With all we now know about the cognitive science behind expert behavior, is Sherlock Holmes still a good example of an “expert”?
recent years, there has been an intense research effort to understand the cognitive processes and structures underlying expert behaviour. Work in different fields, including scientific domains, sports, games, and mnemonics, has shown that there are vast differences in perceptual abilities between experts and novices, and that these differences may underpin other cognitive differences in learning, memory, and problem solving. In this article, we evaluate the progress made in the last years through the eyes of an outstanding, albeit fictional,…
1 min read
Does how popular you were in high school affect how much money you make later in life?
.We then analyze the effect of the in-degree and out-degree of friendship on adult economic success as measured by each individual's level of earnings some 35 years later. While the out-degree (gregariousness) has no effect, we find a positive effect for in-degree (popularity). One additional friendship nomination in high school is associated with a 2 percent higher wage 35 years later. This is roughly equivalent to almost half the gain from an extra year of education. Shifting somebody from the…
1 min read
Your Phone Distracts You So Much You Won’t Notice Unicycling Clowns
don't do the studies, I just post them, folks: We investigated the effects of divided attention during walking. Individuals were classified based on whether they were walking while talking on a cell phone, listening to an MP3 player, walking without any electronics or walking in a pair. In the first study, we found that cell phone users walked more slowly, changed directions more frequently, and were less likely to acknowledge other people than individuals in the other conditions. In…
1 min read
How dangerous is that big, drunk guy at the bar?
least as dangerous as you expected, if not more: Most people avoid the “big, drunk guy” in bars because they do not want to get assaulted. Is this stereotype supported by empirical evidence? Unfortunately, no scientific work has investigated this topic. Based on the recalibrational theory of anger and embodied cognition theory, we predicted that heavier men would behave the most aggressively when intoxicated. In two independent experiments (Ns = 553 and 327, respectively), participants consumed either alcohol or placebo beverages…
1 min read
Are there too many psychopaths in corporate America?
, this isn't going to be some anti-capitalist, internet crank rant. Not all psychopaths are running around stabbing people. Some are quite successful: Despite increasing interest in psychopathy research, surprisingly little is known about the etiology of non-incarcerated, successful psychopaths. This review provides an analysis of current knowledge on the similarities and differences between successful and unsuccessful psychopaths derived from five population sources: community samples, individuals from employment agencies, college students, industrial psychopaths, and serial killers. An initial neurobiological model…
2 minutes
Is an attractive person touching an item enough to make you want to buy it?
is research examines the impact of attractiveness on consumers during a consumption experience. Specifically, it examines the effects of an attractive social influence in the context of touching and contamination of store products by investigating how consumers respond when they see attractive others touching the same products they want to purchase. In doing so, it provides the first experimental evidence of a positive contagion effect in either the marketing or the psychology literature. Across three field experiments using an actual…
1 min read
Here’s How A Woman’s Emotional Intelligence Affects Her Ability To Orgasm
troduction. Up to 30% of women suffer from female orgasmic disorder (FOD)—the second most common type of female sexual dysfunction. FOD has been acknowledged to be multifactorial and recent research has implicated the importance of psychosocial risk factors. Aim. The aim of this study is to investigate whether normal variations in emotional intelligence—the ability to identify and manage emotions of one's self and others—are associated with orgasmic frequency during intercourse and masturbation. To our knowledge, this is the first such…
2 minutes
Does everything with caffeine taste good?
en you haven't had your coffee, yes: Previous studies found that caffeine consumers acquired a liking for the flavour of novel caffeinated drinks when these drinks were consumed repeatedly in a caffeine-deprived, but not nondeprived, state. Expression of this acquired liking appeared acutely sensitive to current caffeine deprivation state, but the use of between-subjects designs confounded interpretation of those studies. The present study evaluated these findings further using a within-subject design, with one flavour paired with caffeine (CS + )…
1 min read
