7
votes
2answers
183 views
Will Our Brain Speed Reduce As Our Memory “Mail Boxes” Fill Up?
I recently stumbled accross the article "When the Brain's Mailbox Is Full", which can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/27/health/when-the-brain-s-mailbox-is-full.html.
The article ...
7
votes
3answers
202 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 ...
7
votes
1answer
483 views
Do high heels increase female attractiveness in men only through indirect means?
It seems widely accepted that, overall, men tend to find women in high heels more attractive. (There will, of course, be many exceptions to this rule.)
"High heels may well be the most potent ...
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
2answers
113 views
The current recommended text for statistics in behavioural sciences
I have an old book: Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences (4th ed.) by Gravetter & Wallnau. I want to transition my textbooks to eBook format, but this book doesn't come like that (as far as I ...
6
votes
2answers
208 views
What can cognitive psychology tell us about the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment?
One of the experiments that are always taught as prime examples of social psychology in action is the Stanford Prison Experiment
In 1971, Zimbardo accepted a tenured position as professor of ...
6
votes
1answer
164 views
Do characters in a dream have their own separate thoughts or identity?
I am very curious as to if any research has been done in this area, or if such a question even can be researched given the current tools and methods available to cognitive scientists. When one dreams, ...
5
votes
0answers
116 views
How does fever affect time perception?
Many of my friends and I have noticed that at certain stages of fever, time is often perceived as being longer than usual. I'd like to know if this is caused by the disease itself, an immune reaction, ...
4
votes
2answers
156 views
What is the scientific basis for long-term negative physiological effects of overstudying?
I am interested in long term negative physiological effects that some students experience following overstudying.
What is the scientific basis for overstudying?
Is over studying correlated with ...
4
votes
3answers
149 views
Theoretical limit to the use of mental faculty of the brain
A lot of articles stress the importance of having to train the brain (By training the brain, I mean the cognitive faculty of the brain for learning things and not brain's normal functions) since the ...
3
votes
1answer
469 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
...
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 ...
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
1answer
170 views
Is there any Personality theory that uses scientific methodology instead of subjective interpretations?
Background
I have come across a number of Personality theories. There are even disciplines of personality theories, dividing these theories according to the assumptions they are based upon. The most ...
8
votes
1answer
142 views
Is there a database of emotional stimuli available?
For my research I need to use emotional stimuli to use for habituation to certain emotion.
Are there any databases available (preferably free or not expensive) of non-linguistic stimuli I could use? ...
8
votes
2answers
116 views
Do measures of Big 5 personality have a positive bias towards extraverted, conscientious, emotionally stable, ageeable and open individuals?
Background:
One free measures of the Big 5 is the IPIP.
I have noticed that IPIP items seem to have a positive bias towards items loading on the extraversion (EX), emotional stability (ES), ...
8
votes
3answers
207 views
Is it possible to measure the working memory of a non-human animal?
Is it possible to measure the working memory of a non-human animal? And if so, have there been any studies that have quantified the working memory of animals, and that have compared that to the ...
8
votes
2answers
207 views
How is it possible for psychometricians to develop IQ tests for people smarter than them?
After all, while psychometricians definitely have above-average IQs, they probably don't have IQs over, say, 160.
If psychometricians already know what the right answers are (and how to obtain the ...
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
1answer
274 views
Are there emotions that only some people can feel?
Presumably, there are emotions that almost any person can feel, such as happiness, sadness, guilt, and embarrassment.
But are there emotions that only a small fraction of the population can feel?
...
7
votes
1answer
1k views
Is Apple's iPhone Retina Display really accurate to human eye resolution?
Apple based their Retina Display on the following claim, as cited by Wikipedia:
The display has a contrast ratio of 800:1. The screen is marketed by Apple as the "Retina Display", based on the ...
7
votes
1answer
138 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 ...
6
votes
2answers
316 views
In what ways can neurons fire randomly?
When developing a model of a biologically-plausible neural network, it is important to know all the circumstances under which neurons can fire. But, I am limiting this question to random firing. In ...
6
votes
0answers
154 views
Refinements of Rescorla-Wagner model of classical conditioning
The Rescorla-Wagner model is one of the most commonly discussed mathematical models of classical conditioning. It was wildly popular when it came out in 1972, and very successful. The same math, is ...
5
votes
0answers
86 views
Can an individual having strong identity associations with groups be used to infer anything about them?
I've been reading a few articles and papers about individuals identifying with groups and their behaviors and attitudes, however I haven't yet found an answer to one of the questions that I was trying ...
4
votes
1answer
108 views
What are the major changes in the APA Publication Manual from 5th to 6th editions?
A lot of journals use APA style for journal article submissions. In 2009 APA released the 6th edition with several changes to the 5th edition.
What's a good summary of the important changes in the ...
3
votes
1answer
312 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 ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Why are some people unable to easily memorize the lyrics to a song?
Although I have listened some songs hundred of times I can't sing the lyrics to any of these songs from beginning to end without pauses. However I am able to whistle the whole song without difficulty. ...
2
votes
1answer
144 views
Physiological differences between brains of Conservatives and Liberals
I work for a non-profit research organization and I have been assigned to do research on this topic. I have been doing my best to find studies on this topic but every website and article seems to ...
1
vote
1answer
141 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
102 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 ...
-3
votes
1answer
168 views
Do people feel emotions less strongly as they grow older? [closed]
I'm specifically interested in whether or not their maximum ability to feel an emotion decreases as they grow older (so by that I'm meaning - let's ignore the effects of tolerance induced by life ...
9
votes
2answers
359 views
Why is Asperger Syndrome poorly recognised in France?
Asperger Syndrome is quite well-known in psychiatric circles, as well as (to a lesser degree) the general public, in many countries the western world. However, in France, Asperger Syndrome is ...
8
votes
1answer
92 views
Does teaching a bird an artificial task like eating from a feeder hurt its performance in the wild?
Can training a wild animal through operant conditioning somehow cause the animal to forget or be unable to perform tasks which it had perviously learned?
Is it likely that training wild animals ...
8
votes
1answer
132 views
Are there any journal articles in psychology that have promoted and discussed reproducible data analysis?
I consider reproducible analysis to be really important.
In particular, I'd like to see more researchers in psychology:
sharing their data
producing their journal articles using literate programming ...
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 ...
6
votes
1answer
171 views
For depression diagnoses, does one make a clear distinction between endogenous and exogenous causes of depression?
Roughly speaking, we might imagine that people have depression predominantly for one of two reasons:
Endogenously induced: The person has some inherent inballance between different ...
6
votes
1answer
119 views
Introductory resources on developmental psychology/neuroscience
I'd like to be able to answer questions such as:
What neuro/psychological functions underly competences such as empathy (or others - see background below)?
What neurotransmitters are of particular ...
6
votes
3answers
907 views
Difference between Instinct and Intuition
Sometimes I've heard people using the term gut feeling rather than their 'intuition or instinct' and I'm not sure which one do they mean. So, can both the terms be used interchangeably and simply ...
5
votes
2answers
149 views
Is sub-vocalization when reading and writing merely a symptom of lack of fluency?
In reading & writing, I for one, find myself subvocalizing the statement to myself. This behaviour is language-independent. However, the effort and subvocalization involved is greater in any ...
5
votes
0answers
114 views
Are presence questionnaires valid in a between-subjects design?
Usoh et al. (PDF) applied presence questionnaires (which are usually designed to measure one's feeling of presence in a virtual environment) in both a virtual and a real world environment in a ...
5
votes
1answer
153 views
What science or psychology is behind the Landmark Forum's coursework?
The Landmark Forum is a self-help seminar focusing on helping individuals to make positive changes in their lives by chaing their point of view and using logic to break down emotions to change the way ...
4
votes
1answer
114 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
93 views
What effects does spending a lot of time in online communities have on interpersonal skills?
There are quite a few users who are pretty much addicted to the Stack Exchange network and spend over 3-4 hours per day here. Time spent here will result in lower amount of social interactions, and ...
4
votes
1answer
238 views
Effect of Physical Exercise on Intelligence/IQ
I am interested in empirical research relevant to answering the following questions:
What is the effect of physical exercise on IQ/intelligence?
Does any such effect vary by type of exercise? e.g. ...
4
votes
1answer
195 views
How can motivation be increased by improving brain chemistry with nutrition and activities?
I'm reading some material about motivation and brain chemistry.
One of the interesting articles is "7 Ways to Increase Motivation by Improving your Brain Chemistry". I'm interested in a more ...
4
votes
1answer
235 views
How does body temperature affect perception of time?
Does raising or lowering one's body temperature lead to different perceptions of time? And does this then control the virtual length of positive or negative emotions?
For example, individuals might ...
4
votes
0answers
41 views
Do the motivations and fears behind Enneagram have any scientific reasoning?
Background
The Enneagram personality typing system defines set of motivations and basic fears for its nine personality types among people.
The system seems to be aimed at personal development of a ...
4
votes
1answer
89 views
Do fetuses exhibit pattern recognition in utero?
I've heard that fetuses exhibit "likes", such as preferring sweeter amniotic fluid or the sound of their mother's voice. To show preference for specific voices as opposed to inborn stimuli like sweet, ...
4
votes
1answer
148 views
Is learning to do a task automatically an example of intuition?
I'm looking for some examples to understand what people call their intuition at work when making their decisions.
For example:
We learn to type and then after some time we begin to type
by ...
