11
votes
2answers
453 views
What tasks does Bayesian decision-making model poorly?
Bayesianism has been a relatively successful paradigm for modeling decision-making. However, not every psychologist is a bayesian, and there are tasks such as the Tversky & Shafir (1992) ...
5
votes
1answer
74 views
Is there a canonical reference for behavioral, attentional, and memory tests?
In researching another question, I read a few review articles that were testing behavioral and attentional variables in response to different sleep parameters. I was curious about some of these ...
1
vote
1answer
135 views
What is the scientific term or concept for inner thought control? [closed]
Usually when a thought arises, it seems that we quickly scurry after it, unconsciously getting caught up with whatever everyday thoughts come up. These can be invoked internally or externally.
(No ...
3
votes
1answer
294 views
What is the correlation between Grade Point Average (GPA) and intelligence?
What is an authoritative empirical estimate of the correlation between pscyhometric measures of intelligence and Grade Point Average (GPA)?
What are the main factors that influence the size of the ...
10
votes
1answer
223 views
Does intelligence cause greater alcohol consumption?
I just stumbled on a blog post that asserts that more intelligent people drink more than less intelligent people.
The author writes:
Controlling for a large number of demographic variables, such ...
12
votes
2answers
218 views
How are autistic savants able to perform certain mathematical computations so quickly?
How do autistic savants (or other people with these abilities) compute equations like $81^{100}$ in 2.5 minutes?
Which algorithms do they use? Is it an efficient one, or do they just have a lot of ...
1
vote
1answer
97 views
How many bits of data would it take to represent an entire life as a film?
Imagine your life as a film. Add all the stuff you know.
Is it possible to express this amount of data in bits? (A rough order of magnitude would be ok.)
See also: Partitions and Savants:
6
votes
2answers
133 views
Are different types of long term memories stored in different parts of the brain?
I recently had some questions concerning the capacity of the brain's memory:
Are different types of long term-memories like know-how, your-life, etc. remembered in different parts of the brain?
If ...
9
votes
1answer
161 views
How do the brains of savants such as Orlando Serrell and Temple Grandin compare to a standard brain?
There are the examples of Orlando Serrell and Temple Grandin, who remember quite a lot, due to autism.
How do their brains compare to a standard brain?
See also: Partitions and Volume:
8
votes
2answers
167 views
How can the success of Bayesian models be reconciled with demonstrations of heuristic and biased reasoning?
In recent years, Bayesian models of cognition have been used - with considerable success - to explain human reasoning in a variety of inferential tasks (Chater, Tenenbaum, & Yuille, 2006). These ...
4
votes
1answer
38 views
Is it reasonable to have a factor with only two levels in a carry-over design for an fMRI study?
I'm planning a carry-over design for an fMRI study.
To save time, since it seems that I'll need a huge number of trials for my purpose, I'm wondering if it's reasonable to have a matrix 2x3x3, ...
20
votes
1answer
298 views
The effects of bilingualism on colour perception
Peltola et al. (2012) showed that there are two types of bilinguals.
Balanced bilinguals mix their two languages and are effected by linguistic categories from both.
Dominant bilinguals seem to ...
5
votes
0answers
69 views
How to measure student activity, participation, tendency to ask questions, etc?
We would like to compare students from different education systems on the following variables:
tendency to actively participate on lessons
tendency to ask questions
tendency and experience in ...
8
votes
0answers
168 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 ...
9
votes
1answer
83 views
How does daily amount of sleep vary within and between healthy adults?
I'm interested in research that has employed the following or similar research design:
Measure the daily amount of sleep
every day for an for an extended period (e.g., more than a month)
in a ...
16
votes
5answers
353 views
Why do we prefer visually aligned objects?
We all know visual alignment is one of the foundations of design. Everything must be aligned with everything else.
We also know that when things are aligned it is easier to process information.
My ...
-3
votes
1answer
187 views
What test can be used to measure memory? [closed]
We want to have a test to determine the status of a person's memory.
For example, a good test might consist of multtiple choice questions and take 5 - 10 minutes. The end result would be a summary ...
4
votes
1answer
311 views
Why does a stuffed up nose clear up momentarily when the person having it is startled or has an orgasm?
I have experienced this phenomena many, many times and I'm sure it's not only me. I guess the sudden rise in arousal opens up the nostrils in a kind of fight or flight response, but I'm interested in ...
10
votes
1answer
108 views
What constructs help explain limited cognitive processing and the cognitive effects of rules that limit decision making choices?
Supposed that I'm a married man, and my wife asks me to pick out a paint color for our new house. It's not terribly mentally taxing. However, my wife starts to add rules. The color can't be too ...
2
votes
1answer
200 views
When counting a given letter in sentences, why do people tend to omit occurrences in certain common words?
I have noticed that when I, and presumably others, count the number of times the letter F appears in the following passage:
...
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 ...
5
votes
1answer
145 views
What is the reliability of GPA?
I'm in the process of performing a meta-analysis that includes Grade Point Average (GPA) as one of the variables. For some purposes, it might be useful to have an estimate of the reliability of ...
