title: Verbal reasoning development

text:
# Question
Title: Verbal reasoning development
How would one go about improving their verbal reasoning ability? Are there any specific exercises a person can practise to develop their verbal reasoning skillset?

# Answer
> 1 votes
Here is an example of a verbal reasoning problem:

"When will Joe Bloggs retire?"

"Joe Bloggs currently works as a civil servant"

"Those in the civil service generally retire at 65"

How does one figure out that Joe Bloggs will retire at approximately 65? You connect civil servant to civil service then use association to get an output.

The LSAT is a Law School test for verbal reasoning, and the sections it tests you on are the components of verbal reasoning.

* Reading Comprehension - ability to understand complex language material like paragraphs or passages and able to answer questions regarding them.
* Analytical reasoning - ability to understand relationships in language material like statements or passages and being able to draw reasonable conclusions from them.
* Logical reasoning - Using critical thinking to assess and complete an argument given on the test.

So how do you build up these skills? Well reading comprehension is easy, you read and then think about what you just read. For analytical reasoning, do research and practice on annotating. For logical reasoning, look into Deductive Reasoning and any other forms of reasoning in the "See Also" section.

It is very possible that you already have a good amount of practice in one or more of these skills. In that case, you want to practice what you have the least amount of experience in.

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Tags: cognitive-psychology
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# Question
Title: What is the scientific definition of Introversion/Extroversion?
Personally I believe introvert and extrovert are one of the most thrown around and misused words. I would go as far to say as what they mean in common everyday English is not the same as what they mean in psychology.

What exactly is the definition of introversion and extroversion? I've seen lots of psychology surveys, such as this one, where the possibles answers are too limited. I mean, I know a lot of people who would be considered extroverts but are still tired after a music festival or concert.

# Answer
> 6 votes
I totally agree. These words have become colloquial and have lost much of their meaning - and are therefore increasingly less helpful. Introversion is confused with shyness and sensitivity, while Extroversion is confused with social skills. This is partly because there is no agreed upon definition, insofar that they are **operationally defined** by each psychometric test/framework differently. That is to say, the same theoretical construct/concept is measured differently in each test, and therefore are operationally defined by a different set of responses.

Its is generally agreed that is is a **continuum** and that individuals **do not reside exclusively on the same part of the continuum all the time**, across contexts (which is where your festival example comes from). That is, an individual may have a strong/weak tendency but may behave differently dependent upon the situation they find themselves in. *Anecdotally, for what it's worth, I find an individual's tendency is best revealed when they are under pressure or are experiencing anxiety.*

For the original interpretation, look no further than Carl Jung's definition. The most widely accepted operational definition according to most Psychology research is possibly The Three Factor Model, while the most popular operational definition, where most lay people hang their hat is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. I'd say people warm to this the most, and is the definition most people are likely referring to when they speak of Introversion/Extroversion.

Looking to these three sources, you should get the original theoretical definition for the construct.

# Answer
> 2 votes
The most succinct and evidence-based definitions of introversion and extraversion were those of Hans Eysenck in the '60s. He defined introversion as having an over-aroused autonomic nervous system, so introverts avoid stimulation, and extraverts as having over-aroused autonomic nervous systems, thus they seek stimulation. Of course all this functions as a continuum, and his measuring instruments, (questionnaires), reflected this. His evidence for the theory was based on dozens of experiments, by him and by many other researchers where, (for example), the top 10% scorers (extraverts) and bottom 10% (introverts) on his Introversion-Extraversion scale were compared on many tasks. Strongest differences were found in vigilance tasks where introverts did significantly better than extraverts - as predicted. There were many such findings reported in many journal articles, research which was extended to include EEG and other physical measures of autonomic nervous system activity. It is possible that interest in his work faded as a result of his becoming involved in research on group IQ differences, not conducive to a quiet career at the time. The personality work was interesting, very carefully laid out, and worth looking up.

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Tags: cognitive-modeling
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# Question
Title: How to go about self-diagnosis for a learning disability that was formally diagnosed as related to ADD?
As a sort of disclaimer, "diagnosis" is a much stronger word than what is meant.

ADD seems to be an umbrella term. Where does one start with self-diagnosis? Or what macro-level categories are there (to further observe oneself for certain characteristics or traits). An outline is probably the best way.

I do not mean "disability" as an excuse for lazy university students who do not try. Furthermore, please assume that 'study skills' (organization, time management, note taking, etc) are average or above average (since this also factors into academic performance).

