Description: It used to be that you could tell that Halloween was approaching because boxes of small candy bars would start appearing in n grocery stores (in late August). While this is still true, the other indicator of the pending arrival of Halloween is are the grand announcements of the return of pumpkin spiced everything,… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Sensory-Perceptual Development
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 »
No Longer Need to See Red Over Seeing Red
Description: Here is a very simple and complex question. Do you see red like I see red? Simple, right? Look at the picture below. The garment and the umbrella are red right? So, what is complicated? Well, yes, we seem to use the same label for our sensory experiences when we see things like the… Read more »
Transgenerational Neural Impact of Early Neglect
Description: You have likely heard about the research looking at the longer term imp0acts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) on later development and functioning as children grow into adulthood. In has supported and spurred on an ongoing push for early intervention with at-risk families in an effort to minimize the existence of or to mitigate… Read more »
No More Time Shifting: But Which Time to Pick?
Description: As I write this we are right on top of our semi-annual exercise in time-shifting; we are “falling back” as we move off of daylight savings time and back to standard time, at least assuming you do not live in Saskatchewan or Russia or Morocco or any of the other places that stick with… 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 »
Moving Towards Transplant Fixes for Some Forms of Blindness
Description: The prospect of vision loss is scary and while my parents and grandparents would say things like don’t run with scissors or you cannot have a BB gun (for fear of “putting out an eye”) or make sure you have a good light on when you are reading because “those are the only set… Read more »
Afternoon Cognitive Downtime? Know Your Brain!
Description: Think about a typical weekday in your recent experience. When are your mental highs and lows (of drive, motivation and distractibility)? Do you know your highs and lows well enough that you build your course or work schedule with them in mind? Oh and it is not just BS (no not THAT, blood sugar,… Read more »
Vision or Hearing? Which does your brain “like” best?
Description: So which of your senses (your vision or your hearing) does your brain give more credence to when interpreting incoming sensory information about the world? Parents are not supposed to have “favorite” children right, so should our brain have a “favorite” sense? OK maybe that’s not a fair comparison. To experience the McGurk effect… Read more »
Sea Quest Heros versus Dementia!
Description: How might you playing an app based game help neuroscientists diagnose dementia among the elderly? Not sure? Well, the loss of spatial skill or the ability to navigate is an early symptom of the onset of dementia. So how about now, how might you answer that opening question? Give it some thought have a… Read more »