Deric Bownds
These articles, from Deric's MindBlog at http://mindblog.dericbownds.net report new ideas and work on mind, brain, and behavior - as well as random curious stuff.
MY BLOGS
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Deric Bownds' MindBlog
http://mindblog.dericbownds.net/
This blog reports new ideas and work on mind, brain, and behavior - as well as random curious stuff.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 2495 )
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Color Naming Across Languages Reflects Color Use
Gibson et al. do a study showing that warm colors are communicated more efficiently than cool colors, and that this cross-linguistic pattern reflects the color... Read more
Posted on 22 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Separate Prefrontal Areas Code Desirability Versus Availability.
When we make a decision, we calculate its “expected value,” by multiplying the value of something (how much we want or need it) with the probability that we... Read more
Posted on 21 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
How We See What We Expect to See.
Kok et al. show that expectations can induce the preactivation of stimulus templates in our brain that resemble the neural signals actually generated when the... Read more
Posted on 20 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Computer Design Cues Taken from Human Brains
Metz does an interesting article on the waning of do-it-all chips, central processing units of the sort that are running my MacBook Air as I type this, in... Read more
Posted on 19 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
It’s All About Tribes - Not Ideas, Morals, Or Principles.
Thomas Edsall does another excellent piece on what is happening in our politics. I suggest you read it...here are a few clips: Since the advent of Trump, ... Read more
Posted on 18 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
The Intractability of Racial Discrimination
Sobering findings from Quillian et al.: Significance Many scholars have argued that discrimination in American society has decreased over time, while others... Read more
Posted on 15 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Neuroforecasting Crowd Funding Outcomes
Genevsky et al. find that directly measuring brain activities in the nucleus accumbens of individuals while they decide whether to fund proposed projects... Read more
Posted on 14 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Do Americans Care About Rising Inequality?
Interesting ideas from McCall et al.: Significance Although rising economic inequality in the United States has alarmed many, research across the social science... Read more
Posted on 13 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
How to Regulate Artificial Intelligence
As a postscript to MindBlog's Aug. 23 post on Artificial Intelligence (AI), I pass on chunks from Oren Etzioni's more recent piece on how to artificial... Read more
Posted on 12 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
How “ought” Exceeds but Implies “can”
From John Turri: This paper tests a theory about the relationship between two important topics in moral philosophy and psychology. Read more
Posted on 11 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Debate Over a Scientific Wellness Study.
Ryan Cross discusses reactions to a new "Scientific Wellness" pilot study set up by distinguished biologist Lee Hood and their recent report on the effort in... Read more
Posted on 08 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Oxytocin Reduces Xenophobic Outgroup Rejection.
This work from Marsh et al. suggests that it might be useful to spritz a bit of oxytocin up the noses of alt-right, alt-left, fascist, and antifa... Read more
Posted on 07 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Evaluation of Brain Training Programs.
By now there is a consensus that most claims about brain training making improving mental agility have no scientific basis. Most brain training only makes you... Read more
Posted on 06 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
American Nirvana
I've been meaning to point to an engaging article by polymath Adam Gopnik reviewing Robert Wright's recent book "Why Buddhism Is True." (Wright has written... Read more
Posted on 05 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Washing Away Your Sins in the Brain.
From Tang et al. The association between moral purity and physical cleanliness has been widely discussed recently. Studies found that moral threat initiates... Read more
Posted on 04 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Mindfulness Management of Stress and Inflammation
I pass on a description from the Univ. of Wisconsin Center for Healthy Minds of research suggesting that mindfulness meditation may be an effective way to manag... Read more
Posted on 01 September 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
How to Make Time Slow Down.
Many days I feel by 5 p.m. like my day has evaporated without my noticing it. I recall that when I was 20-40 years old my days seems to stretch out much longer. Read more
Posted on 31 August 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
An Essay on the Real Problem of Consciousness.
For those of you who are consciousness mavens, I would recommend having a glance at Anil Seth’s essay, which does a clear headed description of some current... Read more
Posted on 30 August 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
A Magic Bullet to Restore Our Brain's Plasticity?
No...not yet. But work by Jenks et al. showing that juvenile-like plasticity is restored in the visual cortex of adult mice by acute viral expression of the... Read more
Posted on 29 August 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Are People Really Unconcerned About Rising Economic Inequality?
McCall et al. provide data to counter a common social sciences research conclusion that Americans don't are about rising inequality: Economic inequality has bee... Read more
Posted on 28 August 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE