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 Tagged: Cognition
What Can a One Word Turing Test Tell Us About What it Means to be Human (or Not)?
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 »
Intuition: Magic or Expertise?
Description: Think of something you know a LOT about and/or something that you are very good at or have had a lot of experience with. It could be a job, a hobby, and interest, or a skill or it could simply be related to someone you know a lot about – a loved one, a… Read more »
Can you undo ‘fake news’ when its in your head?
Description: Ah politicians are a never-ending source of possible research topics! Assuming you have not been successful in selectively ignoring any political news from south of our border (and if you have please tell us how, as long as it does not involve a lobotomy or copious amounts of alcohol!) then you have heard about… Read more »
How are Religiosity and Cognition Related? Perhaps not as you might think.
Description: At first glance it may seem odd or perhaps inappropriate to conduct research into the nature and even into the brain function associated with religious belief. However, rather than seeing religious belief and science as antithetical think a bit about what sorts of cognitive functioning might be correlated with religious belief. For example, how… Read more »
Gaming Depression: Playing your way to mental health
Description: How might playing a tablet based game have a positive impact upon symptoms of late-life (post 60 years) depression? Before you read the article linked below think about the symptoms that are typically associated with depression. In addition to mood related issues (obviously associated with depression) what sorts of cognitive factors are associated with… Read more »
Depression, Bipolar Disorder and “Fuzzy” Thinking
Description: Feeling like your thinking is less sharp or even describable as “fuzzy’ is a fairly common subjective report offered by people struggling with depression or bipolar disorder. However, there has been debate as to whether such feeling are reflections of actual changes in brain function or related, instead to changes in mood or motivation… Read more »
Brain Stimulation Produces Day Dreaming AND Enhanced Problem Solving
Description: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation involves stimulating a person’s brain with a mild electric current. What happens if the frontal lobes of people’s brains are stimulated while they are working on problems. Source: Science Daily Date: February 23, 2015 Links: Article Link – Bar-Ilan University. “Neuroscientists literally change the way we think: Advantages of… Read more »
Books for Success!
