Psychology

Neural Cause Of The Waterfall Illusion

Look at a waterfall for 30 seconds. Now look at something stationary. The stationary object will appear to drift upwards. The same phantom movement is true after stepping off an airport walkway: if you close your eyes and stand still, you should continue ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Aug 21 2010 - 11:58am

Strip-Search Prank Call

Do you remember Stanley Milgram's famous authority experiments that found participants were willing to shock the living hell out of people if ordered to do so? If you’re not familiar with this, just google “Milgram experiment” and get ready for some s ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Sep 19 2010 - 10:26am

Personality Of Science 2.0 Users Analyzed

The following is a horoscope based on the specific personality type common to users of Science20.com. After reading, please comment your evaluation of its accuracy. Then come back tomorrow for post discussing the methodology of accurately modeling group pe ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Sep 25 2010 - 9:35am

Personality Of Science 2.0 Users: Results

Did you find yesterday's personalized horoscope spookily accurate? Isn't it amazing how precisely the websites you visit allow description of who you are? In fact (as many of you guessed), it's a trick. ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Sep 26 2010 - 10:42am

How To Punk Memory: The Brainworks Of Misremembrance, False Memories, And Alternate Realities

In the next three days, I'll out the work mostly of Elizabeth Loftus, who describes how and when our memories misfire—in cool and interesting ways—ways, you can use to create the realities you want in unsuspecting friends and family. Part I: When we ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Oct 2 2010 - 1:08pm

How To Punk Memory: The Brainworks Of Misremembrance, False Memories, And Alternate Realities (Part Deux)

Yesterday I posted about how Elizabeth Loftus is able to Jedi mind trick our interpretations of memories, but what about creating entirely new memories? Oh yeah, baby. Actually, making a false memory is pretty easy. Loftus describes a father convincing hi ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Oct 3 2010 - 6:00am

How To Punk Memory: The Brainworks Of Misremembrance, False Memories, And Alternate Realities (Part Trois)

Okay, in the past two days we've seen that our memories are malleable. We can easily be made to misremember, and easily be made to adopt memories of things that never happened. But what actually goes on in our brains as we code bad information? Can w ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Oct 6 2010 - 4:50pm

Hot Or Not: The Science Of Attractiveness

Have you heard about HOTorNOT.com? It's perhaps the most superficial of all superficial dating site, allowing members to vote on other members' attractiveness and promoting dating decisions based almost solely on attractiveness scores. (You carr ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Oct 10 2010 - 9:34pm

Halloween Movies Vs Bad Poetry

Are you traumatized by terror flicks? Maybe more than you know. Scary  movies actually create a light version of post-traumatic stress disorder. This is what causes bad dreams and irrational fears of kids riding Big Wheels in hotel hallways (and, perhaps ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Oct 30 2010 - 3:59pm

Clinical Evidence Of Intuition: The Iowa Gambling Task

In the Iowa Gambling Task, a participant is presented with four, facedown decks of cards. He or she can flip over cards from any deck. Most cards earn a reward and some cards incur a penalty. Of the four decks, some are better (contain more reward-earning ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Nov 13 2010 - 10:35am