15
votes
0answers
170 views
How do emotions influence the language structures we use?
What are the verbal signs of subjectivity?
I am doing research about the linguistic content of media (debates, talk-show, sport comments). It occurs that once the participant gets nervous or excited, ...
13
votes
0answers
333 views
What neural structures motivate humans to decide to “throw it all away”?
In the original formulation of this question, I was trying to understand what motivates "cut and run" behavior in humans. I was defining this anecdotally to include people that have severed ties with ...
11
votes
0answers
124 views
Development of social cognition as an alternative to the obstetrical dilemma
Human infants are strange in that they are born more helpless than the infants of other great apes. They are born with about 25-30% of their brain developed, compared to the 40-50% of other great ...
10
votes
0answers
177 views
Longitudinal mobile mood tracking app with random reminders
The goal is to take simple measurements of mood using Likert scale over an extended period of time (e.g. two months).
I know there is a large number of mobile apps for tracking mood on every ...
10
votes
0answers
100 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
0answers
76 views
Why do we become bored of stimuli after multiple exposures to it?
Why do we become bored of songs, films, stories, jokes, food after being exposed to them or experiencing them multiple times?
Why is it when our cortex becomes adequate at predicting the outcomes of ...
9
votes
0answers
57 views
How similar are human brains within the same haplogroup?
I've grown up and went through school with a "politically correct" view on people that we are all "the same". The TED talk that I've listed below hints that this view might've arisen in the post-WW2 ...
9
votes
0answers
105 views
Does the effect of naturalistic exposure on second language acquisition vary with age?
A while back, I watched the movie The Terminal and the main character played by Tom Hanks learns to speak fluent English while he is stranded in the airport for more than a year. Which seems somewhat ...
9
votes
0answers
82 views
Human behaviour in one-shot perfect information games
Background
A one-shot game is one where two participants have some set of actions $\{1, ... , n\}$, they make their decision on which option to take (without knowing the decision of their partner, or ...
9
votes
0answers
59 views
Does self-directed speech help or hurt a blind subject's auditory recognition?
Recently, it was found that self-directed speech was helpful to sighted subjects engaging in a visual search task:
Participants searched for common objects, while being sometimes [sic] asked to ...
9
votes
0answers
148 views
Evolutionary game theory in the cognitive sciences
Game theory models something very relevant to psychologists (in particular social psychologists): conflict and cooperation between decision-makers. Unfortunately, classical game theory demands that ...
9
votes
0answers
199 views
Fitting a psychometric function when data does not lend itself to a sigmoidal fit [pypsignifit]
I'm fitting a psychometric function to a range of data. The majority of this data lends itself to a sigmoidal fit (i.e. participants can do the task), but some individuals are absolutely unable to do ...
9
votes
0answers
112 views
What is the effect of Social Proof on Conversion Rate?
I'm wondering to what extent Social Proof helps the Conversion Rate of websites and marketing.
Specifically I'm wondering what effect Social Proof would have on Conversion Rate for a sample task in ...
8
votes
0answers
41 views
Have there been any mechanisms proposed for normalization in probabilistic population codes?
I heard a talk yesterday by Dora Angelaki about multi-sensory integration. Part of the talk was about bayesian inference with multiple noisy sources of information. I know that there has been a lot ...
8
votes
0answers
76 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 ...
8
votes
0answers
55 views
+200
What is the influence of “effort put into pursuing wealth” on happiness?
As presented in the TED talk by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (3:30) repeated research has been unable to show a correlation between happiness and level of material wealth (above a certain minimum ...
8
votes
0answers
81 views
Can the Philosophy thought game “The experience machine” be answered by Positive Psychology?
In Philosophy, a thought game exists called "The experience machine" {1}. In summary, it's a machine you plug into that enables you to always experience positive events, and never negative ones.
One ...
8
votes
0answers
178 views
Modern treatments of Alan Turing's B-type neural networks
In the cognitive sciences Alan Turing is best known for launching AI with his Computing machinery and intelligence (1950). However, this was not his first contribution to the cognitive sciences, in ...
8
votes
0answers
70 views
Where does the distinction between motives and goals lie in activity theory?
Activity has an hierarchical structure, and can be analyzed at different levels: activities, actions and operations. (Leontiev 1974)
(source: interaction-design.org)
The top level is activity ...
8
votes
0answers
66 views
What do anatomical substrates of conditioned taste aversion tell us about treatment?
Conditioned taste aversions (CTAs) or Garcia effect are a byproduct of feeling ill after we've consumed a certain food. These aversions is present even if the illness is not related to ingestion and ...
7
votes
0answers
59 views
Are there any models of the human visual field of view taking into account head, neck and eye movements and calculating likelihood of fixation?
I would like to know if there are studies that (1) model the field of view taking into account all degrees of freedom of the head, neck and eyes and (2) if there is any probabilistic model assigned to ...
7
votes
0answers
86 views
What defines maximum alertness / easiest time to get out of bed in the morning for humans?
I'm interested in sleep research, and sometimes in conversations with people the following idea gets discussed: "A person becomes aware at a certain time in the morning and feel great(while still in ...
7
votes
0answers
41 views
Why a person may have a temptation to do something unrelated when doing especially important thing?
