All Questions
10
votes
3answers
1k views
What's the psychology behind Trolling/Flaming?
For those new to the internet, trolling is an activity were one person intentionally tries to upset other members of the same community, presumably for entertainment.
This has been informally ...
10
votes
5answers
144 views
Web-based tools for documenting studies?
I am interested in how open science could be done in psychology. Are there good web-based tools that could house and share a study? When I say "study" I mean:
Lab notes from collecting data
Raw ...
10
votes
2answers
415 views
Does super-intelligence necessary lead to consciousness, self awareness, freewill or emotion
After seeing this talk, the question popped in my mind. The idea is that as soon as a system is complex enough or intelligent enough, it able to act on its own. It seems to be a common belief. For ...
10
votes
1answer
404 views
How is a young child able to learn language so easily?
It's a well known fact that the earlier children are exposed to languages the better, as young children have a better ability to learn new languages than adults.
Why is this?
At what age does a ...
10
votes
2answers
397 views
What are current neuronal explanations and models of 'consciousness'?
I would like to understand more about consciousness from a neuroscientific perspective. I have a limited understanding of it in the philosophical/psychological sense through lectures.
Although it is ...
10
votes
3answers
164 views
Is there a random walk theory that can account for situations with more than two choices?
In the article "Two-stage Dynamic Signal Detection: A Theory of Choice, Decision Time, and Confidence" from 2010 by Pleskac and Busemeyer, a random walk model is presented for situations where a ...
10
votes
2answers
380 views
Biological plausibility of bayesian models of cognition
Inspired by this question: What are drawbacks to probabilistic models of cognition?
I would like to know more about the biological plausibility of Bayesian models of cognition. Is there any neural ...
10
votes
3answers
237 views
What is the term for a psychological effect which does not have a neurobiological/genetic basis?
When a psychological condition is the result of irregular brain structures or neurotransmitter imbalances we say the condition has a neurobiological basis; this is analogous to the classic Nature in ...
10
votes
1answer
153 views
What is a reliable physiological measure (e.g., serotonin levels) of positive affect?
Is there a reliable physiological measure or correlate to positive affect?
What does research say on this?
I thought that serotonin levels are correlated with self-reported happiness levels, but, ...
10
votes
1answer
382 views
Effect of words highlighting on reading comprehension
I'm interested if there are studies dealing with text understanding and POS (part of speech) coloring, or coloring syntactic/semantic information. The studies should solve the questions like:
Which ...
10
votes
1answer
197 views
Is Behaviorism incompatible with Cognitive Psychology?
Both disciplines have historically been at each other's throats, and Radical Behaviorists like B.F. Skinner often completely reject cognitive psychology at a philosophical level.
It seems that today ...
10
votes
1answer
153 views
What does “veridicality” mean in terms of psychology?
I'm reading the paper "Visual Space Perception and Visually Directed Action" by Loomis, Da Silva, Fujita and Fukusima (1992; pdf). In this paper, the word 'veridicality' is used in several sentences.
...
10
votes
2answers
581 views
Motivation vs Goal Oriented Behavior
What's the difference between these two terms when used in the context of cognitive psychology? To the best of my knowledge, research on 'Goal Oriented Behavior' refers to the subset of motivation ...
10
votes
2answers
196 views
What is the term for human beings' tendency to obey without thinking?
I'm wanting to read more about a certain human behavior, but I am not sure what the proper term for it is, so some of the things I am finding aren't what I am looking for. I'm interested in how Humans ...
10
votes
1answer
330 views
To what extent are correlations of father's age with birth defects and autism causal?
I read the following in the paper today:
Dr Karin Hammarberg ... said that while most
children are born healthy, large studies of parental age were starting
to show higher rates of birth ...
10
votes
2answers
149 views
Perception of probability of being right
The probability that people percept may be different from the real one due to a number of factors, including the form in which their are presented, their context and biases (due to misinformation or ...
10
votes
1answer
160 views
Does the transcription method used (e.g., printing, handwriting, typing, voice recording, etc.) affect memory retention?
When I was in high school, one of my teachers used to make us hand print copies of materials from transparencies on an overhead projector (I may be showing my age), with the reasoning that re-writing ...
10
votes
1answer
234 views
Under what conditions does 60hz video produce visual artifacts?
There are some important thresholds of frame rate in video playback that effect whether or not animation appears fluid. This wikipedia page about Visible Frame Rate suggests that a framerate of 60 ...
10
votes
2answers
377 views
What is the term for when too many choices results in inability to decide?
A common problem is that when offered too many choices, consumers give up and make no choice. Too many options results in no sale where fewer options might have resulted in more sales. It's like the ...
10
votes
1answer
215 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 ...
10
votes
2answers
494 views
What is the effect of motherese on development?
Most cultures (Falk, 2009) have a special type of language that is used to talk to children: infant-directed-speech (IDL; or informally, motherese, baby talk). For instance, Fernald (1992) argues that ...
10
votes
1answer
57 views
Is a Hopfield network with a continuous activation variable and a discrete time variable possible?
I've found plenty of resources on Hopfield networks that use either discrete variables for both activation level and time or continuous variables for both activation level and time. Is it possible to ...
10
votes
1answer
109 views
Are some methods of teaching reading “bad”?
I have a young daughter who I am teaching to read, and I was given a "Your Baby Can Read" DVD set by a friend. When discussing it with friends, several of my teacher friends frowned upon the use of ...
