Research
dmunger | February 22, 2006I'm sure most Cognitive Daily readers are aware of the massive debate permeating the scientific world these days. No, not evolution versus creationism; I'm talking about object- versus space-based attention.
Haven't heard of this raging debate? Well, then, let me refer you to a fascinating pair of experiments conducted by Massimo Turatto, Veronica Mazza, and Carlo Umiltà. The issue comes down to this: a critical problem for psychologists is the issue of attention. How does the perceptual system decide where to focus our attention when literally millions of bits of information are available to…
dmunger | February 20, 2006Here's a picture of our daughter Nora at about 3 months of age. She looks like she's fairly aware of the events going on around her (arguably more aware than she sometimes appears now, at age 12). However, as our knowledge of how infants begin to perceive the world around them has increased, we've learned that the world of a three-month-old literally looks different to them than the world we perceive as adults. That's because vision, which seems so obvious and instinctive, is actually an active process. When we perceive the world visually, we're not just passively "seeing" what's there, we're…
dmunger | February 16, 2006Can you tell the difference between the images below?
At first, they just look like fuzzy diagonal lines -- there doesn't appear to be a significant difference between them. But if you look at them closely, you begin to notice that the images at the top of the picture (category A) tend to have single dark bands, while the images towards the bottom have dark bands that come in pairs. The "phase angle" refers to the technique used to generate the images, and based on this angle, the images can be divided into two categories.
With a lot of work, people can be trained to quickly distinguish…
dmunger | February 15, 2006An old college friend and accomplished writer, John Scalzi, recently posted a list of writing tips for nonprofessionals, which I'd highly recommend for professionals and nonprofessionals alike. One of his most unusual suggestions is to "speak what you write" -- literally, to read your writing out loud before publishing, whether in a blog post or just an e-mail to friends. This, he argues, will not only help catch spelling and other errors (each of which Scalzi says decreases the writer's apparent IQ by 5 to 10 points), but also help you see whether you're conveying the meaning you intend.
So…
dmunger | February 13, 2006The TV movie Flight 93, which re-enacted the hijacking of a United Airlines flight on September 11, 2001, was criticized because it "humanized" the hijackers (despite this apparent humanity of their captors, the movie did portray the passengers and crew on that flight fighting back and eventually causing the plane to crash in a sparse Pennsylvania woodland instead of a crowded city). The critics' argument was simple: why portray the hijackers, clearly bent on destroying as much life as possible, as anything but vile murderers?
The obvious reply: can't we, as thinking human beings, overcome…
dmunger | February 9, 2006Take a look at this video (click on the image to play). It's pretty clear what's going on -- the green dot bumps into the red dot, causing it to move:
But what about this one?
With this movie, it's harder to say: some people would say the green dot passes through the red dot, turning red and then moving on. Others would say the green dot launches the red dot, as before. It's an ambiguous figure.
But now look at this new movie, with two sets of dots. What's happening with the top pair of dots: launching, or passing through?
Most people would now say that the green dot on the top…
dmunger | February 8, 2006One of the first questions our son Jim asks when a new movie comes out is "what's it rated?" The more "adult" the rating, the more appealing the movie is to him: PG is the lowest rating he'll even consider, PG-13 is better, and R is best. Since he's only 14, we don't take him to many R-rated movies, which is possibly what adds to their appeal.
But even PG-rated movies and TV shows still display an abundance of violence, and plenty of parents are happy to let their kids watch violent programming, especially if there isn't any sex involved. We've reported on a lot of media violence studies on…
dmunger | February 6, 2006In 1973, a massive study of almost 400,000 Dutch men appeared to confirm what anecdotal evidence and even some scientific research had led scholars to suspect: The first-born child in a family tends to be the most intelligent. The researchers, Lillian Belmont and Francis Marolla, found that within a given family size, earlier-born children tended to have slightly higher IQs than later-born children, even after controlling for social class. Their study pool was the entire population of 19-year-old men in the Netherlands.
Since then, researchers have developed all sorts of models to try to…
dmunger | February 2, 2006Twelve years ago, Greta and I were awakened by a rattling on the door of our Bronx apartment. It was about three A.M.; our children were asleep in the next room. "What should I do?" Greta whispered to me. She had woken first and was holding the deadbolt on the door locked so the intruder couldn't get in.
"Call the police," I whispered, and took hold of the lock. I ventured a peek through our peephole. I could see only the grizzled razor stubble of a man who was clearly shorter than I was. He continued to struggle with the door. He was making progress picking our lock -- I had to forcefully…
dmunger | February 1, 2006My son Jim's favorite game, World of Warcraft, only works on my computer, which usually resides in the kitchen. Inevitably, Jim's often playing his game while Greta and I are making dinner, and I have to say, the most annoying thing about the game isn't the violence or the sound effects -- it's the background music. We're constantly asking him to turn the volume down so we don't have to listen to that dull, repetitive music.
