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How does goal-tracking and sign-tracking behaviour vary across species?

In Pavlonian (classical) conditioning, conditioned responses of an animal may vary. Some animals focus on the unconditioned stimulus (ie. food/location of food) while others may focus on the ...
Vielle's user avatar
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12 votes
0 answers
190 views

Publicly available social networks in apes and hunter-gatherer societies

Social network analysis is an indiscpensable tool for sociology, and is becoming increasing popular in anthropology, social-psychology and other fields. There are many papers that examine the ...
Artem Kaznatcheev's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
1k views

What are the neurological differences between varying types of love?

It stands to reason that the biochemical cascade involved when a person experiences love, gives a feeling of well-being and drive. Studies in neuroscience have involved chemicals that are present ...
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11 votes
0 answers
2k views

Does female attractiveness correlate with age progression?

I'm interested in Evolutionary Psychology and the male perception of female beauty. One of the ideas I'm trying to investigate is the correlation between female fertility and her attractiveness. A ...
Alex Stone's user avatar
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10 votes
0 answers
331 views

Difference between Logan's Instance theory and Exemplar-Based Random Walk (EBRW) theory

I'm trying to find a clear explanation of the difference between Logan's instance theory (Logan, 2002) and the Exemplar-Based Random Walk theory (Nosofsky & Palmari, 1997). Am I mistaken that they ...
Tziporah Knock's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
879 views

Is the symbolic meaning of dark/black and light/white innate in humans?

Dark/black and light/white have symbolic meanings(1, 2). Dark/black represents, among others: Grief, evil, mystery (often with hidden threats), lack of knowledge, etc. Light/white represtents, among ...
gaazkam's user avatar
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9 votes
0 answers
507 views

If stimulus triggers dopamine release, can dopamine release trigger memory recall of stimulus?

Modern science of sleep is starting to lean towards a viewpoint that dopamine has an important function in dreaming, and that dopaminergic pathways - mesolimbic and mesocortical are activated during ...
Alex Stone's user avatar
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9 votes
0 answers
147 views

What is the effect of displayed online personal identifiers on online communication?

Online interaction provides an interesting avenue for experiment and experience. People are able to hide or fabricate their personal details including age, sex, and appearance. For the purposes of ...
user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
99 views

Transgenderism and personality

Has any research been conducted to study how individuals may vary on personality inventories, for example, the Big Five, based on whether they are cisgender versus transgender? Broadly, inquiry may ...
brainchild's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
656 views

EEGlab: power spectral density from a single EEG lead

I was trying to get power spectral density of a time-series data. The sleep recording software we use, doesn't allow to export EDF format of an interval, only of the whole record, but it allows to ...
napoleoninrags's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
499 views

Non-computational models of cognition

There is a question on this site that asks a somewhat related question, whether there are non-physical models for cognition. However, that question still assumes a computational paradigm for the non-...
yters's user avatar
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8 votes
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Have there been any recent replications of the Hofling hospital experiment?

In the original Hofling hospital experiment (1966): A person would telephone a nurse, saying that he was a doctor and giving a fictitious name, asking the nurse to administer 20 mg of a ...
Arnon Weinberg's user avatar
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8 votes
0 answers
303 views

How do people choose at random?

This question is inspired by one asked at MathOverflow. (These questions at Cognitive Sciences and at Cross Validated might also be relevant.) Are there any studies on what choices humans commonly ...
user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
136 views

Is Autism associated with an increased drowning risk for adults?

I have found several popular articles (e.g. ScienceDaily, The Globe and Mail, and WebMD) indicating that children with Autism have a significantly elevated risk of drowning. The general theory seems ...
Robert Columbia's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
448 views

Is there any neuroscience research on the emotion of feeling nothing?

When people entering anechoic chambers, logically there is a sensation of silence because relatively speaking, the sound levels are much lower compared to some normal baseline Likewise, when there is ...
Secret's user avatar
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7 votes
0 answers
86 views

The brain physically changes with regular coffee consumption, but at what rate does it return to normal?

Question We know adenosine receptors A1 & A2 subtypes physically increase in the basal ganglia with prolonged caffeine exposure over the period of about 1-2 weeks, but at what rate do they return ...
Jonathan's user avatar
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7 votes
0 answers
4k views

Fetish development through classical conditioning?

In an older, now deleted answer to another question, it's been said that classical conditioning is a posited mechanism for fetish development. A bit more googling found a popsci article claiming ...
the gods from engineering's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
259 views

Validity of the "Common Factors" perspective

Research and practice in psychotherapy has been deeply influenced by two different approaches: the Empirically Supported Treatments (ESTs) movement, due to the development of Evidence Based Medicine (...
Chris Rogers's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
235 views

Is love from families a necessity for children to form normal relationship?

Some human skills need specific input during childhood to develop, such as language skills. Is the ability to love one of them? I.e., does the formulation of intimate relationship with partner (or any ...
Ryan's user avatar
  • 171
7 votes
0 answers
53 views

Evolution of laughter

In one of his books (cannot recall title now) Konrad Lorentz (ethology study) describes the phenomenon of the appearance of a friendly smile as a spontaneous inversion of a warning grin. He does not ...
hOff's user avatar
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7 votes
0 answers
660 views

Has there been a neuroscientific explanation of the color phi phenomenon?

The color phi phenomenon is a perceptual illusion in the visual domain which was demonstrated in an experiment by Kolers and von Grunau (1976). The experiment is as follows. A sequence of coloured (...
Lazaros Mitskopoulos's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
236 views

Do Kahneman–Tversky results hold for longer periods and aggregate behavior?

Kahneman and Tversky (1979) show findings that can be summarized in this plot: They show that humans dislike losses "more" than they like comparable nominal gains. The results come from a series of ...
Anton Tarasenko's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
123 views

Which study design to use: nested case-control or case-cohort?

I am following a cohort of patients over time from which I am planning to sub-sample a sub-group of patients to pilot a new intervention. The plan is to compare the effectiveness of the new ...
Greg's user avatar
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7 votes
0 answers
1k views

Differences between the way men and women interpret body language

There are many socially accepted ideas about the differences between men and women, I am wondering how much of this is misconception or based in reality. I was reading this question: How important is ...
user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
113 views

Current directions in emulation theory

Over the decades there have been several theories from various aspects of cognitive science that have appealed to a link between perception and action as a way of understanding information processing ...
lmjohns3's user avatar
  • 412
7 votes
0 answers
132 views

What neurological processes occur with 'revulsion'?

As the title asks, what neurological processes occur when we feel revulsion? By revulsion, I mean the involuntary and voluntary physical and psychological responses far stronger than the aversion ...
user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
114 views

What is the correlation between self and other ratings of goal orientation?

In educational psychology goal orientation is a popular construct. In particular popular dimensions of goal orientation include performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and mastery. The studies ...
Jeromy Anglim's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
138 views

Are University Graduated WEIRD people psychologically different to Generally Educated WEIRD people?

A recent question was asking around the subject of WEIRD psychology [WEIRD standing for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic — an acronym seemingly coined by Henrich, et al (2010)] ...
Chris Rogers's user avatar
  • 12.2k
7 votes
1 answer
195 views

Are there any mental activities that can be detrimental for intelligence?

It is well known that we get better at the things we practice, but is it possible to stimulate the brain with activities in such a way that general or specific intelligence is weakened? Also, are ...
C.T.'s user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
148 views

What are the eventual consequences of being a narcissist?

A close question to what I am trying to ask is Is there scientific evidence that narcissists cannot be treated?. I was wondering what are the eventual consequences of being a narcissist? Is there any ...
Bussller's user avatar
  • 213
6 votes
0 answers
229 views

Can our dreams tell us anything useful about ourselves?

This question is related to What is the current "accepted" science behind dream interpretation?, but here I am asking something more specific. Dream reports, also known as sleep mentation ...
Arnon Weinberg's user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
108 views

Is there a correlation between long-term memory and academic success in STEM?

There are underlying fundamentals and first principles, especially in STEM that continue to be built upon but can get neglected and forgotten over time without practice. Obviously having a great ...
Epsilon_Delta's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
83 views

Understanding ketamine, the role of synatptic placitity in Major Depression

I am having a bit of an issue with my intuitive understanding of Ketamine's newfound role in treating depression. It is my understanding that Ketamine works by allowing synaptogenesis. The evidence ...
xelo747's user avatar
  • 291
6 votes
0 answers
100 views

What is the current (2021) state-of-the-art theory of emotions?

