All Questions
11
votes
2answers
204 views
How are newly created neurons recruited into existing networks?
As far as I understand, the basics of neurogenesis (abstracted down to the level that makes sense to a computer scientist) is as follows:
Neural progenitor cells differentiate into new neurons that ...
8
votes
3answers
300 views
Why are mind maps recommended for study and recap?
In both my last year of high school and my freshmen year at the university, I got strong recommendations to study using mind maps - especially because this is apparently better to cope with large ...
13
votes
2answers
260 views
How to classify and understand emotions of people using chat and text messaging lingo and emoticons?
I am looking for scholarly, peer-reviewed articles that discuss natural language processing (NLP) involving chat or text messaging lingo/acronyms and the affect of chat participants based on language ...
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
2answers
241 views
What skills are required to build simulations of the human brain? [closed]
I want to build a system that has the ability to gather data from the internet in order to build a cognitive model of the human brain. The model should be able to answer the questions required by a ...
15
votes
5answers
556 views
What are good examples of applying dynamical systems in cognitive science?
I'm a mathematics and physics student very much interested in cognitive science. Recently I've been hearing about "a new approach" in cognitive science via dynamical system theory.
What are some ...
10
votes
1answer
214 views
Modern replacement for Panksepp's “Affective Neuroscience” book?
Jaak Panksepp's book (Amazon link here) is a phenomenal and highly readable systems-based introduction to not only affective neuroscience, but the neuroscience of motivation in general. The problem ...
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 ...
11
votes
4answers
237 views
Why is training better when following an easy-to-difficult schedule?
As suggested in the answer to this question, experimental results show that training is most effective when it follows an easy-to-difficult schedule.
What theories and specifically computational ...
7
votes
1answer
98 views
How to efficiently locate existing psychology and social science measures?
Whenever I start a new research project, I typically have to find questions and scales that have proven validity in measuring constructs of interest (e.g., psychological / political science / social ...
5
votes
2answers
364 views
Is variation in human brain size related to mental functioning?
It seems that the head size of human beings has evolved to be relatively similar, yet there is still some amount of variation. While I'm sure the correlation is not absolute, I read that larger heads ...
2
votes
2answers
911 views
What is the optimal length of a training session?
When a practice session is too long, there will presumably be a point where no further significant gains can be made without a break. At what point will this be?
Update: This question was originally ...
7
votes
3answers
434 views
Is it possible to improve reading speed and visual comprehension by doing exercises?
Background
I'm trying to capture detailed information from the images in my visual memory, mainly text. My daily life requires reading many documents on varying topics. I want to increase my reading ...
13
votes
3answers
601 views
Why does neuroplasticity decrease in adults?
Although adult brains are malleable and even undergo limited neuorgenesis, the extent of the neuroplasticiy is much lower than in children. This is most obvious in language acquisition, and recovery ...
9
votes
1answer
102 views
What are the considerations for using wide-reaching messages and training over individual-focused efforts for changing behavior?
In most places that I've worked, when some sort of problem arose or corrective action needs to be taken, one of the first responses is to send mass emails at an organization or team level and set up ...
5
votes
0answers
93 views
Online datasets for the disjunction effect and violations of the sure-thing principle
The disjunction effect (or violation of the sure-thing principle) is as follows:
A disjunction effect occurs when people prefer x over y when they know that event A obtains, and they also ...
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
567 views
What are popular rationalist responses to Tversky & Shafir?
In the early 90s Tversky & Shafir observed several violations of rationality in human participants, in particular violation of the disjunction effect and sure-thing principle. This has lead to ...
8
votes
1answer
341 views
What is the most complex artificial neural network created to date?
A few years ago I wrote a research paper for college on neural networks. At the time IBM's Blue Brain was the clear winner. Some rumor went around that they were close to emulating a brain the ...
11
votes
4answers
496 views
Why are people inclined to praise or fear the unknown?
Human beings are inclined to "praise" the unknown, and are often afraid of the unknown. This inclination has led to the creation of mythology and many gods. To this date we are still carrying this ...
10
votes
2answers
423 views
What can we learn from the neural networks of C.elegans to understand human brains?
Recently I am reading some works about Caenorhabditis Elegans. A C.elegans has 302 neurons and we already know the function and connection of every one of their neurons so that we can exactly ...
26
votes
1answer
4k views
Is leg jiggling a focus aid?
This is slightly left-field, but I am interested in the Cognitive Science implications of this question: Many people, myself included, are "leg jigglers", meaning we often sit jiggling or bouncing a ...
2
votes
2answers
172 views
How effective is the NLP Reverse Movie Technique in dealing with traumatic experiences?
The Reverse Movie Technique (also konwn as The NLP Fast Phobia/Trauma Cure) is named as such because it involves playing a traumatic event backwards through your head.
Is the technique effective at ...
3
votes
3answers
142 views
How much information is lost when conveying an experience or emotion to another person?
Certain languages have words that do not literally translate into any another language. There is already a small loss of information in this sense.
Emotions are a personal experience and the ...
24
votes
1answer
906 views
By learning to read and write upside down, what did I do to myself?
If you've ever read Encyclopedia Brown books, you'll be familiar with the backwards writing in the back of the book that explains the solution to the case.
When I was in my mid-late teens (I don't ...
