For questions about definitions, names, and terms used in the cognitive sciences literature.
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 ...
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 ...
7
votes
1answer
198 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
410 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 ...
2
votes
0answers
148 views
Do paraphilias have symptoms other than a sexual attraction? [closed]
Is a paraphilia simply an atypical sexual attraction, or is there more to it?
It was my understanding that a paraphilia will tend to have at least some of the following characteristics:
Developed ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
1
vote
2answers
146 views
What is Asperger's Syndrome? [closed]
I have read through the Wikipedia article on and looked at the diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome (AS) and am still not sure how it is connected with autism. It seems like compared with autism it is ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
100 views
What is the relationship between language and the level of comprehension of consciousness?
I asked a similar/related question a couple days ago about how language and/or culture affect an individual's cognitive capacity.
I'm looking for materials, if any, on the subject of a language's ...
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 ...
14
votes
2answers
458 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 ...
1
vote
2answers
649 views
What is the definition of sanity? How can I prove someone either sane or insane?
In my experience the definition of insanity is thus:
Insanity: The state of being seriously mentally ill, mad, and/or irrational.
Is there a proper scientific definition of this term? While ...
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 ...
10
votes
2answers
579 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
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 ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
What is a “delayed match-to-sample task”?
This question talked about how a "delayed match-to-sample task" can be used to measure an animal's working memory. What is a delayed match-to-sample task and how can it be used to measure working ...
11
votes
1answer
423 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
