All Questions
3
votes
1answer
53 views
What is the difference between hypnosis and meditation?
It seems that many people say that hypnosis and meditation are very similar. But what are their key differences (both in a soft and hard way)?
2
votes
2answers
107 views
Computational Neuroscience software
What are the most common software tools you use in your day to day work in computational neuroscience?
I am referring to neuroscience tools like GENESIS and NOT to generic tools like Excel.
4
votes
3answers
105 views
What causes an individual to not be able to hold all the details of a large project in memory?
Background: First of all, I'm not in any kind related to cognitive science, I'm a programmer. I'm not even sure that it's the right place for asking my question, but I'll try anyway. So, first of all, ...
2
votes
1answer
83 views
How to design research participant recruitment flyer to maximise participant response?
I often supervise student research projects. Often these projects involve recruiting participants by placing one page flyers in strategic locations. The most common scenario is that the flyer is ...
0
votes
1answer
45 views
How to interpret HLM analyses looking at work group and individual worker effects?
Liden et al (2004, PDF) is an example of a study examining employees in work groups in an organisation. Thus, measures are obtained of both individual workers and of the work groups that they belong ...
4
votes
1answer
31 views
How to compare linear and categorical models of perceptual comparisons?
Say I have a confusion matrix of perceptual similarity data for stimuli drawn from an underlying continuous spectrum. Participants also learned to categorise these stimuli such that the spectrum is ...
1
vote
1answer
62 views
Deception and nose touching - does it work for things that are about to be said in prepared speeches?
I'm not sure if nose touching is a scientifically-validated signature of deception or internal conflict. For the purposes of this question I would assume that it's fairly common knowledge in ...
7
votes
3answers
184 views
What psychological factors account for code readability?
Readability is often intuitively synthesized. If you see some piece of code, you just know whether it is readable or not. But what are actual psychological, scientific explanations for this?
There ...
4
votes
1answer
77 views
How can psychometry measure the very high IQ's in adults?
From Wikipedia's page on Mental age, we learn that:
Originally, the differences between mental age and chronological age were used to compute the intelligence quotient, or IQ. This was computed ...
7
votes
3answers
122 views
What is the status of evolutionary psychology in academia today?
Having an interest in human psychology (but no formal training) I decided to take Coursera's Introduction to Psychology as a Science. Here's a snippet from an introductory lecture (it requires ...
3
votes
0answers
20 views
How many thalamocortical relay cells synapse onto each spiny stellate cell in neocortex?
I am curious about how many different thalamocortical relay cells synapse onto each layer IV spiny stellate cell, on average? The answer is likely to be different per region and species, of course. I ...
2
votes
0answers
49 views
Predicting the Duration of Future Events
I am interested in the question of how people use/integrate previous experiences with instances of tasks or events to make predictions about the duration of future instances of tasks/events.
To ...
3
votes
1answer
69 views
Facet versus scale prediction of Big 5 personality
NEO facets and scales: The NEO model of personality has 5 scales (i.e., extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness). For each scale there are 6 facets (e.g., neuroticism ...
1
vote
0answers
12 views
Psychometric information on IPIP representation of NEO facets
The IPIP (International Personality Item Pool) website provides a copy of the IPIP representation of the NEO 30 facet form.
It also provides some information comparing IPIP NEO with official NEO.
...
4
votes
1answer
104 views
What is a good textbook for an undergrad Cognitive Neuroscience course?
I am slated to teach an undergrad Cognitive Neuroscience course next year and I am not sure which textbook to use. This would be an entry-level course (no pre-requisites) primarily intended for ...
3
votes
2answers
66 views
What brain skill does Nonogram (Picross) games develop?
I've been playing Nonogram Picross a lot lately. I really like it and you can always find a harder challenge but I would hate to waste my time for nothing.
What brain skill does Nonogram (Picross) ...
6
votes
1answer
129 views
Is learning facts via audio while sleeping possible?
