^TagPsychology

Top View of Handsome Young Man Sleeping Cozily on a Bed in His Bedroom at Night. Blue Nightly Colors with Cold Weak Lamppost Light Shining Through the Window.

^{Type
post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
November 29, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience

Tagged
Cognition, Mind Brain, Neuroscience, Psychology, resting, Sleep, the necessity of sleep}

Night Shift: The Brain’s Extraordinary Work While Asleep

_{Lie down, close your eyes, lose consciousness, and the brain undertakes the heavy lifting that sleep demands.} _{Richard W. Stevens

November 29, 2023

6

Neuroscience}

What is consciousness? “Consciousness is what allows you to think, remember, and feel things.” It includes awareness of yourself. Descartes’ famous line. “I think, therefore I am,” declared his consciousness. Conscious thinking means our brains, our minds, are sensing, observing, memorizing, recalling, decoding, analyzing, calculating, interrelating, cross-referencing, rearranging, expanding, generalizing, communicating, and even creating. Those coordinated operations, part of cognition, require real work. After all that brain work, it should be time for a rest, right? Nope. When a supermarket closes, the workers don’t just switch off the lights and go home. Overnight the workers clean, restock, organize, repair, and get the store ready for the next day. It’s the same for the brain. Lie down, close your eyes, lose Read More ›

megaphone wrapped in barbed wire. the concept of banning freedom of speech. censorship barbed wire megaphone

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post

Author
News
Date
August 25, 2023

Categorized
Censorship

Tagged
Canada, censorship, Free speech, Jordan Peterson, mind matters, Ontario, Psychology}

World Famous Psychologist Loses Appeal to Avoid “Social Media Training”

_{Does this decision legitimately restrict free speech?} _{News

August 25, 2023

2

Censorship}

Clinical psychologist, world-renowned speaker, and author Jordan B. Peterson, who rose to international fame in 2017 after speaking out against an impending Canadian speech law involving mandatory gender pronoun use, may be compelled to take in “social media training.” (RELATED: Three More Key Takeaways From the Twitter Files and Their Fallout | Mind Matters) Several complaints regarding Peterson’s online rhetoric were sent to the College of Psychologists of Ontario in 2022, and the organization decided to have him undergo a professionalism training in order to address his online tone. Peterson appealed the decision, but lost, according to CBC: Three Ontario Divisional Court judges unanimously dismissed Peterson’s application, ruling that the college’s decision falls within its mandate to regulate the profession in Read More ›

Scoring the winning points at a basketball game

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post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
July 28, 2023

Categorized
Probability

Tagged
Basketball, Bowling, data, Gary Smith, Hot Hand, Kevin Love, NBA, prediction, Probability, Psychology, Statistics, Stephen Curry, Streak}

Sabrina Ionescu’s Hot Hand

_{When basketball players hit a "streak," does that elevate the probability of success?} _{Gary Smith

July 28, 2023

12

Probability}

Most people believe that athletes sometimes get “hot” or “cold” with their performance elevated or depressed temporarily. For example, Purvis Short, who scored 59 points in an NBA game, said, “You’re in a world all your own. It’s hard to describe. But the basket seems to be so wide. No matter what you do, you know the ball is going to go in.” Similarly, during a timeout in a 2015 game, LeBron James told his teammates to pass the ball to Kevin Love, explaining after the game that, “He had the hot hand, I wanted to keep going to him.” On the other hand, statisticians tell us that streaks are likely even in random coin flips that have a rock-steady Read More ›

Cute white English Bulldog puppy in a graduation cap

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post

Author
News
Date
October 21, 2021

Categorized
Mathematics, Relationships, Social Media

Tagged
Ability (Dunning-Kruger effect), Alexander Danvers, David Dunning, Dunning-Kruger effect, Jonathan Jarry, Patrick McKnight, Psychology, Social psychology}

Tested!: Are the Least Expert People the Most Confident? No.

_{The claimed Dunning–Kruger effect in psychology is a very shakeable truth frequently exploited by online social bullies} _{News

October 21, 2021

7

Mathematics, Relationships, Social Media}

Have you ever been in an online discussion where a vocal proponent confidently claimed that his opponent was the victim of the dreaded “Dunning–Kruger” effect? At Vox, Brian Resnick explains, “That’s where people of low ability — let’s say, those who fail to answer logic puzzles correctly — tend to unduly overestimate their abilities”: An obvious example people have been using lately to describe the Dunning-Kruger effect is President Donald Trump, whose confidence and bluster never wavers, despite his weak interest in and understanding of policy matters. But you don’t need to look to Trump to find an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect. You don’t even need to look at cable news. Brian Resnick, “An expert on human blind spots Read More ›

beautiful natural bright background (texture), peacock feathers, panorama

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
September 27, 2020

Categorized
Religion

Tagged
Fine-tuning, god, Goldilocks Zone, Implicit learning, Implicit pattern learning, Psychology, Rare Earth hypothesis, Religious believers}

Believers in God Detect Patterns More Easily

_{Psychologists found that both devout Christians and Muslims unconsciously detected patterns in a test more quickly} _{News

September 27, 2020

4

Religion}

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center wanted to know “why and how brains come to believe in gods.” They explored that question using a concept in psychology called implicit pattern learning. Explicit learning is conscious but implicit learning is unconscious. For example, explicit learning is mastering the times tables in arithmetic class. Implicit learning is absorbing, without consciously thinking about it, the way the teacher treats others. The researchers’ hypothesis was: “people whose brains are good at subconsciously discerning patterns in their environment may ascribe those patterns to the hand of a higher power” To test that, they studied people who believe in God in the United States and in Afghanistan, using a conventional test for unconscious pattern learning: For Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 19, 2020

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Phineas gage, Placebo effect, Proprioception, Psychology, Rubber Hand illusion, Social psychology}

Is There Really a “Rubber Hand” Illusion?

_{A venerable claim in psychology, that our minds are easily fooled about our bodies, comes under fire} _{Denyse O'Leary

April 19, 2020

7

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

It sounds as though too many people know too much about what to expect for any raw data about human cognition to be recovered from the Rubber Hand illusion. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 27, 2019

Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Honesty, Psychology}

The Lost Wallet Returns—and Experts Are Baffled

_{Social scientists struggle for explanations as to why people turned out to be more honest than theory led them to expect} _{News

June 27, 2019

4

Ethics, Philosophy of Mind}

Finding a higher level of honesty than predicted was a surprise and the “scientific” explanations offered seem ad hoc and inadequate. The experts do not seem to know as much about us as they think they do.