#cognitive-psychology

#cognitive-psychology

Rumination activates the default mode network (DMN) - the brain's self-referential processing system. This is the neural circuitry that fires when you're thinking about yourself in relation to others: your identity, your social standing, your mistakes. It's the brain asking, over and over, What does this say about me?

Yes and no, says cognitive scientist Tomer Ullman, the Morris Kahn Associate Professor of Psychology, who with Halely Balaban recently published a paper titled "The Capacity Limits of Moving Objects in the Imagination." If you're like most people, you probably thought about some of these things, but not others. People build mental imagery hierarchically, starting with the ideas of "person," "room," "ball," and "table," then placing them in relation to one another in space, and only later filling in details like color.

It felt like a superpower, this ability to keep all those plates spinning at once. But here's the uncomfortable truth I discovered: that superpower was actually my kryptonite. Every time I thought I was being ultra-productive by doing three things at once, my brain was secretly running a marathon just to keep up with the constant switching. The result? Everything took longer, contained more mistakes, and left me mentally exhausted by lunch.

Microlearning is a training method based on short, targeted, and easy-to-consume content. Unlike traditional learning courses, which often require several hours of study, microlearning focuses on a single concept at a time and relies on repetition. For example, a sales representative can take small quizzes on their phone between client meetings to strengthen their knowledge of products or services. Or a student may receive two daily questions with explanations on topics covered in previous classes until exam day.

This phenomenon is referred to as selective attention, and a famous study designed by Simons and Chabris (1999) demonstrated it quite well. For their research, these scientists showed a video to student volunteers featuring players passing basketballs back and forth, one team in white t-shirts, and the other team in black t-shirts. The viewers were instructed to count the passes between players wearing the white t-shirts.

The major insights about human nature are that humans are biologically and socially shaped, meaning-makers, motivated by needs and goals, capable of growth, inherently social, limited by cognitive biases, and contextually dynamic.

The latest optical illusion features a picture of a grazing goat with a hidden woman's face, observable by examining it from different angles and distances.

Essentialism is the belief that members of a category share an inherent and immutable essence or core that distinguishes them from non-members (Gelman, 2003). Most people, for example, believe that living things are fundamentally different from non-living things.

The brain organizes conversations by adapting to the timescale of the dialogue, using overlapping systems for short exchanges and distinct processes for longer narratives.

Memorizing names requires commitment and effort. Each attempt at learning names improves retention, as demonstrated by personal experiences of gradual progress in memorization.

During a simple task that requires minimal attention, mind wandering may actually help people learn probabilistic patterns that let them perform the task better.

Talk isn't cheap, according to Maryellen MacDonald. But it's worth the price. More taxing on the brain than comprehending, talking involves making a plan for what we want to say.

History is often told through major events, but a decision-centered history would prioritize the decisions leading up to those events, focusing on the cognitive processes involved.

In his recent comments, Elon Musk pointed out that empathy is being weaponized by the woke, ironically admitting that he utilizes empathy effectively for his business needs.