I would like to know, why a person may have a temptation to do something unrelated (or slightly related to his current task) when doing particularly important job?
Like, when preparing for an ...
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 ...
7
votes
0answers
32 views
What are some known roles or correlations of glucocorticoid receptor function to behaviour?
The NR3C1 gene encodes for a neuron-specific glucocorticoid receptor (GR), of which methylation levels have been shown to relate to altered maternal care and stress response in rodents (Weaver et al., ...
7
votes
0answers
80 views
Do the students that report “friendly” teachers perform better on standardized tests?
I'll preface this by saying that I've been considering this question in light of the "Summer of Love" initiative and subsequent blog posts, which are looking at the extent to which comments are ...
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 ...
7
votes
0answers
89 views
What research has been done on attachment types in other primates?
The most canonical experimental paradigm for studying human attachment styles is the Strange Situation leading to classifications such as Secure, Insecure-avoidant, and so on.
What are the equivalent ...
7
votes
0answers
91 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 ...
7
votes
0answers
152 views
What types of sounds do young infants prefer?
I've learned through course lectures that infants can recognize faces shortly after birth (Slater & Quinn, 2001), and have a visual preference for human features as young as 1-month-old (Sanefuji ...
7
votes
0answers
288 views
How does goal-tracking and sign-tracking behaviour vary across species?
In Pavlonian (Classical) Conditioning, conditioned responses of an animal may vary. Some animals focus on the unconditioned stimulus (ie. food / location of food) while others may focus on the ...
6
votes
0answers
31 views
Do animals that sleep during the day have a different sleep architecture than those who sleep at night?
A typical hypnogram, delineating the sleep architecture for a (human) mammal looks like
A distinct distribution of non-REM and REM sleep can be observed.
Is this pattern of sleep cycles ...
6
votes
0answers
47 views
Name of the bias where someone really needs something after they find out it exists
I'm looking for the name of the cognitive bias that is expressed in the following story.
A fellow coworker was instrumental in getting a 75 gallon fish tank installed in the lobby of the company that ...
6
votes
0answers
92 views
How long should I work before taking a break?
I'd like to work as effectively as possible for 8-9 hours a day, whether at work or studying.
At some point in completing my major in psych I remember hearing about the importance of taking breaks ...
6
votes
0answers
32 views
Are there any rules about masking?
I am currently programming an experiment where participants have to do a divided visual field task. In a paper about the correct methodology about these tasks, it is said that you should use a ...
6
votes
0answers
91 views
Are ambidextrous people better at multitasking?
I'm strongly 'one-handed' in that I can barely even write with my left hand. My wife is fairly ambidextrous, in that she's by default left-handed, but can also write with her right hand.
I've ...
6
votes
0answers
62 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
74 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
66 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 ...
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 ...
6
votes
0answers
99 views
At what point does a complex become pathological?
I've a first question so I apologize if the format is completely awry.
I'm reading Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature and I came across this passage by Edward C. ...
6
votes
0answers
374 views
Cultural brain hypothesis and gene-culture co-evolution
Recently, Joseph Henrich of UBC has been promoting his cultural brain hypothesis. The goal is to explain a selection pressure behind the development of the human brain and general intelligence. The ...
6
votes
0answers
112 views
What is the distribution of performance in academic programming subjects?
On Programmers SE there is a popular question about scientific evidence for whether some people either are or are not able to program.
One person cites an unpublished manuscript by Dehnadi and ...
6
votes
0answers
100 views
Advantage of active learning on classification tasks
I am looking for a specific type of experimental test of active learning. Given some artificial or natural learning task that consists of classifying inputs $x$ from a large input space $X$. There is ...
6
votes
0answers
59 views
What research exists in the areas of formulating questions and “problem shaping”?
After recalling Eric Steven Raymond and Rick Moen's How to Ask Questions The Smart Way and a discussion in a systems engineering course regarding the impact of the proper formulation of a problem in ...
6
votes
0answers
65 views
Problems with using personal feedback to motivate participation in an online psychological experiment?
I am planning on running an online psychological experiment where participants must learn about various simulated environments and then make inferences about them. Because completing the experiment ...
6
votes
0answers
41 views
How to efficiently get a sense of the meaning of a score on a non-aptitude test that you encounter in a journal article?
Context: When reading research articles in psychology, you often encounter new non-aptitude self-report psychological tests (e.g., measures of personality, well-being, psychopathology, learning style, ...
6
votes
0answers
86 views
How do cooperative vs. competitive activities impact the learning patterns of an individual?
To what extent does cooperative versus competitive learning influence personality development or even pathological behaviors?
If these activities need to be narrowed down to a specific category, I'm ...
6
votes
0answers
34 views
What is the correlation between self and other ratings of goal orientation?
In educational psychology goal orientation is a popular construct. In particular popular dimensions of goal orientation include performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and mastery. The studies ...
6
votes
0answers
41 views
What salient features of a {conditioned stimulus,unconditioned stimulus} pair are represented in the lateral amygdala?
In classical conditioning, a conditioned stimulus (CS, e.g., a tone) is presented just before an unconditioned stimulus (UCS, e.g., a mild toe pinch) in repeated trials, such that the CS will ...
