Description: You have likely heard about the Turing test that is intended as a means of testing whether the entity one is conversing with via typed messages is a human being or an artificial intelligence (a computer program). Alan Turing argued that if a program seemed to those corresponding with it to be “human” then… Read more »
Posts By: Mike Boyes
Social Octopi on Ecstacy: The evolutionary base of social connection
Description: The octopus is not a particularly social animal. While that might sound like the start to a fairy tale or to a “Just So” story it is actually simply a scientific fact. Octopi typically avoid social contact entirely including avoiding other members of their species. They Do, however, have to engage socially with at… Read more »
I/O Psychology No Longer a Mindless Science
Description: I am teaching a course this term on I/O or Industrial Organizational Psychology and I was struck by a quote in one of the sources I was reading in preparation for class that suggested that I/O psychology is a “brainless” science. What might it mean for someone to say that? Well, they were pointing… Read more »
Young and Old: Who is happier?
Description: Simple question: who is happier a 30 year old or a 70 year old? What do you think? Must be the 30 year old if only for the existential issues, 70 years of age is WAY closer to death than 30 so, of course the 30 year old is happier right? Well, wrong, actually…. Read more »
Concussions in Hockey and Football and CTE: What do we know and what do we still need to find out?
Description: Ok, so what do you think we “know” about the long-term impact of concussions on athletes who play hockey or football? Let’s see, concussions and inappropriate responses to how such injuries are managed or followed up have lead to a serious issue that the sports of hockey and football are now only staring to… Read more »
Are Teenagers Losing Their Minds?
Description: Have you heard that teenagers these days are effectively having their brains rewired by their massive use of digital technologies? I did not ask if you were aware of this as a truth but just whether you had heard it stated as if it were true. Such ideas, that up-coming generations are being sculpted… Read more »
Views of the First-Year Experience: The one that counts most is YOURS
Description: First year in University is hard and that is a good thing. That is a widely shared sentiment but how do people actually mean it? Is it good because it “weeds out” lower functioning, less serous students? Is it because adversity (as in a deep-end immersion into the “real world”) is simply good for… Read more »
Rapid Onset Gender Dysmorphia: Research Issues and Challenges
Description: Gender Dysphoria is a diagnostic category in the DSM-5. You can find a description and the diagnostic criteria here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/conditions/gender-dysphoria . The question of what sorts of variables contribute to an individual of one sex having feelings that they are actually another sex (and yes, I realize that speaking of sex in a binary… Read more »
The Science of Wellbeing: Part of Positive Psychology AND a Free Course!
Description: OK, this is another posting on the theme of things to spend a bit of time thinking about NOW before the fall term takes away your free time, your time for self-reflection, and (hopefully not) some of your general wellbeing! Positive Psychology is a recent area of research in psychology that focusses upon the… Read more »
Big Decision to Make? Psychological Science can Really Help!
Description: What are you going to have for lunch today? How about after dinner, are you doing to watch a movie or TV? What will you watch? Are you going to get married? What career are you going to pursue? Some decisions are easy and some are, well, NOT. How do you make BIG decisions?… Read more »
Books for Success!