Human emotions, from a scientific perspective, is still quite a blurry topic. There is no clear distinction between feelings, emotions, affects. Even in scientific context most of the time we are ...
Pawel's user avatar
  • 161
6 votes
0 answers
82 views

Using Vagus Nerve Stimulation to treat Depression

I came across an article written recently concerning the use of Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) to treat difficult-to-treat depression (DTD) and other mood disorders (Sackeim, et al. 2020). However, ...
Chris Rogers's user avatar
  • 12.2k
6 votes
0 answers
2k views

Explanation for the "spinal energy" and other "Kundalini awakening" symptoms?

Lots of people have been sharing first-hand reports of their personal experience of the so-called "Kundalini awakening". The following are a few illustrative anecdotes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ...
user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
83 views

Why is self-deception necessary to better deceive others?

Robert Trivers argues that we deceive ourselves in order to better deceive others, in part because self-deception can reduce unconscious body signals of lying (von Hippel & Trivers, 2011). On ...
Jared Jacobsen's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
152 views

Bayesian models of conspiracy theorists

Are there any theories in cognitive psychology that try to model the belief in conspiracy theories through the lens of Bayesian decision theory? For reference, in Bayesian decision theory a rational ...
Amelio Vazquez-Reina's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
2k views

Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment with women

In the (in)famous experiment by psychologist Zimbardo at Stanford, also called the Stanford Prison Experiment, my understanding is that only males were selected. Is there any other analogous ...
user's user avatar
  • 161
6 votes
0 answers
179 views

Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and Social-dominance orientation (SDO) in the World Values Survey

Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and Social-dominance orientation (SDO) are two measures often used in (social) psychology studies on political orientation, see e.g. a meta-analysis of Sibley and ...
the gods from engineering's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
545 views

Supplementary Motor Area or Juxtapositional Lobule Cortex

Harvard-Oxford Cortical Structural Atlas now calls the 'Supplementary Motor Area' the 'Juxtapositional Lobule Cortex (formerly Supplementary Motor Cortex)'. I've looked for papers that explain the ...
PCS's user avatar
  • 153
6 votes
0 answers
379 views

Why do some people not remember their dreams?

Why does the ability to recall dreams varies greatly from person to person? Why Some Remember Dreams, Others Don't https://www.livescience.com/38856-why-people-recall-dreams.html I decided to ask ...
Daniel Mera's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
87 views

Talking about emotional experience

In a book 59 seconds (section "Creating the perfect diary"), Richard Wiseman cited Zech & Rimé (2005) - I had impression that he suggests that according to that study talking about ...
George's user avatar
  • 61
6 votes
0 answers
6k views

How true are Jordan Peterson's claims on IQ tests?

Disclaimer: I am aware that this topic has the potential of becoming high political, but I have asked it nevertheless in order to receive some clarification on the subject. Please back all of your ...
Frank's user avatar
  • 61
6 votes
0 answers
1k views

Can you self-induce a derealization episode?

From The experimental induction of depersonalization (DP) and derealization (DR) in panic disorder and nonanxious subjects (Miller, et al., 1994) DP and DR induction procedures were the following: ...
Declan Konroyd's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
108 views

Definition of cognitive load

Wikipedia's page on cognitive load starts with In cognitive psychology, cognitive load refers to the effort being used in the working memory. Cognitive load theory differentiates cognitive load ...
the gods from engineering's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
151 views

Is feeling bad about being cheated on innate or learned behaviour?

For most people, if their partner cheated on them with another person they would feel devastated. But is there any evidence that this is biologically innate behaviour or if it is a socially learned ...
zooby's user avatar
  • 693
6 votes
0 answers
269 views

Testosterone in women vs. estrogen in men?

It is known that women with higher estrogen are more likely to find men with higher testosterone as more attractive. Positive feedback is also known. But are women with higher testosterone level are ...
rus9384's user avatar
  • 567
6 votes
1 answer
184 views

How do deaf people get feedback on their speech?

When we speak, our ears give us feedback on the same. This, presumably, helps in learning a language and adjusting the volume of our speech. How do deaf people get this feedback to learn a new ...
akm's user avatar
  • 672
6 votes
1 answer
99 views

What causes CSF to flow?

Since matter at rest tends to stay at rest until acted upon, there must be some mechanism in the brain causing cerebrospinal fluid to move from the choroid plexus to other areas of the central nervous ...
Aaron Cox's user avatar

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