So don't gamers find music annoying, too? I know when I'm indulging in my one guilty pleasure -- computer golf -- the room must be absolutely silent. Music is the worst,…
dmunger | January 31, 2006Clicking on the image below will take you to a short Quicktime movie. Make sure you have your sound turned up, because I've recorded a few sentences that play along with the movie. Your job is to determine, as quickly as possible, if each sentence is grammatically correct -- while you focus your vision on the animated display.
This demonstration replicates part of an experiment conducted by a group of researchers led by Michael P. Kaschak. The researchers showed similar animations to a group of volunteers and asked them to make similar judgments about spoken language. The question: does…
dmunger | January 26, 2006Kids in America grow up in a society that overwhelmingly believes in life after death. At the same time, these same kids grow up learning more and more about the nature of living organisms, and what makes something living or dead. At some point, these two belief systems inevitably collide: pure religious faith suggests that the soul lives on after death, but pure science suggests that consciousness can only exist in a living brain.
Assuming these kids don't read Pharyngula (in which case all hope of an eternal soul would likely be quickly and rudely snuffed), which of these knowledge systems…
dmunger | January 25, 2006 Disney's purchase of Pixar makes it clear that computer-generated (CGI) animation appears to be the wave of the future in movies. But one difficulty with CGI animation is conveying realistic emotions. While film animators (whether they use computers or not) can use artistic license to achieve the desired effects, when "emotions" are generated exclusively by computer, it can be difficult to identify the key factors in conveying that emotion.
We've discussed avatars, for example, as one way that computers can automate human interaction. Artificial intelligence -- lifelike simulators of human…
dmunger | January 23, 2006When I was a kid, school lunches didn't offer choice. I paid $1.10, and I was given four plops of foodlike substance. The entrees had names like "salisbury steak," "lasagne," or "beef stroganoff," but they all tasted about the same. Our "vegetable" was usually overcooked peas or green beans. There was a "starch," like mashed potatoes or a roll, and a dessert -- Jell-O or a cupcake -- typically the only edible item on the tray. If our lunch money wasn't stolen on the way to school, we were at least in theory presented with a balanced meal.
By the time my kids were in school, cafeteria…
dmunger | January 19, 2006To say college students* aren't well-known for their efficient sleep habits might be the most dramatic understatement since Washington observed that Valley Forge winters are "a bit nippy." I can remember dozing off with my head in a pile of books at the library when I was in college, then waking with "The Riverside Chaucer" imprinted on my face in mirror-image.
Undaunted by college students' reputation for irregular sleep, a group of researchers conducted a large study of Ohio State University students' sleeping habits. Among the many questions they attempted to answer was a simple one: how…
dmunger | January 18, 2006Chad Orzel has challenged the ScienceBloggers to come up with the greatest experiments in their respective fields. While Greta and I are reluctant to say this is the greatest experiment ever (there are so many great experiments!), we both independently came up with the same one: Roger Shepard and Jacqueline Metzler's 1971 experiment on mental rotation. It's certainly our favorite, and it's difficult to overstate its importance.
The design of the experiment is simple and brilliant; yet it was not easy to execute at the time. Today researchers studying vision almost always use computers to…
dmunger | January 17, 2006Point-light displays can tell us an amazing amount about other people. Looking only at a few glowing spots corresponding to joints and set in motion, we can tell what people are doing, whether they are over- or underweight, and even identify a friend among strangers. We can also identify animals or determine the emotional state a dancer or actor is conveying. But some emotions are more difficult than others. Take a look at the following two animations (click on the image to view a quicktime movie):
Now, which emotion does each animation convey? Your choices are Anger, Joy, Sadness, Love,…
dmunger | January 12, 2006There was a fascinating article in the Washington Post last May about Dilbert creator Scott Adams' battle with focal dystonia. Though the symptoms of this disorder are involuntary muscle contractions (in Adams' case, his right pinky finger), the root of the problem is in the brain. For Adams, it has meant suspending his cartooning career more than once. The first time, he taught himself to draw with his left hand, only to see the symptoms reappear there. He's also tried grueling physical therapy regimens. His most recent effort to battle dystonia has been drawing his cartoons using a…
dmunger | January 10, 2006The Flying Spaghetti Monster (source: verganza.org) is a satirical retort to advocates of "intelligent design," created as a joke to mock the belief that some "intelligent designer" created life. While the Flying Spaghetti Monster is funny, no one takes it seriously. Meanwhile, belief in a Christian God is stronger than ever, and advocates of the theory of evolution are unshaking in their support.
So what's the difference? Why do people hold some beliefs strongly, but readily discard others? Jesse Preston and Nicholas Epley have designed a technique to examine the types of evidence people…
sb admin | January 6, 2006My son Jim loved his bottle when he was a baby. By about 15 months of age, he loved baby formula so much that he was going through over a hundred dollars' worth a week -- more than the rest of the food budget for the entire family! (Yes, we were buying the powdered stuff, not pre-made formula.) There were weeks when we completely exhausted the local grocery store's supply.
Needless to say, soon his pediatrician pointed out he was gaining weight too quickly, and we should cut his rations down to, say, three bottles a day. It was a painful transition. Previously, all Jim would have to do was…