Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• Take the Shutdown Skeptics Seriously.

  I have been holding back from doing posts on the current pandemic, since it completely dominates the popular press. However, I want to pass on this link to one... Read more

  Posted on 12 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Self, Purpose, and Tribal Mentality as Darwinian Adaptations (or…Why Why Aren’t...

  This is a post like the one I offered on March 13 that passes on a bit of writing that I think might develop into a longer piece of work. Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Infant Behavioral Inhibition Predicts Personality and Social Outcomes Three...

  From Tang et al.: Significance Children show different temperamental styles early in development. Whether temperament predicts who children become as adults... Read more

  Posted on 08 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Future of the Human Climate Niche

  Sobering analysis from Xu et al. : Significance We show that for thousands of years, humans have concentrated in a surprisingly narrow subset of Earth’s... Read more

  Posted on 07 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Diversity–Innovation Paradox in Science

  From Hofstra et al: Significance By analyzing data from nearly all US PhD recipients and their dissertations across three decades, this paper finds... Read more

  Posted on 06 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Cultural Origins of Metacognition.

  I want to pass on this open source article in Trends in Cognitive Science by Heyes et al. Their summary: Highlights Human metacognition involves... Read more

  Posted on 05 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Rising Workplace Inequalities in High-income Countries.

  From Tomaskovic-Devey et al.: Significance Understanding the causes of rising inequality is of concern in many countries. Using administrative data, we find tha... Read more

  Posted on 04 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Do Cognition-enhancing Drugs Work?

  Westbrook et al. do experiments with drugs influencing dopamine levels that suggest that cognition-enhancing drugs may act at the motivational level rather... Read more

  Posted on 01 May 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Why Does Awe Have Prosocial Effects?

  An interesting perspective from Perlin and Li: Awe is an emotional response to stimuli that are perceived to be vast (e.g., tall trees, sunsets) and that defy... Read more

  Posted on 30 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Evidence That Aerobic Exercise Reverses Aging.

  Brett et al. show (in mice) that aerobic exercise rejuvenates quiescent skeletal muscle stem cells in old mice and accelerates muscle tissue repair: Ageing... Read more

  Posted on 29 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Non-invasive DIY Brain Stimulators Are a Bad Idea.

  I must admit that I've been sorely tempted to have a try with one of the transcranial magnetic or direct current stimulators, easily ordered from web vendors,... Read more

  Posted on 28 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Deep Historical Roots of Global Economic Inequality

  

  Nathan Nunn does an article which describes how a substantial part of the world’s current income differences can be explained by the divergent effects of... Read more

  Posted on 27 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Changes in Cerebral Cortex Functional Organization in Healthy Elderly.

  Sigh.... Chong et al. offer a picture of how my 78 year old brain is more muddled than that of a ~23 year old male. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Cross-sectional... Read more

  Posted on 24 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Review on Transcutaneous Vagal Nerve Stimulation.

  Colzato and Beste review the literature on cognitive effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), with a focus on studies on normal subjects... Read more

  Posted on 23 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Effects of Social Media on Well-being.

  Allcott et al. do a fascinating study examining the effects of getting a random sample of Facebook users to deactivate their accounts for 4 weeks in exchange fo... Read more

  Posted on 22 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Differential Fertility Makes Society More Conservative on Family Values

  From Vogl and Freese: Significance “Family values” conservatives in the United States have more children and more siblings than their compatriots. Read more

  Posted on 21 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Older Adults Proactively Downregulate Anticipated Negative Affect.

  Interesting work from Corbett et al. (open source): Previous studies have only investigated age-related differences in emotional processing and encoding in... Read more

  Posted on 20 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Looking at Pictures Makes Your Brain’s Visual Cortex Swell!

  Wow, talk about dynamic neuroplasticity...Mansson et al (open source) take observations of how rapidly our brains can change to a whole new level. Read more

  Posted on 17 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Progress Toward Gender Equality in the United States Has Slowed Or Stalled

  From England et al.: Significance Social scientists have documented dramatic change in gender inequality in the last half century, sometimes called a “gender... Read more

  Posted on 16 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Gender Differences in the Brain Connections That Predict Intelligence.

  From Jiang et al: Scores on intelligence tests are strongly predictive of various important life outcomes. However, the gender discrepancy on intelligence... Read more

  Posted on 15 April 2020 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE