For questions about definitions, names, and terms used in the cognitive sciences literature.
71
votes
6answers
3k views
How is it that taking a break from a problem sometimes allows you to figure out the answer?
As a computer programmer, I have noticed an interesting phenomenon: If I am stuck on a particular problem in my work, often if I stop thinking about the problem and do something else, the answer will ...
14
votes
2answers
456 views
Is there a term for individuals who can “visualize” numbers and advanced mathematics?
I recently saw an episode of 60 Minutes about Jacob Barnett, a 13 year old boy who is currently attending advanced physics classes at a local university and was portrayed by the show as being a child ...
14
votes
1answer
383 views
What is an effective metric of complexity for an Artificial Neural Network?
After asking the question What is the most complex neural network... I realized I don't really have a good metric of "complexity" in a general sense. The simplest measure would likely be count of ...
12
votes
2answers
2k views
Is pedophilia a sexual orientation or a mental disorder?
There are some different claims being made that pedophilia is a sexual orientation rather than a mental disorder.
At the moment there seems to be a growing group of psychologists advocating that ...
12
votes
2answers
882 views
Is it called something when I can't remember the word I want to say, but I can remember its first letter?
This happens to me frequently. I'll say, "Oh you know that guy... uhh... I can't remember his name. But he starts with a 'Z'." You can remember part of the word but not the whole word.
Is there a ...
11
votes
1answer
422 views
What was the experiment where you pour liquid from a tall container to a short one and ask a child which has more?
From Developmental psychology 101 I remember an experiment where the person conducting the experiment would pour liquid from a tall, narrow container into a short, narrow container and ask a child if ...
11
votes
1answer
316 views
Subconscious vs Unconscious
From what I know, we use the term 'subconscious' to refer to the things that we can bring into our conscious. and, we use the term 'unconscious' for things that we can't know, they come automatically ...
10
votes
4answers
374 views
Do people have a tendency to stick to one opinion after they formed it?
Scytale's assessment, from the science fiction novel "Dune Messiah" (1969)
When a creature has developed into one thing, he will choose death
rather than change into his opposite.
While ...
10
votes
3answers
237 views
What is the term for a psychological effect which does not have a neurobiological/genetic basis?
When a psychological condition is the result of irregular brain structures or neurotransmitter imbalances we say the condition has a neurobiological basis; this is analogous to the classic Nature in ...
10
votes
1answer
153 views
What does “veridicality” mean in terms of psychology?
I'm reading the paper "Visual Space Perception and Visually Directed Action" by Loomis, Da Silva, Fujita and Fukusima (1992; pdf). In this paper, the word 'veridicality' is used in several sentences.
...
10
votes
2answers
577 views
Motivation vs Goal Oriented Behavior
What's the difference between these two terms when used in the context of cognitive psychology? To the best of my knowledge, research on 'Goal Oriented Behavior' refers to the subset of motivation ...
10
votes
2answers
195 views
What is the term for human beings' tendency to obey without thinking?
I'm wanting to read more about a certain human behavior, but I am not sure what the proper term for it is, so some of the things I am finding aren't what I am looking for. I'm interested in how Humans ...
10
votes
2answers
377 views
What is the term for when too many choices results in inability to decide?
A common problem is that when offered too many choices, consumers give up and make no choice. Too many options results in no sale where fewer options might have resulted in more sales. It's like the ...
10
votes
1answer
81 views
Learning of new concepts being impeded by an error in previous work
Note: I'm framing this question in terms of tutoring math since that's what I tutor most, though it applies to a wide range of subject matters.
I do a decent amount of tutoring, and this is one ...
9
votes
1answer
208 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 ...
8
votes
2answers
160 views
Bias by which we tend to accept vague descriptions of ourselves
There's an effective strategy employed by horoscopes and "psychics" where they say vague statements like "You like being with friends but you value your time alone"; statements that basically "cover ...
8
votes
2answers
160 views
What is the “static” in human vision called?
Sort of like a cheap digital Camera, the human eye has certain feedback that's perceived but doesn't actually exist in the real world; a little layer of Static that's especially noticeable in pitch ...
8
votes
1answer
101 views
Hearing first but understanding later?
I have experienced this phenomenon several times and checked with other people as well.
It goes like this: you hear something, but it's just a sound with no meaning. Some seconds later, you ...
8
votes
0answers
70 views
What is the bias/thought process that results in distrust of “formal” knowledge in favor of “folk” knowledge?
An interesting effect I've noticed is that certain groups of people seem to accept "folk knowledge" and value it over significantly better founded "formal" or scientific knowledge. In particular this ...
7
votes
2answers
117 views
What is the name of the effect whereby socialising in a group reinforces group beliefs?
Background:
There's this effect when you have some idea, i.e. that eating other people is (probably) cool, you join the group of like minded people, you talk about how tasty people are, everyone ...
7
votes
2answers
201 views
Study on commitment and follow-through
I'm faced with a UX problem of looking for ways to position a website to increase attendance at future "real world" events, and I'm remembering a study once conducted along these lines (details a bit ...
7
votes
1answer
197 views
What are the characteristics that make complex problem solving complex?
In real-world problem-solving tasks that many people call "complex" (like flying a jet, programming, fixing a car, fighting a fire - the type investigated by the naturalistic decision making ...
7
votes
0answers
90 views
Bias towards purchasing tangible vs virtual goods
People have very little hesitation in spending $3 on a coffee once a week, but when it comes to buying things online, such as virtual goods or services, they are often much more reluctant. There is a ...
6
votes
3answers
797 views
Difference between Instinct and Intuition
Sometimes I've heard people using the term gut feeling rather than their 'intuition or instinct' and I'm not sure which one do they mean. So, can both the terms be used interchangeably and simply ...
