Description: Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (both psychologists) won the Nobel Prize in economics for their work on biases in human decision making in 2002. More recently, Kahneman wrote a book entitled Thinking, Fast and Slow in which he describes, in detail, the different systems we use when we are thinking quickly and “instinctively” as… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Learning
Psychology of Covid: Our Sense of Smell Gets a New Look
Description: Quickly consider and respond to this question. Of all your senses, which is the most important to you and which is the least important to you? Odd are VERY strong that you put smell at the bottom of the list as your least important and the one you would offer up if you had… Read more »
Psychology of Covid-19: Resolutions THIS Year
Description: I will not say Happy New Year. That seems a bit trite and unreflective this year. How about Wishing you a Happier and Free-er New year as 2021 unfolds? You may also be thinking that what with all the pandemic driven hopes for things just getting less worse and for our progress towards broader… Read more »
Can You Out-Grow or Out-Develop ADHD?
Description: You know a little bit about ADHD, right? So, consider this question, if a child is diagnosed as meeting the diagnostic criteria for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) can or will they, over time, outgrow the disorder (or the diagnosis)? A good friend of mine used to be principal at a school for children… 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 »
Creeped by Halloween Stuff? It is In Your Genes!
Description: As I write this it is October 31 and thus Halloween in a very different social space and time than previous All Hallows Eves. I am not going to try and make a case for how hard it will be for children to survive without their annua blast of cheap treats (they will be… Read more »
Choice Blindness: How Well Do You Really Know What You Are Doing?
Description: Imagine you volunteer for a research study. As part of the study you are shown a pair of pictures (two men or two women) and you are asked to pick the one that is the most attractive. After you make your choice you are handed the picture you chose and asked to explain why… Read more »
How Distracted is YOUR learning?
Description: Ok, imagine you are sitting in your first class in a new course at college or university (yes in the old world where you were sitting in a lecture hall with 200 to 300 other students). Further, imagine that the professor arrives and announces that they have a few rules that MUST be followed… Read more »
Psychology and Covid-19: What is the Deal with Masks?
Description: Even if you have not seen the media coverage of how mask use is breaking out along political lines in the United States you have very likely had your own experience of being hesitant about wearing a mask when going to the grocery store or if you did wear one feeling a bit weird… Read more »
Psychology and Covid-19: Self-Care is Vital
Description: Most of us have been spending a LOT of time in the past couple of months looking outward, using television and online media, at the world around us and at how the other people in it have (or have not been) coping with the impacts associated with Covid-19. We are also starting to see… Read more »