# All Questions

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### Does it take more cognitive effort to tell the time when reading a digital clock instead of analog?

Following a question on UX.Stackexchange about whether or not to use an analog or digital clock on a website from a user-interface perspective it occurs to me that there is probably a psychological ...
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### How does motivation and performance vary from day to day between mathematical and artistic activity?

Background: I've noticed that my performance in math class varies on a day-to-day basis, but I also tend to feel artistic on certain days (and enjoy playing songs on my guitar or writing poems). When ...
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### What is known about how visual stimuli / preconceptions influence auditory perception?

This question occured to me as I was walking along the street today. I saw two fashionable-looking women on the street ahead of me. One of them pointed to something outside of my field of view, and ...
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### Is there psychoactive music?

Listen to this music for X minutes to observe Y result. Is there something like that that has been demonstrated to work for general public? The only example of an experiment that is similar that ...
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### Why does your recorded or objective voice sound different to what you hear in your own head?

When speaking, I hear my own voice very differently from how others do and from what it really is. The sound differs in tone, pitch, volume, etc. For example, recordings of my singing or speaking in ...
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### Why do some days feel fast and others feel slow?

As per the title, why is it some days it just feels like a day can go so fast, yet other days can feel slow? Every day has the same amount of hours, minutes and seconds after all. What is the actual ...
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### Should “just asking” as a reason for a question be considered to be a false statement?

When someone asks a questioner about the reason for his/her question, if they in return answer "just asking" roughly meaning "for no particular reason", should that answer be considered to be a false ...
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### Why do most people laugh with a “ha” sound?

When people laugh, the most common sound is "ha", while some may "ho" or "he". When do people pick this up when they grow, or is this just natural? Some people laugh differently again, but I tend to ...
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### Can learning too much cause the information stored in our brain to become chaotic or tangled?

Although a complete novice in brain science, I have been curious. My question might appear to be similar to this previously asked question, but I believe I am addressing a different case. The ...
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### Any research showing success teaching with smell?

CogSci holds that smell is the sense that has the most strong/immediate capability to trigger memories. It is discussed, in awe. We see anecdotes such as the sudden striking memory of sitting in your ...
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### What is the cognitive mechanism that creates strong feelings, from environmental organization and appearance?

After doing a home remodel, I leaned that within the interior design community, most professionals refer to their work by the "vibe", "energy" and "feeling" their design of a room (or house) creates, ...
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### Metamathematics and cognitive science [duplicate]

What kind of work has been done/can be done to inform metamathematics from cognitive science? Who are some leading researchers and/or important works to read?
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### Beliefs of polemical people

Are there studies on the beliefs of polemical people? Has anyone tried to classify the most common beliefs behind the automatic thoughts of polemical people?
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### What is an effective way of working with core beliefs/schemas?

In CBT one of the core concepts is ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) that form the basis of depressive feelings: they are repetitive, conscious, mostly ungrounded negative thoughts about one's ...
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### Are there other programs like MIRI for mathematics, intelligence and brain enthusiasts?

Are there other programs like MIRI for mathematics, intelligence and brain enthusiasts?
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### The function of pumps in forming the resting potential

I am confused by the following. Apparently the resting potential of -65mV is reached when the two forces, diffusion and electrical gradient are in equilibrium. So why does the book say "The ...
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### Neuroscience student

I'm thinking about studying neuroscience, but the only interests I have in the general area are: Where thought or consciousness come from and how it all works How memory works and why it can't be ...
1k views

### What is the psychology behind trolling?

For those new to the internet, trolling is an activity where one person intentionally tries to upset other members of the same community, presumably for entertainment. This has been informally ...
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### How is music preference related to personality traits or particular qualities?

I'm a big music enthusiast myself, and one thing I noticed about myself, and not exactly about other people, is that I don't have any music genre I prefer listening to. For example, I don't mind it ...
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### Is there a formal name for the “love” of arguing?

Most of people drop discussion easily. Some others don't. As if they would like to argue. They feel that they have to demonstrate something. Is there a formal trait to describe people who enjoy ...
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### What subjects to study in order to prepare for a research career in theoretical neuroscience?

Which topics in a dual degree in Cognitive science and Computer science at the graduate level or systems neuroscience (experimental + theory) graduate degree will better prepare for a research career ...
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### When is it defendable to use manifest instead of latent variables in psychological research?

In psychology, most of the concepts, theories, ideas etc. of interest refer to latent variables, where a latent variable is one that can't be observed directly. Instead, one has to find a manifest ...
3k views

### Why do people laugh in serious situations?

I've seen people (including myself) that laugh for no apparent reason in really serious situations, such as in an argument or when receiving bad news. Although the other party is clearly very upset, ...
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### Overview of Pitts & McCullough (1943) “A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity”

Is there a good tutorial or simplified overview of the paper, 'Logical calculus for nervous activity' (McCullough & Pitts, 1943)? Reference McCullough, W. S., & Pitts, W. (1943). A logical ...
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### Is perfectionism related to OCD?

