9
votes
1answer
198 views
Is religiousness a genetically heritable feature?
I know that parent beliefs have very strong influence on child, but is it possible that genetic factor also play a role? I doubt that the content of any religion could be heritable through genes nor ...
9
votes
1answer
165 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 ...
9
votes
1answer
142 views
Is there an effect of visual expertise on eye movements when examining an image?
In the following linked image, you can see the eye movement traces of a subject examining a bust of Nefertiti (I came across this image while reading the following blog).
When I was in grade ...
9
votes
1answer
220 views
How does body temperature and oxygenation affect thinking ability?
I'm interested if the brain works better when the temperature is higher than usual and the amount of oxygen in the air is a bit lower than in fresh mountain air. This has been my personal experience.
...
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:
9
votes
2answers
313 views
Plotting publication-quality ball-and-stick models of brain connectivity in 3D
I'm working on brain imaging (fMRI) and I'm looking for a way to plot brain effective connectivity (dynamic causal modeling) parameters between different brain regions in a 3D plot. The plotting ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
9
votes
1answer
108 views
When is higher confidence predictive of less accuracy?
Normally, when an individual is more confident in a particular response (e.g., memory decision, general knowledge answer), he or she is also more likely to be accurate. There are also studies in which ...
9
votes
1answer
125 views
Is there evidence that STDP is responsible for the ability to infer causation?
Spike timing dependent plasticity (STDP) is a property of synapses that modifies their efficacy based on timing relationships between action potentials in the pre-synaptic and post-synaptic neuron. A ...
9
votes
1answer
493 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 ...
9
votes
2answers
168 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 ...
9
votes
1answer
108 views
In C. elegans, which neuron has the largest span, and why is it this large?
The model organism C. elegans is about 1 mm in length. This is quite small. In fact, some C. elegans neurons span >25% of the length of its body (ref.).
This observation leads me to the following ...
9
votes
3answers
105 views
Images on personal computers - Which aspect of size to keep constant?
For various reasons we're doing a reaction time study involving images that runs on unstandardized equipment: patients' personal computers (unless they don't meet certain requirements).
It's not about ...
9
votes
1answer
124 views
How does evolution help in Minsky's theory of a resourceful mind?
I've read Minsky's book The Emotion Machine, where he explains how the mind can be seen as a set of resources interacting and self-interacting based on several levels of change. The explanation is in ...
9
votes
1answer
57 views
What is the effect of not sub-vocalizing on reading comprehension?
Sometimes when reading, text segments are not so important or relevant, when that happens I tend to read between lines in a visual manner, without sub-vocalizing or pronouncing the words in my mind.
...
9
votes
2answers
128 views
Measuring the adoption of norms
I'm trying to make a survey and I'm having trouble to find a scale to measure the adoption of norms.
The people who fill in the survey have to think about a situation in which they were ashamed. For ...
9
votes
1answer
127 views
Predicting how long a task will take
As a software engineer I have always struggled with predicting how long a project would take by underestimating and I have noticed that all of my colleagues have the same problem.
In this video at ...
9
votes
1answer
298 views
Why people choose “boring” colors for new cars?
I've been interested in this question for a few years, sorry if this is not the right place to ask it.
As I've been driving around the US for the last few years, I noticed that some community parking ...
9
votes
1answer
125 views
Compared efficiency of different spaced-repetition memorisation techniques
Spaced repetition is a memorization technique that works by reviewing question/answer pairs according to a schedule that depends on performance.
Be it software or paper flashcards, there are various ...
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 ...
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.
...
9
votes
1answer
146 views
Are intelligence scores correlated with detection of second stimulus in an Attentional Blink test?
Definitions
Attentional Blink: An attentional blink is a phenomenon where when presented with rapid visual stimuli if you are asked to track two particular stimuli you will fail to notice the second ...
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 ...
9
votes
1answer
187 views
Are there any connectionist models that integrate reinforcement and fully supervised learning?