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 ...
10
votes
1answer
156 views
Does cognitive training enhance dopamine release?
Joe Hardy reports on a study by Backman et al (2011) in Science, where from the authors report:
Updating of working memory has been associated with striato-frontal
brain regions and phasic ...
10
votes
1answer
177 views
Sensory Immersion Research?
Sensory deprivation is a relatively common technique for medititation and general consciousness-exploration.
However, I'm more interested in sensory immersion. That is, deliberate overstimulation as ...
10
votes
1answer
832 views
How to get rid of subvocalization?
When I read a text written in latin alphabet and I want to understand what it means I usually
transform each word into spoken word (internal speech) and
then I transform it into meaning.
I can't ...
10
votes
1answer
222 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 ...
10
votes
1answer
128 views
What structures in the brain are called upon to strengthen coupling between bilateral movements?
It is very difficult for the normally-coordinated person to be able to pat his/her head and rub his/her stomach at the same time (or pick a similar activity). It seems to be possible to maintain the ...
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 ...
10
votes
1answer
81 views
Learning of new concepts being impeded by an error in previous work
Note: I'm framing this question in terms of tutoring math since that's what I tutor most, though it applies to a wide range of subject matters.
I do a decent amount of tutoring, and this is one ...
10
votes
1answer
188 views
What are the minimal requirements for successful gamification?
I am very interested in the concept of Gamification, the idea (used here on Stack Exchange) that by making mundane tasks into a game, you can elicit desired behavior from users of software. (For ...
9
votes
4answers
932 views
Why is recognition easier than recall?
The main ways of memory retrieval are recognition and recall.
Why has it been found that recognition is "easier" to perform, meaning it is usually faster or is more likely to yield an accurate ...
9
votes
4answers
422 views
How is motivation influenced by chance of reward?
Sometimes, I work on a project where there is a chance that the whole project will become irrelevant before it is finished. I have noticed that even though I believe that the risk of this happening is ...
9
votes
3answers
195 views
How can I find open access journals for cognitive science research?
What open access journals that publish research in cognitive science/psychology exist?
Apart from PLOS ONE, are there any other open access journals that publish research in cognitive ...
9
votes
3answers
3k views
Can sleep become addictive?
Can a person become dependent on sleeping (more than they otherwise physically need) in a way that fits the definition of addiction, in the same way some psychology professionals may describe a person ...
9
votes
3answers
643 views
Are there any cognitive test (or test suites) available on the iPad?
I find the IPad to be a great piece of hardware that is easy to bring along and that has an intuitive touch interface. This would make it an ideal platform for many cognitive tests such as n-back. As ...
9
votes
2answers
659 views
Public domain scientific intelligence test available for use in research
The IPIP is an example of a public domain scientific personality inventory that can be used for research.
Are there any good public domain scientific measures of intelligence?
Requirements
Do ...
9
votes
2answers
215 views
Is it possible to quantify cognitive bias?
We know that bias exists, and that it affects our judgment and perception. This effect has to do with user's experience in life. That experience is taken care of by the brain, and if you counter a ...
9
votes
2answers
302 views
Does any evidence show that Smartphone users have poorer memory?
An ages old complaint is that new technology harms memory. Why remember something when you can look it up?
In a course on Human Memory I distinctly recall an interesting discussion on phones and ...
9
votes
2answers
522 views
What is the standard way to analyze EEG data in a mismatch negativity paradigm?
I'm running an EEG experiment using a modified auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) design, and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me the best method for data analysis (and recommend any stats ...
9
votes
1answer
173 views
How do humans control saccades?
I've gathered the standard rational for a visual system utilizing saccades from perception textbooks: the neural cost of processing an entire scene at a high level of detail would be prohibitive, but ...
9
votes
3answers
212 views
Simulate colorblindness in non-colorblind individuals
Is there any way by which individuals with normal color vision could "see" the effects of Deuteranopia or any of the common colorblindness types, say by using special lenses or anything?
Color ...
9
votes
2answers
112 views
Do people estimate combined probabilities differently to uncombined ones?
Suppose, somebody has to estimate the likelihood of one of the following events (or has to estimate which event is more likely):
A coin is tossed six times and each time the result is heads. ...
9
votes
3answers
63 views
Do safety features cause drivers to engage in more risky behavior than they otherwise would?
It seems to be generally assumed that making cars safer for the occupants will reduce death, injury, and damage from traffic accidents.
What are some examples of significant empirical research on ...
9
votes
4answers
30 views
What are the key algorithms for learning optimal behavior of economic agents?
I'm playing around with social learning of near-optimal behavioral rules on a set of agents. The idea is roughly that given an income process (or technology process, depending on the question) an ...
9
votes
2answers
150 views
How do humans optimize noisy multi-variable functions in experimental settings?
Imagine an experiment like this:
A participant is asked to optimize an unknown function (let's say minimize) .
On each trial the participant provides several input values, and receives an output ...
9
votes
1answer
69 views
What is the difference between psychophysics and neurophysiology?
I'm an engineering student who is doing some subjective tests.
What are the difference between psychophysics and neurophysiology?
Is it correct that in the latter case, we have to implant to read ...
9
votes
1answer
208 views
What are biological primary mathematical skills?
In doing a bit of background reading for this question I came across a section in the book Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind on page 602 stating:
There are no sex-related differences ...
9
votes
2answers
321 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 ...