Is it right to say that a really strong attitude and stubbornness to do something is really similar to an obsession? I'll try to explain better what I mean. Let's take a really good developer or a ...
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### 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 ...
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### Can observing a composite photo of one's own face have an impact on own personality?

A while back I created an iPhone app that helps me create a composite like the one below. Can observing such a composite have an impact of attributing the qualities perceived in the composite to ...
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### Does everyone have some degree of Aspergers?

I have taken some tests for Asperger's which gives a rating point, and the higher you score its more likely that you have asperger. I was just wondering if this means that there are degrees of ...
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### Are perceptions of beauty and the ideal partner mostly determined by mass media?

Mass-media marketing seems to strongly influence people's beliefs. Are perceptions of beauty and the ideal partner mostly determined by what mass media proposes?
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### Neurosurgically grown neural link between two brains?

I guess it's possible to surgically restore neural connection after a trauma (e.g. a severed hand can be reattached if done quickly). And, from history of evolution of hominids, it seems that just by ...
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### Can we explain the tendency of investors dollar cost averaging in terms of loss aversion?

For those unfamiliar with the term Dollar cost averaging (DCA) is an investment strategy for reducing the impact of volatility on large purchases of financial assets such as equities. By ...
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### Why do many psychological tests have items with only two response options which may both be true? [duplicate]

I was looking at this test, where you have to choose the one of two statements that best describes how you feel: http://www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/LC.html Most of the time both statements are ...
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### Is depression an inflammatory disease?

In the paper: Michael Berk et al, So depression is an inflammatory disease, but where does the inflammation come from?, BMC Medicine 2013, 11:200, doi:10.1186/1741-7015-11-200 it is presented as ...
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### Binary classification as a cognitive strategy?

Is there any research investigating whether the human cognitive system has a tendency to reduce complex systems or spectra of data in terms of binary contrast? There are many common-sense dual ...
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### How does human brain pick out the most likely representation of object when an object is ambiguous?

For example, it is dim light and an object is in partial shade, hiding some features of an object. It is a rounded, dark brownish object. The object is rather ambiguous - it could be a rock, a potato, ...
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### What is relationship between being a good person and functioning in society?

The phrases "No more Mr Nice guy" and "Nice guys finish last" imply that being a good person can sometimes be detrimental to your well-being. In corrupt societies being fair and good might be ...
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### Are words and ideas written in a distinctive font easier to remember?

I read that serif fonts have more distinctive characters, and I was wondering if, at the brain level, the fact that something is written with more distinctive characters would be more easily ...
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### What is the difference between a schema and a heuristic?

I am trying to understand the basic differences, in layman's terms, between a schema and a heuristic
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### Does neuroticism cause people to hurt others?

Is neuroticism related to harming others? Is neuroticism related to increased criminal behaviour? And in this case, would it be useful to coach / help a neurotic person through psychotherapy?
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### Can critical thinking be taught?

Critical thinking is central to the scientific method and believed to be essential to a successful democracy. Recently, the 2012 Texas Republican platform voiced the party's opposition to the teaching ...
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### Are there more recent and more scientifically valid alternatives to MMPI?

Are there any other newer / more sophisticated and valid test useful in a diagnosis and further treatment of clinical problems? I'm interested in clinical diagnosis.
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### Can creativity be taught?

So I have heard of classes that teach 'creativity'. Now to me, the whole concept is absurd. I approached a student of the aforementioned class and asked him why he chooses to learn creativity. He ...
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### Why isn't psychotherapy more direct with patients?

While it is possible to tell someone that they are affected by OCD or they are narcissistic, I think that trying to help people simply by giving them direct advice doesn't work. I also think that ...
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### Would most people benefit from psychotherapy?

At least in my country, undergoing psychotherapy is perceived negatively. People in my country perceive people as either healthy (normal), or mad and in need of a psychologist. My perception is ...
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### Prevalence of psychological “problems”

Giulio Cesare Giacobbe is an expert of psychosynthesis. In one of his books (Alla Ricerca delle Coccole Perdute) he speaks of childish, neurotic people. He says most people are childish and neurotic. ...
4k views

### Does writing something down help memorize it?

This is a question inspired by this recent question on the Chinese Language & Usage website. Someone asked why they needed to learn how to write Chinese characters, since today we mostly use ...
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### Is there difference between a memory of a dream and memory of waking experience?

I'm very interested in dreaming and have pretty good dream recall. This makes me able to recall and distinguish hundreds of experience within my memory and label them as "dreams". I'm trying to ...
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### Is cognitive science hypothesis-based or bound to strict experiments involving statistics?

When I look at medical journal articles on Google Scholar I see a lot of stuff based on double blind placebo tests. From this, I've gathered that medicine often performs experiments. I've been in ...