EDIT: This question applies to many people. Labeling something is not the same thing as "self-help." The question is specifically phrased to not ask for opinion based answers. Furthermore, noting the Hawthorne effect does not necessarily cause altered behavior.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Attempting to diagnose your self is likely to result in a diagnosis riddled with confirmation bias, and therefore incorrect. However, if you insist on diagnosing yourself I would recommend starting with the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - 5). This is a psychiatrist's bible, and strictly outlines the set of symptoms that are required for a particular diagnosis.

A caveat before reading - read the entire chapter, not just the symptom list. The supporting information discusses the symptomology in depth, and will provide a much more accurate diagnosis.

The Manual can be found here:

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual V

# Answer
> 0 votes
As a precursor, there are common pitfalls of self diagnosis. If already diagnosed as ADD/ADHD or slow processing speed, it may be a lack of understanding or knowledge of the causes of this disorder rather than a different disability:

On the other hand, there are obvious hindrances that probably would have been identified already: Dyslexia (significantly observable reading issue), dysgraphia (incoherent writing), dyscalculia (calculating), dyspraxia (coordination), etc. Again, for these you will know right away and describe with unspecialized language.

As for an outline of these specific learning disorders, they are broken up as simple as this:

1. Reading
2. Writing
3. Math

A more detailed overview of subcategories is here.

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Tags: cognitive-psychology
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# Question
Title: Is it common for OCD sufferers to experience schizophrenic episodes
So I was sleeping on a road trip and I had to wake up to go to the restroom at a gas station we stopped at. I walked in like a zombie and the cashier sheepishly said hello to me. I took it that he was nervous and then my brain started coming up with some scenario that he was being held hostage by someone, told not to call the police and was somewhere in the store. As I was going to the restroom I sort of convinced myself that this was actually happening and I started to get kind of nervous. Later I realized that the only reason the cashier seemed nervous was because I walked in like I had just risen from the dead. Which got me worried again thinking I'm starting to develop some form of schizophrenia. I'm 16 years old and have been diagnosed with OCD in the past. I know this is a better question for a professional but I figured this would give me a quick reassurance for concern or if that was just an ocd sort of thing. I will be talking to a doctor and my parents afterward I just trust stack exchange's opinion for now. Thank you

# Answer
As someone who has had OCD since the age of 12, I can assure that this sounds very much like an OCD symptom. It is likely that you walked into the store "like a zombie", and at the time, did not consider your personal appearance, assuming only that the store owner was acting strange. However, if you had been aware of the way you were acting, you would have likely picked up on this instantly and dismissed it. Unless we are salient to our own features, we are unaware of how others are perceiving us. Your ability to gauge your salience was likely decreased due to just waking up from your nap.

As an OCD sufferer, I've definitely had bouts where I was concerned I was developing schizophrenia, only to realize later that I was hyper-aware of every little "sign" that pointed in that direction. If this is an ongoing worry of yours, confirmation bias will likely amplify the most ambiguous of symptoms related to losing your mind.

Let's get a little further into schizophrenia, however. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - IV (yes, the old one, though the symptoms have not changed much) states:

> Characteristic symptoms:
>
> Two or more of the following, each present for much of the time during a one-\>month period (or less, if symptoms remitted with treatment).
>
> 1. Delusions
> 2. Hallucinations
> 3. Disorganized speech, which is a manifestation of formal thought disorder
> 4. Grossly disorganized behavior (e.g. dressing inappropriately, crying frequently) or catatonic behavior
>
> Negative symptoms:
>
> 1. Blunted affect (lack or decline in emotional response)
> 2. Alogia (lack or decline in speech)
> 3. Avolition (lack or decline in motivation)
> 4. Imapaired communication (due to hearing voices)
> 5. Social or occupational dysfunction: one or more major areas of functioning, work, interpersonal relations, self-care, are markedly below the level achieved prior to the onset.
>
> Significant duration: Continuous signs of the disturbance persist for at least six months. This six-month period must include at least one month of symptoms (or less, if symptoms remitted with treatment).
>
> If signs of disturbance are present for more than a month but less than six months, the diagnosis of schizophreniform disorder is applied. Psychotic symptoms lasting less than a month may be diagnosed as brief psychotic disorder, and various conditions may be classed as psychotic disorder not otherwise specified.

First and foremost hallucinations and delusions are NOT something that you are able to identify. Schizophrenia leaves the sufferer out of touch with reality. The sufferer believes in their hallucinations and delusions with every fibre of their body, they don't simply think that they are hallucination or becoming deluded. That being said, no, you are not developing schizophrenia. If you were, you wouldn't know it, and once you found out that you had it, you'd be the last one to know.