I've been working on modeling some phenomena involving real-time control in an environment with inherent rewards (specifically, playing a 'pong'-like game), and it's increasingly looking like ...
9
votes
1answer
304 views
Can you catch up on lost sleep?
The lack of sleep has many negative effects associated with it. Maintained sleep deprivation results in a degraded performance over time (in this case reaction time).
Assuming one needs 8 hours of ...
9
votes
0answers
87 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 ...
9
votes
0answers
50 views
How similar are human brains within the same haplogroup?
I've grown up and went through school with a "politically correct" view on people that we are all "the same". The TED talk that I've listed below hints that this view might've arisen in the post-WW2 ...
9
votes
0answers
101 views
Does the effect of naturalistic exposure on second language acquisition vary with age?
A while back, I watched the movie The Terminal and the main character played by Tom Hanks learns to speak fluent English while he is stranded in the airport for more than a year. Which seems somewhat ...
9
votes
0answers
165 views
Longitudinal mobile mood tracking app with random reminders
The goal is to take simple measurements of mood using Likert scale over an extended period of time (e.g. two months).
I know there is a large number of mobile apps for tracking mood on every ...
9
votes
0answers
74 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
0answers
92 views
Do cultures differ in the perception of emotions from body expression?
In their classic study, Ekman and Friesen (1971) identified seven facial expressions recognised by people universally across all cultures as depicting certain emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, ...
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 ...
9
votes
0answers
141 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 ...
9
votes
0answers
189 views
Fitting a psychometric function when data does not lend itself to a sigmoidal fit [pypsignifit]
I'm fitting a psychometric function to a range of data. The majority of this data lends itself to a sigmoidal fit (i.e. participants can do the task), but some individuals are absolutely unable to do ...
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 ...
8
votes
3answers
306 views
What are the key examples of the use of computational methods in the study of biological neural networks?
In an upcoming postdoc, I'm going to be looking through biological neural network data in the hopes of finding some interesting "patterns". I'm coming at this field from a mathematics/computer ...
8
votes
3answers
199 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
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 ...
8
votes
2answers
161 views
Bias by which we tend to accept vague descriptions of ourselves
There's an effective strategy employed by horoscopes and "psychics" where they say vague statements like "You like being with friends but you value your time alone"; statements that basically "cover ...
8
votes
2answers
199 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 ...
8
votes
3answers
180 views
Math or Physics: Which is the more relevant background to enter Cognitive Sciences and Psychology? [closed]
What would be a more suitable background to enter cognitive sciences, mathematical psychology, and study of emotions? I have the option of taking a Integrated Masters Degree in Mathematical Sciences, ...
8
votes
3answers
179 views
Can experience alter one's preferences for beauty?
My friend (a woman) is convinced that all men who find those posters of "women scantily clad in their bathing suits or thongs and big breasts (often fake)" attractive are simply brainwashed by ...
8
votes
2answers
205 views
How does the brain act on the information gained via eye saccades?
I've often heard that the process of saccading can be described as a statistical sampling technique. Specifically, the standard textbook definition of the function of saccades seems to be that the ...
8
votes
2answers
295 views
What do the super-large brains of whales and elephants map to?
Elephants and whales have brains that are much larger than those of humans. It is presumed that much of their brain is used up for their larger bodies (after all, there is a allometric scaling between ...
8
votes
2answers
232 views
Do porn and other remotely perceived entertainments work because of Mirror Neurons?
As you might have known, Mirror Neurons are hypothetically the neuron pair - each of which is carried by other person - that make people to share their feeling although one of them just observes the ...
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 ...
8
votes
3answers
261 views
Introductory resources on bayesian modeling for cognitive sciences
On Cross Validated there is a great question about best introductory books for bayesian statistics. Also, Jeromy Anglim blogged recently about use of JAGS, rjags, and Bayesian Modelling, with some ...
8
votes
2answers
682 views
What transient factors affect performance on IQ tests?
While performance on intelligence tests aim to measure an underlying relatively stable trait, there are presumably a range of transient factors that could temporarily lower or possibly even raise ...