7
votes
3answers
186 views
Neurotransmitter based imaging techniques
All the brain imaging techniques I know fall into two categories:
Tracking blood
Either by looking at the magnetic (fMRI), or near-infared absorption (diffuse optical imaging, NIRS) properties of ...
6
votes
2answers
339 views
What articles use structural equation modelling in a meta-analytic context to model mediation?
I'm interested in structural equation modelling (SEM) meta-analysis and its application to modelling mediation relationships.
Mike W.-L. Cheung has written a few articles on the topic of SEM ...
8
votes
2answers
97 views
What cognitive strategies diminish bias in decision-making beyond those outlined by Larrick?
Larrick (2004; pdf) offers a small number of suggestions for strategies to diminish bias in decision making, which he breaks down into four categories.
"Consider the opposite". Tell decision-makers ...
6
votes
2answers
99 views
How to computationally model the Wisconsin Card Sorting task? [closed]
The Wisconsin Card Sorting task is rather famous but appears to be quite difficult to model computationally.
To respond to @Artem's question, I work in RL and I am interested in how people learn the ...
6
votes
1answer
152 views
Appropriate metric(s) for quantifying the accuracy gain obtained from averaging dyads of estimates instead of adopting individual estimates?
Background
The question relates to research I am doing into the Wisdom of Crowds effect (Galton, 1907; Page, 2007; Surowiecki, 2004), in which an average of the estimates made by individuals proves ...
9
votes
0answers
56 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 ...
15
votes
1answer
245 views
Medium-term effects of polyphasic sleep on performance
Typical sleep patterns of one big block of 6 to 9 hours with no naps is usually referred to as monophasic sleep. A second natural sleep pattern is biphasic sleep which breaks up your sleep into two ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
Do we recognize ourselves better when we see our mirror image?
A friend of mine recently noticed that we both have a birthmark on the face. He looked at me and said that we have exactly the same mark. But he has it left and I right. But, when looking in a mirror, ...
16
votes
5answers
297 views
How long does it take to read X number of characters?
How does the time needed to read a sentence scale with the number of characters? Or does this time scaling depend on something more than just character count?
For example, let $X$ be the number of ...
1
vote
1answer
100 views
What is the correlation between feeling superior and well-being?
I have noticed in myself and others, when people perceive themselves as "better off" than the majority of others (e.g., smarter, better looking, higher social status, better brain function, more ...
5
votes
1answer
160 views
Measuring changes in hemispheric dominance over time
I've recently started using my trackball left-handed after being right-handed my whole life. The motivation is partly to balance out wrist strain, and partly to see how much my brain rejects the idea.
...
5
votes
1answer
120 views
What causes people to feel depressed without there being a problem?
I have noticed that some people have lives that appear perfectly fine, yet they feel depressed. In my specific case the feeling typically lasts for a few days and then magically disappears, only to ...
3
votes
0answers
76 views
What positive techniques can be used to motivate individuals resistant to common gamification techniques?
A previous question I asked dealt with Gamification techniques to encourage people to perform online workplace training.
We are hoping that we can introduce some game techniques to lift the ...
13
votes
1answer
173 views
How can I use gamification to encourage people to complete workplace training?
I am looking for ways to improve the likelihood people will perform mundane but required workplace training. I am looking into gamification techniques.
My organisation requires that employees ...
-3
votes
1answer
257 views
Are there colors women find attractive on men? [closed]
I have heard that men find women in red more attractive (I can confirm this from personal experience as well). What color or colors do women prefer on men, if any?
3
votes
2answers
238 views
Where is the visual “image” that we “see” finally assembled?
David Hubel's online book, Eye, Brain and Vision describes in great detail our early visual system. The image that we are conscious of when we open our eyes goes through a complex path:
The final ...
5
votes
0answers
125 views
Is “Karmic Punishment” more effective?
When I was young, my parents consistently used "Karmic Punishments", punishments that had a strong relationship to the misbehavior. They believed that this was more effective.
Examples:
...
8
votes
0answers
69 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
1answer
125 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 ...
8
votes
1answer
258 views
Is there a region of cortex which over a period of development becomes the seat of self?
Background
Mountcastle's hypothesis, which is based on the observation of uniform cortical anatomy, suggests that the there might be a uniform cortical "algorithm". The only reason that some cortical ...
7
votes
1answer
307 views
What form might Jungian archetypes take in the brain?
Modern psychology and psychiatry are very well grounded in scientific principles. Both, however, have a history in various analytical philosophies. Jung had the notion of an archetype, a universally ...
4
votes
1answer
151 views
Can one “understand” emotions, yet not “feel” them?
Prometheus Viral Clip #3 - David is a good clip of a fictional character in a science-fiction movie that helps frame my question; but I am interested in the general question, not the specifics of this ...
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
1answer
76 views
Does not consistently providing a reward strengthen operant conditioning?
When learning about Operant Conditioning, I remember being taught that not consistently rewarding the desired behavior could (seemingly counterintuitively) actually increase the strength of learning ...
6
votes
0answers
38 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 ...
9
votes
0answers
142 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 ...
7
votes
4answers
162 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 ...
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 ...