Note "positive" and "negative" symptoms, are not "good" and "bad". Think of a positive symptom as an addition to one's life (the addition of delusions), and a negative symptom as something that's being taken away from one's life (motivation). If you read further down the DSM criteria, you will see that "one-off" events like this do not substantiate a diagnosis of schizophrenia. However, a brief psychotic episode is still possible, possible, but extremely highly unlikely based on the fact that you have a great amount of insight (self-knowledge) of what was going on with you in the store.
> 1 votes

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Tags: schizophrenia
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# Question
Title: What are the main sensory features of earliest memories of childhood?
I understand that experiences are compound in nature and take inputs from multiple senses. But when I ask people to describe the sense associated with their earliest memories I get answers that vary. For some its visual, others auditory yet others tactile.

I would like to know more about the specific aspect of first memories that help me understand the reason for this varied response.

# Answer
I found a study by Mullen (1994) which discusses the empirical literature on earliest childhood memories (see also the wikipedia article on childhood amensia).

Here are a few interesting quotes:

> The average age of earliest memory is consistently found to be in the vicinity of 3.5 years.

Mullen mentions theories for the amnesia prior to this point focussing particularly on the role of language development and training provided by parents in how to socially construct accessible memories.

Mullen distinguishes between types of memories which in some sense pertains to your question about senses:

> White and Pillemer (1979) suggest that there may be a dual system of autobiographical memory in which one aspect is a verbally accessible store of interconnected narratives organized with respect to a time frame and the other aspect is an unorganized collection of fragments of images, behaviors and emotions.

In study 3, Mullen (1994) examined the content of earliest reported memories. Here is a table summarising content features of these memories:

Thus, it appears that most of these memories reflect an event in some sense.

Of course there are a bunch of methodological things going on here. I imagine if you delve into the references or these related articles you will find out more on the topic.

Kihlstrom et al (1982) looks like it might be worth a read.

### References

* Mullen, M. K. (1994). Earliest recollections of childhood: A demographic analysis. Cognition, 52(1), 55-79.
* Kihlstrom, J. F., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (1982). The earliest recollection: A new survey. Journal of Personality, 50(2), 134-148.
> 2 votes

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Tags: memory, developmental-psychology
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title: When does Just World Theory apply?

text:
# Question
Title: When does Just World Theory apply?
Can someone explain how Just World Theory applies in real life? I have learned about it from textbooks but have trouble believing parts of it. Does it always apply? For example does it apply to individual situations like if you see someone get hit by a car you don’t normally think “that person must have deserved it” but is it more for an overall lifestyle for example if someone works a minimum wage job it would be “this person has a lazy personality”. I’m basically asking does Just World Theory have any qualifications for when it applies?

I guess psychology isn't like this, but does the Just World Theory apply to everyone in every situation all the time, or what?

# Answer
The Just-World Theory/Belief/Hypotheses is an assumption that people eventually get what they deserves. Good people will eventually receive good things and bad people will eventually be punished, hence the world is "just/fair".

> One form of defensive attribution is to believe that bad things happen only to bad people or at least, only to people who make stupid mistakes or poor choices. Therefore, bad things won t happen to us because we won t be that stupid or careless. Melvin Lerner (1980, 1998) has called this the belief in a just world the assumption that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get (Hafer, 2000; Hafer & Begue, 2005; Lipkus, Dalbert, & Siegler, 1996).

Fundamentally, this belief is motivated by our need to feel secure, to decrease anxiety from our vulnerabilities. After all, if bad things can happen to anyone, they can also happen to me regardless of what I do/don't do. Consequently, there are no guarantee that I'll receive "reward" for doing good.

> By using this attributional bias \[belief in just world\], the perceiver does not have to acknowledge that there is a certain randomness in life, that an accident or criminal may be waiting just around the corner for an innocent person like oneself. The belief in a just world keeps anxiety-provoking thoughts about one s own safety at bay.

You can imagine that this "randomness" can be overwhelming at times, especially when a tragedy strikes; for example when someone from work/school was raped.

Ironically, those who strongly believe in a just-world tend to unfairly judge that it must have happened because the victim did something wrong, e.g dressed inappropriately, flirting, etc. That way, the person can still believe that this world is fair, and if he/she doesn't do bad things, it will never happen to him/her.

