying can be beneficial, but I was wondering about actually playing an instrument? If I were to absentmindedly play my accordion ...
9
votes
2answers
312 views
Does any evidence show that Smartphone users have poorer memory?
An ages old complaint is that new technology harms memory. Why remember something when you can look it up?
In a course on Human Memory I distinctly recall an interesting discussion on phones and ...
5
votes
1answer
181 views
What is the cognitive cost of switching contexts?
A common reason to use Conventions and standards in Human Computer Interaction is to limit the cost of Context Switching.
I searched to find general evidence of the cognitive costs of context ...
7
votes
1answer
72 views
What is a more modern interpretation of the terms egosyntonic/egodystonic?
Egosyntonic thoughts/ideas are those that are consistent with self-image, and egodystonic thoughts are recognized as inconsistent.
For example, in obsessive compulsive disorder, the patient will ...
4
votes
1answer
111 views
Why is it common for people to default to a single causal source to explain new phenomena?
I am constantly bombarded by allegations that almost every relatively unusual event is the result/proof of some conspiracy/plan set by a specific powerful entity.
The typical reasoning behind such ...
6
votes
1answer
99 views
Why aren't sleep measures consistently measured as mediators/moderators of cognitive performance?
Knowing that sleep quantity and quality affects cognitive performance across many domains, why aren't pre-test sleep measures or intra-test measures of arousal a standard part of all cognitive test ...
