#cognitive-science

#cognitive-science

In the autumn of 1943, the Gestapo responded to a tipoff that Maria von Maltzan, a German aristocrat and member of the resistance, had a Jew living in her home. Photograph: Ullstein Bild/Getty Images From a diplomat who embraced the exiled Albert Einstein to a schoolteacher who helped non-Aryan students flee, these remarkable individuals refused to bend the knee to Hitler only to be dramatically betrayed. What, asked Jonathan Freedland, in this extract from his new book, The Traitors Circle, made them risk it all?

The first insult by science was Copernicus's discovery that we are not at the center of the universe, followed by Darwin's evolution theory and Freud's insights into the unconscious.

Fear-based messages often activate a resistance response in the brain, leading to further entrenchment of beliefs. Instead, messages highlighting benefits promote openness and learning.

Douglas Hofstadter is possibly best known for coining the term ambigram in 1983. An ambigram can be read in more than one way, commonly exhibiting left-right mirror symmetry or 180-degree rotational symmetry.

Giving yourself mental space isn't a luxury; it is a biological and cognitive necessity, crucial for overall well-being.

"The idea of 'learning styles'—that individuals learn better when instruction matches their personal sensory preferences—has been around for decades. But research has repeatedly shown that this approach is unsupported by scientific evidence."

EEG signals of sleep are associated with improved performance on cognitive tasks, as evidenced by various historical figures experiencing insights after naps.

"The capacity to represent an unseen object and learn its name might be a building block for communication about more sophisticated abstract concepts."

Games reflect the complexity of human thought, posing challenges for AI; to achieve artificial general intelligence, models must learn to understand and adapt to rules.

The brain is a prediction machine and our perceptual experiences consist of our prior experiences as well as new data.

For centuries, humans have used cannabis to shift perception, open the mind, and spark inspiration, but does lighting up truly unlock the imaginative mind, or is it simply a stoned illusion?

In this study, we theorize that the processes of de-fixation and exploration interplay dynamically during the search for solutions.

At first glance, the human brain might appear to be a marvel of engineering-a seamless interface for sensory input, cognitive control, and motor output. But if you peer beneath its sophisticated functions, one quickly sees a structure resembling something more like London's winding streets: layered, circuitous, and often baffling in its logic.

Successful reading and spelling in English unfolds through five brain-based phases, monitored by spelling development to guide instruction from preschool to second grade.

Chatbots that overpromise and underdeliver fail not just due to code issues, but due to a mismatch between user expectations and machine capabilities.

"Humans might not be equipped to handle large-scale catastrophes due to how our brains process experiences and form habits that stifle original thinking."

Ronan has shown sustained rhythmic ability across years, challenging the belief that only vocal learners like humans and parrots can keep a beat.

The phenomenon of mind blanking has a specific brain activity pattern resembling sleep, highlighting the inevitable nature of these mental lapses.

The human brain routinely performs complex computations to understand language, demonstrating how it adapts processing methods based on fundamental grammatical differences across languages.