Cognitive science news

Mental time travel

Brain scans seem to confirm that imagining the future and remembering the past uses a largely overlapping core network in the brain, with distinct subsystems being observed to be used under closer examination.

Sleeping on it - how REM sleep boosts creative problem-solving

An experiment with 77 people solving word puzzles at different times of the day indicates that our brains are better at integrating disparate pieces of information after a short bout of REM sleep.

Musical SNARC: Do we have a musical scale in our heads?

There seems to be a SNARC effect for music as well.

We're unable to read our own body language

People may not be able to assess their own body language to match their internal perceptions of themselves, in contrast to outside observers.

Stand up Straight, Size Counts Around Here

Non-verbal cues signaling high status may work by making a person look larger.

How we learn to judge the size of faraway objects

The perceptual system may not give us enough information to accurately judge the size of distant objects, and so we may develop a system of compensation as we grow older.

A Better Mood Broadens Your Field Of Vision

An fMRI study indicates that a better mood results in better peripheral vision.

Simulating déjà vu in the lab

A way to simulate the feeling of déjà vu in the laboratory may have been found using brief glimpses.

Musicians have better memory - not just for music, but words and pictures too

Musicians have a better memory for words and pictures better than non-musicians do.

Emotions in music are universally recognised

Experiments with a culturally isolated tribe and Westerners indicate that emotions in music are universally recognized.

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