15
votes
2answers
425 views
Does language and/or culture affect an individual's cognitive capacity?
Some languages have multiple expressions to identify, address, comprehend, and interpret a single concept and/or experience.
Are limits placed on understanding and describing aspects of cognition due ...
3
votes
1answer
442 views
How does raw IQ change over the lifespan at the group-level?
In the classic review of intelligence research (Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns), Neisser et al (1996) write the following
Stability. Intelligence test scores are fairly stable during
...
8
votes
1answer
181 views
Does dream recall disturb the processes of memory consolidation?
Psychology in the time of Freud was occupied with dreams. Relaying these to one's analyst was an important part of treatment.
Fast-forward to less than 100 years later, and we know so much about the ...
7
votes
1answer
137 views
How does task difficulty schedule affect the rate and efficiency of perceptual learning?
In perceptual learning (line length/orientation discrimination, visual target detection, tone frequency discrimination, etc), when training people or animals to perform a task better, is there an ...
1
vote
1answer
170 views
Are there axioms in the mind? [closed]
While studying artificial neural networks, I stumbled upon the following question:
Are there any hard-wired axioms in the brain that must exist equally in every conscious mind?
I could imagine that, ...
4
votes
0answers
101 views
Plot a schematic outline of the brain
I know that I can read, write and analyse different type of brain scanning data using various Medical Imaging Tools available for R. But I am looking for something very simple - a possibility to just ...
6
votes
1answer
265 views
What are the main causes of whether a person becomes introverted or extraverted?
Genetics is obviously an important cause of whether someone becomes extraverted or introverted. But what percentage is genetics and what percentage is the environment? What factors in the environment ...
7
votes
0answers
277 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 ...
12
votes
1answer
205 views
Computational models of early learning in children
What are currently used biologically plausible computational models/frameworks of early learning in children?
Personally, I have used cascade correlation neural nets to model pronoun acquisition ...
17
votes
2answers
895 views
Neural networks with biologically plausible accounts of neurogenesis
One of the reasons artificial neural net algorithms like cascade correlation (pdf) have been generating interest is because they start with a minimal topology (just input and output unit) and recruit ...
7
votes
1answer
210 views
How do animals recognize other animals of their own species?
My motivation for this question is dog-based, but I suppose it would apply equally well to humans. How do animals recognize their own kind, particularly where there is large variation in appearance?
...
5
votes
2answers
145 views
Effectiveness of recalling information in the same location it was learned
In an interview with Robert A. Bjork this article claims that it is easier to recall information where it occurred:
Similarly, studying in only one location is great as long as you’ll only be ...
4
votes
1answer
236 views
How much more efficient is interleaving skills when learning?
In an interview with Robert A. Bjork this article suggests interleaving skills is better than focusing exclusively on one skill at a time. How much of a difference does the research indicate that it ...
15
votes
5answers
421 views
Does learning one discipline improve performance in another discipline?
I have come across a lot of articles that suggest learning across disciplines would improve cognitive abilities. This is more often referred to as Integrative Learning. Also, nowadayas a lot of ...
3
votes
1answer
159 views
Has the neuro-linguistic programming visual model been scientifically tested?
According to the NLP visual model, fast flickers of the eyes in left/right and the 4 diagonal directions map to simple cues related to how a person is thinking. Thease are "visual constructed", ...
9
votes
2answers
152 views
What are different ways to determine centroids of fMRI activation, their drawbacks and perks?
I'm reading an older article on bilingualism (Kim, Relkin, Lee, & Hirsch, 1997) for a seminar. They were interested in the spatial separation of two languages in early and late bilinguals. They ...
12
votes
2answers
3k views
Free online intelligence test with norm table, high reliability, and must be printable?
I am looking for a general intelligence test which meets the following requirements:
available online for free
there is a table which translates "points" to IQ (I don't want a hidden online ...
9
votes
1answer
492 views
What are the benefits of dyslexia?
Reading the Wikipedia article on Dyslexia, it sounds very negative. The article defines Dyslexia as a learning disability, which I understand it is classified as. However, knowing individuals with ...
14
votes
2answers
457 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 ...
9
votes
1answer
194 views
Cognitive explanation of why beta blockers are effective for anxiety
Beta blockers essentially reduce physical effects of anxiety and panic disorder, but there is no proof that there is a direct effect on anxiety. Some scientists believe there is an indirect effect.
...
6
votes
2answers
115 views
Studies modelling learning curves of an overall task and subtasks
Background
Lee and Anderson (2001) published an article in which they argued that learning a complex skill can be understood in terms of learning various component skills. They did this by ...
8
votes
1answer
216 views
What are the current suggested models for Primacy Effect in memory recall or personality impression?
What are the current suggested normative, mechanistic or phenomenological models for explaining primacy effect as was observed by Solomon Asch (1946) on personality impression, list-of-words memory ...
9
votes
1answer
82 views
Has an upper-limit on the physical spacing represented by grid cells in Entorhinal cortex been probed?
There is considerable research reporting activity of unit recordings from grid cells in the Entorhinal cortex (e.g. [1]) - typically of rats running around in enclosed spaces.
Is there any ...
17
votes
3answers
3k views
Does evidence support Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?
Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs (shown below) is a popular concept and is often taught in basic psychology courses, and often less objectively taught in Business and Marketing courses.
A common problem ...
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 ...
