Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Humans Have No Monopoly on Empathy
One rat springs another rat from prison, then shares some chocolate with him. Sounds like a Saturday-morning cartoon, but that’s what actually happened in a laboratory experiment showing that real live rats can display empathetic behaviour.
These findings, published in the December 7, 2011 issue of the journal Science by Peggy Mason and her colleagues, got a huge amount of media play, because this was the first time that scientists had shown that an animal other than a primate can take action to relieve the distress of a member of its own species. And this suggested the possibility that empathy, previously regarded as unique to human beings and some of the great apes, might instead have far older origins in the animal kingdom. (more…)
Emotions and the Brain | Comments Closed
Monday, 6 May 2013
What Are People’s Deepest Motivations?
Economists have long regarded financial gain as one of the primary motives that drive human beings. But research in the cognitive sciences increasingly shows that while money may induce people to work harder physically, it seems to have no effect at all where mental tasks are concerned.
As author Daniel Pink describes in an illustrated talk to which a link is provided below, studies in various countries have shown that giving people more money does not stimulate creative thought, even when the amounts offered are the equivalent of several weeks’ pay. (more…)
Pleasure and Pain | 3 comments »
Monday, 29 April 2013
A Microprocessor That Simulates a Synapse
For decades now, cognitive scientists across the entire range from cognitivists to connectionists have been trying to use computers to model the learning abilities of the human brain. A team at MIT, headed by Dr. Chi-Sang Poon, has just taken a major step in this direction by designing a microprocessor that can simulate the functioning of a single synapse in the part of the human brain known as the hippocampus.
(more…)
Memory and the Brain | Comments Closed
Monday, 22 April 2013
“I have it at the tip of my tongue!”
Having a word “at the tip of your tongue” is a familiar but frustrating sensation. There it is, not very far, you know it, you can feel it, but you can’t find it! To make matters worse, very often another word keeps popping into your mind—you know it’s not the right one, but it keeps getting in the way so that you can’t find the one you’re looking for.
Scientists say that all of us experience this phenomenon at least once per week, and more often as we get older. They also know that more than 9 times out 10, we end up finding the right word, although often in unexpected ways, and that this is an example of meta…you know, when you make judgments about your own thought processes…mmm, metempsychosis? No. Metencephalon? No, that’s not it either. Oh yeah—metacognition! (more…)
From Thought to Language | Comments Closed
Monday, 15 April 2013
The Harmful Effects of Television on Young Children
First of all, I want to say a very big “Thank you” to everyone who has already sent in a donation to help fund our web site. In one week, we have already raised $1750, which is almost enough to pay for all of the basic upkeep on this site for our current fiscal year (April 2013 to March 2014)! This is a very encouraging start. Please pass the word to anyone else you know who enjoys this site and may want to give us some financial support.
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Just to get a few minutes to breathe, tired parents can be strongly tempted to sit their kids down in front of the television. But a joint study by Quebec’s Sainte Justine university hospital and the University of Michigan, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, should convince anyone that this is a bad idea. This study showed that the more time children spent in front of the television at ages 2 and 4, the more problems they had in school and the more unhealthy habits they had acquired by age 10. (more…)
How the Mind Develops | 2 comments »