Is there a way to make onself remember facts from an audiobook (containing for instance a list of countries and their capitals) played out loud while sleeping?
6
votes
2answers
149 views
How to estimate an expected effect size for a planned psychology study?
When planning a psychological study, researchers are often asked to formulate an estimate of expected effect sizes for important hypotheses in the study. This might be the expected group mean ...
9
votes
2answers
167 views
Intelligence and marriage satisfaction
A recent letter by a Princeton alumni stated:
Men regularly marry women who are younger, less intelligent, less
educated. It’s amazing how forgiving men can be about a woman’s lack
of ...
0
votes
0answers
16 views
Does higher Electronic use relate to lower memory [duplicate]
lots of us use electronics as memory devices--making notes, reminders, etc.
Does more use of electronics relate to lower retention? In other words, does not using your memory make it worse?
2
votes
0answers
61 views
Inducing Auditory-to-Visual Synesthesia
I recently watched an interesting video that was discussing conveying color to the blind through language. It implied that there may be a way to insert the sensation of color into a person's mind via ...
1
vote
0answers
23 views
What happens in the brain when conscious awareness is changed during dreaming onset?
I've long been interested in dreaming and there's a peculiar phenomenon of the very start of the dreaming process. Different people experience it differently, but even for the same person there's ...
-2
votes
2answers
92 views
Should questions in psychology always be objective questions? [closed]
Is it correct that a subjective question is not a psychological question i.e. for a question to be psychological it must be an objective question e.g. about an objective probability or so instead of ...
1
vote
2answers
119 views
Training for the Corpus Callosum?
Since reading is done in the left hemisphere of the brain, does reading text in the left visual field train the corpus callosum? For instance, I am interested in knowing whether training may lead to ...
4
votes
0answers
16 views
What is the relationship between practice and performance of telephone call centre workers?
I am interested in modelling the relationship between practice and performance both in laboratory tasks and field settings. I was interested in what existing research has examined how the performance ...
6
votes
1answer
88 views
Do children follow parents' phobias genetically or by learning?
Children's personalities come from two sources: Parents' genes and the environment.
Is there any research showing adults acquiring phobias as a result of being exposed to parents with the same ...
5
votes
1answer
52 views
What is the study which shows that babies can teach young children empathy?
I saw a fascinating segment on the PBS NewsHour which said that studies have shown that young children (ages 5 - 8 years of age) can be taught empathy by having a class where they observe and learn to ...
6
votes
1answer
98 views
What is the effect of mindfulness practice on cognition?
The following article by ScienceDaily reported on a paper in Psychological Science (Mrazek et al., 2013), claiming that mindfulness training led to improved working memory and GRE scores. These ...
2
votes
0answers
26 views
How do the correlations between Big 5 personality change in studies examining “faking bad”?
I have conducted several studies that get participants to complete the IPIP personality test while role play going for a job. A common finding is that the average correlation (i.e., $\bar{r}$ between ...
5
votes
2answers
75 views
Devices that detect when someone is falling asleep
I'm wondering what types of devices exist that can detect how close someone is to falling asleep. I have heard of several devices that may be able to do this, but I haven't been able to find very ...
6
votes
1answer
51 views
Any research on how we use visual category information in visuomotor tasks?
So I've been reading up on the Two-streams Hypothesis*, and it bothers me that the explanations both sides give only extend to tasks involving one type of visual information. For example, an ...
3
votes
1answer
52 views
What free scientific measures of Big 5 personality are available?
I'm aware of a few freely available scientific measures of Big 5 personality.
IPIP:
Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI)
Questions:
What other free scientific Big 5 personality tests are ...
3
votes
0answers
30 views
What are the common nutritional deficiencies in western countries related to reduced mental performance?
What are the common nutritional deficiencies in western countries related to reduced mental performance ? I've heard about omega 3, folid acid, and vitamin D deficiencies, the last two are now reduced ...
7
votes
2answers
71 views
Is there a learning style that involves learning best by teaching others?
Background: I'm familiar with the more common learning styles of hearing, seeing and doing. For lack of a better word I consider myself a 'vicarious' learner which is something similar to a ...
3
votes
0answers
32 views
What is the relative effectiveness of self initiated versus therapy approaches to repairing damaged body schema?
Several studies discuss the damaged body schema of amputees and people suffering from CRPS.
By damaged body schema I mean where the body their mind constructs doesn't match up with the body that is ...
-1
votes
1answer
49 views
Practical Use For a Neuroimager [closed]
You may be aware that neuro-imagers have become much cheaper and many are available with a SDK. I think this will open up a huge gateway for much more intimate human interfaces. However, I am stumped ...
5
votes
1answer
88 views
Why does speaking with rhythm help a subject get into a trance?
Various hypnotism teachers tell you to speak with a relaxed voice with rhythm. You can see Derren Brown on this in The Experiment - The Assassin (from 4:48 to 5:40):
Soft, rhythmical language, ...
3
votes
0answers
41 views
Why does speaking disrupt rhythm?
I've noticed that while playing rhythm games--games where I must press buttons precisely in step with a musical accompaniment--I can either play or I can talk. If start talking, I'll almost ...
3
votes
1answer
28 views
Are cortisol measures more reliable than self-reported fear measures for looking at difference scores?
I was sent an email by a researcher with the following question:
You wrote that difference scores are okay to use if measurement error
is
minimised.
Does that imply that biological ...
-1
votes
1answer
45 views
How to tell a diagnosis from an actual state?
Since diagnoses merely represent what a doctor is thinking, how can a mental patient know the difference between de facto "reality" and what decisions a doctor is planning?
We know planning is not ...
0
votes
0answers
59 views
Subtle manipulation in commercials - Kindle Fire HD [closed]
I was watching the new kindle commercial and I noticed a few things that seemed to make me lean towards the NEW Kindle Fire HD (They emphasize "new" a lot)
One of the things that stood out to me the ...
9
votes
1answer
67 views
Can we draw conclusions about content of thoughts from neural firing patterns?
Can the neural firing patterns of animals be associated with specific kinds of thoughts? (ie Thoughts related to food, mating, or neighborly aggression?)
I am curious about the speculations in ...
10
votes
1answer
112 views
Why do humans like being touched?
I wonder why people like to be touched so much, why would it make sense from a evolutionary perspective.
I know people enjoy hugs and company of opposite sex but even people from the same sex hug and ...
4
votes
0answers
40 views
EEG correlates of handedness
Can any one suggest a good article about features of EEG of left-handed people? I was surprised when find that there are only few old articles about it. I find only one new article by Propper, Ruth ...
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 ...
1
vote
0answers
24 views
Are “diagnostic” senses/feelings for brain study possible?
Modern science has quite an array of methods trying to localize and analyze brain activity, trying to get down to individual neurons firing: EEG, fMRI, CT, etc. This requires very expensive machines ...
4
votes
1answer
55 views
What was the experiment where a person is given something and then has to share it with another person
Bob is given a bar of chocolate by the experimenter. Then he is to propose how he will share the chocolate with Emilly. If Emilly agrees with Bob's proposal, the kids will each get their share. If ...
-2
votes
1answer
68 views
Is there a name for the tendency to use proper nouns often in conversation? [closed]
I think it may happen with people who have lack of confidence, for example shy people. So in conversation they often add proper nouns (eg. names of persons or countries) to give "evidence" and weight ...
2
votes
1answer
50 views
Which branch of psychology deals with decision making under stress?
Our decisions are usually based on a system of perspectives, which in turn are based on one's own set of values. However there are traumatizing situations where this system of perspectives is turned ...
9
votes
0answers
83 views
How to measure dominance and submissiveness?
Introduction
Interpersonal dimensions of personality (Sullivan, 1953) have been described in a circular model, the interpersonal circumplex, since Leary (1957). The two dimensions that define this ...