6
votes
2answers
230 views
What is the term for “What has been seen cannot be unseen” in cognitive sciences?
During a discussion with my officemate I told him that I read somewhere that the gas pillar in Carina nebula looks like a cat punching the dog; ever since then, every time my wallpaper slideshow ...
6
votes
1answer
122 views
Face-Blindness: Have I seen you before?
Sometimes when I meet new people, I feel like I have seen them before. Their faces might look similar to people's faces, I have really have met before.
The wiki article on Difficulties with Facial ...
6
votes
1answer
77 views
What type of behaviour is showing, but withholding, a reward?
A specific example of what I mean is: when you go shopping at a supermarket with a loyalty card system, and you do not participate, the receipt say something along the lines of
If you had a ...
6
votes
2answers
104 views
What's the name of this visual search task?
I recall a visual search task where participants would search for a single item with either one or two distinct features. For example one would look for an X in a set of Os as "one feature" or instead ...
6
votes
2answers
80 views
What is the name of the phenomenon whereby someone steps-up and others follow?
Example: In class, when a teacher proposes some unreasonable assignment, students hesitate to express their objection until someone steps-up and then others find courage to talk.
I've tried searching ...
6
votes
2answers
270 views
What is the difference between solving a problem and acquiring a skill?
Within the confines of cognitive psychology, what is the difference between these two tasks? In the literature, playing chess is generally seen as the exemplar of problem solving. But recently (thanks ...
6
votes
2answers
38 views
What term describes the discrepancy in reported intention to vote and actual voting behaviour?
I am interested in prediction markets, where traders have a monetary incentive to bet on who they think would win in an election. I think that the financial incentive in prediction markets makes them ...
6
votes
0answers
51 views
What is the scientific term for unexpected, spontaneous dream recall?
I'm interested if there's a term for spontaneous dream recall. I will try to define the phenomenon I'm talking about.
Over 10 years ago, I started to notice that I can spontaneously recall dreams, ...
6
votes
0answers
70 views
Is there a “foreplay” equivalent, priming activity for thinking or conversation?
I've noticed the following phenomenon and am trying to find out if it is indeed true and if there is a scientific term for it:
When I think about ideas, I notice that I can rarely jump straight into ...
6
votes
0answers
63 views
Is there evidence for a unique isolated internal representation of loved ones?
Some time ago, I've read that the most significant people in a person's life have their own internal representation/model of within the person's mind. For example:
An internal representation of a ...
5
votes
1answer
81 views
Phenomenon that causes music to sound like it's being played at a different tempo than remembered?
Something I've noticed now and then is that I'll be listening to a song off my music player and it sounds like it's being played in a tempo faster or slower than I remember the song being. Is this a ...
5
votes
3answers
45 views
What is the field that studies community responses to incentives?
Having recently read Freakonomics I was particularly interested by the idea of the responses of a community to incentives - as an example, the tale of a school which tried to introduce a financial ...
5
votes
1answer
73 views
What's the difference between projecting and mirroring?
In Psychology 101, I learned about Projecting and Mirroring... I know one is where an individual sees his own problems in other people... I always forget the other concept and/or confuse the two. ...
4
votes
1answer
137 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 ...
4
votes
2answers
155 views
Is there a psychological model or theory that describes strangers in the vicinity unknowingly causing discomfort?
The closest thing I found to this is social anxiety or agoraphobia, which is a fear of socializing or a fear of public places, respectively. However, I think the idea that strangers can cause ...
4
votes
1answer
106 views
What is the term for judging based on a simulation of the same parameters on oneself
Allow me to outline the observed process and three hypothetical examples below. For the sake of keeping the samples simple, I will ignore prior moral or religious convictions that a regular person ...
4
votes
1answer
54 views
Term for incentives working without conscious awareness
Is there a term that captures the idea that incentives work even when people deny their choices have been swayed by them?
For example, an individual amazon book reviewer may deny that a recent ...
4
votes
2answers
156 views
Defining shyness towards strangers in confrontational situations
First of all, I would like to stress that I am not a cogsci person and I have almost no background in those areas of science.
The question is whether there exists a definition of a phenomenon I ...
4
votes
1answer
78 views
Is there a technical term for “fear of the unknown”?
I'm writing paper about climate change and its economic impacts on society. Is there a generally accepted technical term for "fear of the unknown" in psychology?
4
votes
2answers
94 views
Is there an actionable branch of cognitive science?
I'm not sure what is the name of a branch of cognitive science that deals with the application of cognitive science to the real world.
I know that in Biology, there are fields like genetic ...
4
votes
1answer
188 views
Difference between “Social Roles” and “Social Groups”
The two terms "Social Roles" and "Social Groups" sound similar and I don't know if these terms are often just used interchangeably.
Is there a specific difference between "Social Roles" and "Social ...
4
votes
1answer
62 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
65 views
Phenomenon causing people to change their opinion when they are asked to hypothetically defend an opposing viewpoint?
I remember reading a case study on this years ago and I am trying to track it down.
The study involved asking people who held strong opinions on varied subjects to defend the opposite opinion in a ...
4
votes
1answer
150 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 ...
4
votes
0answers
106 views
'Model-free' learning in humans
In reinforcement learning, there is a stark distinction between model-based and model-free learning algorithms, where model-free methods don't make use any explicit information about the dynamics of ...
4
votes
0answers
39 views
Do the motivations and fears behind Enneagram have any scientific reasoning?
Background
The Enneagram personality typing system defines set of motivations and basic fears for its nine personality types among people.
The system seems to be aimed at personal development of a ...
