Description: OK, I realize deeply and fully that we are most definitely NOT even close to being ready to consider even the thinnest of possible silver linings to the COVID debacle. So, just put that aside for now (I will hint at it very cautiously at the end of the second section below) and let’s… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Higher-Order Cognitive Functions in Aging
How Might You Test for Wisdom?
Description: Are you wise (not as in wise guy but as in wise like an owl)? What does wisdom involve? What sorts of things, if you observed them in the behavior of, or otherwise applying to, a particular person would lead you towards thinking that they were a wise person? Now think of this as… Read more »
When or How Might Mis-remembering be Good?
Description: Imagine you are chatting with one of your grandparents about a trip you took with them last summer and you are reminiscing about a stop you made at a bakery, and they are saying they still remember the taste of the peanut butter cookie they had while you were there. In thinking about that… Read more »
Associative Memory: Sniff it Out!
Description: I know the answer to this question is yes but consider it anyway. Have you ever run into a smell that immediately took you back into your memory to another time or place? Maybe it was the lovely smells coming out a bakery that remained you of your grandmother’s kitchen or perhaps the smell… Read more »
Reactivating Stem Cells: Possbile Key to Treating Neurodegenerative Disorders
Description: When I first started teaching introductory psychology a few decades ago I used to tell students that they had most of the largest number of brain neurons they would ever have at the time they were born. After their birth the number of brain cells dropped due to things like attrition and pruning (neurons… Read more »
This is Your Brain on Lonely
Description: Being lonely is not an enjoyable experience and in many ways that I suspect you are aware of or could guess at, it is not good for you either. But how does prolonged loneliness effect your brain and why might it be useful and important to know how loneliness impacts people’s brains? Think about… Read more »
Pattern Separation and Human versus Animal Intelligence
Description: What do you know about how memory works? You likely have a basic understanding of how information comes in through or senses (via a very short term sensory store), pauses in working memory (if we work on it) and perhaps eventually gets processed into long term memory. Does that take you bac to a… Read more »
Wisdom: What is Your Theory?
Description: Do you know anyone that you would say is wise? If not think about a real person or a character in a book or film that you know about that you would say is wise. What is it about them that leads you to say they are wise? What is wisdom and what does… Read more »
The Psychology of Covid-19: Schooling and Cognitive Health
Description: I do not have a fully developed professional Psychological opinion as yet on the question of whether or how schools should re-open in the (soon) coming fall. Some aspects if such an opinion will, of course, involve vital matters of health-related safety; will students get sick, if so, how sick, and will they infect… Read more »
Literacy and Dementia: Think About It!
Description: Here is a somewhat backhanded test of your current understanding of factors relating to rates of dementia in elder individuals. What would you predict about the comparable rates of depression among otherwise similar groups of literate and illiterate elderly individuals? If you think there will be a rate difference between these two groups what… Read more »
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