Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• Knowing How Confidently We Know

  Here is a fascinating piece of work from Miyamoto et al. showing that parallel stream of information in the brain regulate the confidence that a memory is... Read more

  Posted on 24 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Our Evolutionary Psychology Elected Donald Trump.

  While I feel that in principle our world might be best governed by a multinational meritocratic elite (of the sort that just met in Davos Switzerland) I can’t... Read more

  Posted on 23 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Deepening of Our Cultural Echo Chambers.

  Farhad Manjoo does a nice piece in the Tech and Society section of the NY Times, pointing out how much has changed since the 1970s, when TV programs like “All i... Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Fitness Downside to Statin Drugs?

  Before passing on this article by Gretchen Reynolds and the work of Chung et al. that it points to, I'll start with a personal account of why it immediately... Read more

  Posted on 18 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Research on Consequences of Low Socioeconomic Status Becoming a Small Industry.

  It is becoming hard to keep up with research on biological and behavioral consequences of low socioeconomic status - one of MindBlog's subject threads since... Read more

  Posted on 17 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Positivity in Older Adults is More Related to Cognitive Decline Than to Emotion...

  It is commonly supposed that the more positive outlook characteristic of older people is due to their ability to regulate their emotions more effectively than... Read more

  Posted on 16 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Seeing Faces of Young Black Boys Facilitates Identification of Threatening...

  From Todd et al. (open source): Pervasive stereotypes linking Black men with violence and criminality can lead to implicit cognitive biases, including the... Read more

  Posted on 13 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Milliseconds of a Choice - Watching Your Mind When It Matters.

  I'm finding, with increasing frequency, that an article about health or psychology in the New York Times that I find interesting has an attached note that it wa... Read more

  Posted on 12 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• People Who Move More Are Happier.

  No surprises here, but this study polling people using a smartphone app designed by the experimenters quantifies the effect. The use of smartphones to gather... Read more

  Posted on 11 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• From Power to Inaction.

  An interesting little piece from Durso et al. on a consequence of feeling powerful (The paper appears to be open source, so you can note the details of the two... Read more

  Posted on 10 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the First Law of Psychology.

  I pass along some a clip from Steven Pinker’s contribution to the edge.org annual question “What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely know. Read more

  Posted on 09 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Dual Streams of Speech Processing.

  

  A large number of studies have documented how visual information in the brain is processed in dual streams of information: dorsal (where is it?), and ventral... Read more

  Posted on 06 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Effect of Status on Stress Depends on the Stability of the Hierarchy.

  In most human societies, individuals with higher socioeconomic status live longer, experience increased well-being, and have lower rates of stress-related... Read more

  Posted on 05 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• What is Different About the Brains of “superagers”?

  

  Barrett and colleagues have performed fMRI studies on “superagers” age 60-80, and find that superagers not only perform similarly to young adults on memory... Read more

  Posted on 04 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How to Market the Reality of Climate Change More Effectively.

  Baldwin and Lammers perform several studies to show that conservative are positively affected by past but not by future-focused environmental comparisons. Read more

  Posted on 03 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• I Used to Be a Human Being - How Technology Almost Killed Me.

  Andrew Sullivan does a striking piece, describing a process that began with his daily immersion in The Daily Dish, an early blog that was a precursor of... Read more

  Posted on 02 January 2017 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Resetting the Clock of Aging - at Least in Mice.

  I pass on a few clips from Nicholas Wade's recent discussion of work done by researchers at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA. Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Killing Old Cells to Stay Young.

  I want to pass on one of Science Magazine's choices for the top ten scientific breakthroughs of the year. Pricey plastic surgery won't stop you from getting old. Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Creative Versus Destructive Chaos in Trump-land. Is There a Ray of Hope?

  I am a member of the professional intelligentsia bubble still feeling post-traumatic stress from the presidential election. I grasp at any small reassurances... Read more

  Posted on 28 December 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Artificial Intelligence Ups Its Game

  I pass on this description by John Bohannon in Science Magazine of a recent triumph of A.I.: This year, artificial intelligence (AI) passed a significant... Read more

  Posted on 27 December 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE