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Cognitive Science Honors Its Pioneers And Leaders
NPR: Every year in mid- to late summer, cognitive scientists from around the world gather expectantly in a hotel foyer or a university courtyard, eager to learn that year's winner of the David E. Rumelhart Prize. Established in 2001, the yearly award honors "an individual or collaborative team making a significant contemporary contribution to the theoretical foundations of human cognition." The award includes $100,000 and a custom bronze medal. It's the closest thing you'll find to a Nobel Prize in cognitive science, the interdisciplinary study of the mind that arose after the "cognitive revolution" of the 1950s and 60s.
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Inclusion Affects Language Skills of Preschoolers With Disabilities
Education Week: The "peer effect" of attending preschool with children who have strong language skills offered a benefit to students with disabilities, according to a study of more than 600 children conducted by researchers at Ohio State University and Toledo University in Ohio. But peer effects also had a potentially negative consequence, according to the study: The language skills of children with disabilities suffered when they were surrounded by typically-developing peers who had weak language skills themselves. Read the whole story: Education Week
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Wann Überfluss zum Kauf motiviert (When motivated abound to purchase)
ORF Austria: Wie groß die Produktbandbreite sein sollte, um Kunden zum Kauf zu motivieren, bestimmt hauptsächlich, wie gut sie über das Produkt Bescheid zu wissen glauben. Angebot kann Lust aufs Kaufen machen - oder davon abhalten, wenn es zu groß ist. Die richtige Größe der Produktbandbreite werde von der eigenen Einschätzung des Produktwissens beeinflusst, sagen israelische und amerikanische Forscher. Diese subjektive Produktkenntnis unterscheidet sich vom "echten" Wissen, der Expertise. Frühere Studien haben jedoch gezeigt, dass die eigene Wissenseinschätzung dasKaufverhalten und auch finanzielle Entscheidungen leitet. Read the whole story: ORF Austria
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Here at the (Implicit) Fitness Center
It’s fair to say that the filmmaker Alexander Payne takes a grim view of aging in America. In last year’s darkly comedic road film Nebraska, the highly praised Bruce Dern plays the alcoholic and incompetent Woody Grant, who suffers under the delusion he has won a million dollar sweepstakes prize. And Payne’s earlier About Schmidt is unrivaled as the most depressing cinematic depiction of retirement ever. Jack Nicholson plays the title character with sympathy, but there’s no getting around his pathetic and lonely existence. Both Grant and Schmidt are models of decrepitude as well. They embody our worst fears about the elderly body’s inevitable deterioration.
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An Adaptationist Theory of Trait Covariation
Although personality researchers have made great strides in discovering and describing patterns of trait covariation, very little attention has been paid to why traits — which are often psychometrically or neuroanatomically distinct — covary in the first place. In an article published in 2013 in the European Journal of Personality, author Aaron W. Lukaszewski (Loyola Marymount University) suggests that an adaptionist common calibration theory may help explain trait covariation. According to this model, personality traits are calibrated based on cues from the environment that signal the current cost or benefit of displaying each trait.
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Networking Style May Predict Profits for Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship is a risky endeavor. Of all new firms, around one-third will close within the first two years and over half will have closed within their first four years. However, one thing that has been shown to greatly improve the odds of success for new businesses: face-to-face networking. A team of psychological scientists, led by Jeffrey M. Pollack of North Carolina State University, investigated how different approaches to networking might end up impacting the bottom line for entrepreneurs.
