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Uncommon Sense: Toward an RQ Test?
We all know people who are highly intelligent but not very smart. These people get good grades in school, ace a lot of tests, and often succeed professionally. But they nevertheless hold irrational beliefs and do a lot of foolish things. Such people almost certainly have high IQs, but IQ scores do not reflect their particular form of cognitive deficit. Indeed, these people seem to be unable to think and act rationally despite their high intelligence. University of Toronto psychological scientist Keith Stanovich has a name for this disability. He calls it “dysrationalia,” and he has spent the last several years trying to define the nature of this common deficit.
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Revisiting the ‘hormone of love’
It’s been more than a decade since oxytocin was first heralded as the “hormone of love”—a distinction that came with optimistic predictions for future drug therapies. It was just a matter of time before an oxytocin nasal spray would be available on pharmacy shelves, with the potential to cure shyness and dampen anxiety and, perhaps, even treat the social deficits of autism. The excitement was not confined to the popular press. The early animal studies, which showed a link between oxytocin and sociability, generated considerable interest in scientific circles as well, and indeed led to a decade of intense study of the hormone.
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Memelab: Simulation of a Campus Population
Ian D. Miller, University of Toronto, presents his research "Memelab: Simulation of a Campus Population," at the 25th APS Annual Convention in Washington, DC. How do you predict when a picture or video is going to become an online viral phenomenon? In this experiment, participants created memes using our online laboratory (“Memelab”) and shared them with friends. Over a 2-month period, our web server counted how many times each picture was viewed by Internet users. On that basis, we determined which pictures were “more viral.” Although it mattered whether the picture was funny and relevant, the creator of the picture had a greater impact in predicting meme popularity.
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Convention Attendees Meet a Legend
For some attendees, the highlight of the 25th APS Annual Convention was meeting a legend in person. APS Past President Michael Gazzaniga signed copies of his books and chatted with Convention attendees after his May 23 Keynote Address on "Unity in a Modular World." Gazzaniga is known for his innovative work with split-brain patients and his extraordinary discoveries related to the lateralization of brain function and communication between brain hemispheres. During the Keynote Address, he discussed the modular nature of the brain and how coordination among brain modules leads to unified mental activity. If you missed Gazzaniga's address, don't worry!
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Integrated Data Management Processes Expedite Common Data Management Tasks in Autism Research
Frank Farach from Prometheus Research, LLCpresents his poster “Integrated Data Management Processes Expedite Common Data Management Tasks in Autism Research,” at the 25th APS Annual Convention in Washington, DC. Many researchers engage in disposable data management (DDM) practices: They clean and organize data after a study has been finished, repeating the process for each new analysis. Anecdotal evidence suggests that these DDM approaches are inefficient because they waste money, human resources, and valuable time. In contrast, integrated data management (IDM), is a systematic process for managing data as a reusable resource.
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Uncommon Sense: Toward an RQ Test?
The Huffington Post: We all know people who are highly intelligent but not very smart. These people get good grades in school, ace a lot of tests, and often succeed professionally. But they nevertheless hold irrational beliefs and do a lot of foolish things. Such people almost certainly have high IQs, but IQ scores do not reflect their particular form of cognitive deficit. Indeed, these people seem to be unable to think and act rationally despite their high intelligence. University of Toronto psychological scientist Keith Stanovich has a name for this disability. He calls it "dysrationalia," and he has spent the last several years trying to define the nature of this common deficit.