> Research by Elaine Walster (1966) and others has focused on such attributions, which these investigators call blaming the victim (e.g., Burger, 1981; Lerner & Miller, 1978; Stormo, Lang, & Stritzke, 1997). In several experiments, they have found that the victims of crimes or accidents are often seen as causing their fate. For example, not only do people tend to believe that rape victims are to blame for the rape (Abrams, Viki, Masser, & Bohner, 2003; Bell, Kuriloff, & Lottes, 1994), but also battered wives are often seen as responsible for their abusive husbands behavior (Summers & Feldman, 1984).
>
> ...
>
> When something bad happens to another person (as when someone is mugged or raped), we will undoubtedly feel sorry for the person but at the same time will feel relieved that this horrible thing didn t happen to us. We will also feel scared that such a thing might happen to us in the future. How can we cope with these fears and worries? We can protect ourselves from the fear we feel by convincing ourselves that the person must have done something to cause the tragedy. We feel safe, then, because we would have behaved more cautiously (Jones & Aronson, 1973).

Does it always apply? No, not for everyone and not in every situation.

It explains one possible way people deal with anxiety of feeling insecure, but not as the only way. I couldn't find any scientific sources, but I imagine that people can see tragedy without feeling any insecurities, or can perceive the world as fair but have an entirely different reaction, or even doesn't see the world as just/fair in the first place.

**References:**

Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert. (2010). *Social Psychology Seventh Edition*. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
> 3 votes

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, bias
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# Question
Title: Can PTSD be mild? Do the traumas have to be of a certain kind?
As far as I know, PTSD was first used as a broader label for symptoms associated with so-called shell-shock, and has been diagnosed for symptoms of a milder nature.

But is there a lower limit to the point at which PTSD can be diagnosed? For example, is it possible to have such a mild form of PTSD that it does not interfere with normal functioning, but exhibits the same features?

The reason I ask, is I live in the UK where the National Health System (NHS) is increasingly struggling with funding. Their website on PTSD seems to only state the most extreme of traumatic events as possible causes. In short, I think it is to get out of giving help to all but the absolute worst cases. Hospitals and many mental health services have large burdens and turn many seeking help away.

If someone where to suggest they have PTSD, I feel that with literature such as the above, it belittles anyone experiencing "mild" events such as domestic abuse, which barely fits into their categories. Not only might they not get treated, but experience or perceive scorn.

If one were to seek help for PTSD and have to justify the help needed, regardless of the cause, how might it be done? Could the symptoms be misdiagnosed as, for example, regular stress, or anxiety, and would treatment for those be different to that required to help with PTSD?

# Answer
In order for something to be diagnosed as a disorder by a mental health professional, the client typically experiences distress and impairment in activities of daily functioning.

If the time frame is under 3 to 6 months, please consider "Acute Stress Disorder" as a possibility. I agree that the DSM V is going to be a useful resource for diagnostics.

Trauma, in any form, does pose very specific challenges for diagnostics and a treatment plan. For further reading on trauma therapy, I highly suggest "Life After Trauma: A Workbook for Healing" by Rosenbloom and Williams (2010). Treatment will be dependent on the practitioner's training, and the formulated diagnosis. You are welcome to research efficacies of therapeutic interventions.

Therapy is very useful for any and all of the items you have mentioned. If you are attempting to get insurance coverage, usually a diagnosis from a qualified professional will qualify you for therapy (at least here in the United States). A good diagnosis could take a few sessions to formulate. It's sometimes a longer process if someone suspects trauma.
> 5 votes

# Answer
The DSM (Diagnostics and Statistics Manual) is used here in the UK as well as in the US. The 5th edition, which is the current edition, stipulates the criteria required to diagnose PTSD here is an info sheet on it. You could get a copy of DSM-5 in the library or buy it from Amazon.

To answer your specific questions:

> Do the traumas have to be of a certain kind?

Yes, the DSM states that triggers for PTSD are "exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violation". But this is not the whole story, further criteria are:

> The exposure must result from one or more of the following scenarios, in which the individual:
>
> * directly experiences the traumatic event;
> * witnesses the traumatic event in person;
> * learns that the traumatic event occurred to a close family member or close friend (with the actual or threatened death being either violent or accidental); or
> * experiences first-hand repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event (not through media, pictures, television or movies unless work-related).
>
> The disturbance, regardless of its trigger, causes clinically significant distress or impairment in the individual’s social interactions, capacity to work or other important areas of functioning. It is not the physiological result of another medical condition, medication, drugs or alcohol.

And to your first question

> Can PTSD be mild? ... But is there a lower limit to the point at which PTSD can be diagnosed? For example, is it possible to have such a mild form of PTSD that it does not interfere with normal functioning, but exhibits the same features?

I would say, given the criteria above, there is no mild form. If it does not interfere with normal functioning it does not meet the criteria and is therefore not diagnosed as PTSD.
> 3 votes

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Tags: abnormal-psychology, ptsd
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# Question
Title: How does people's sense of right and wrong affect their behavior?
In general, people tend to simply max out their profit.

In the process to max out their profit, humans have this peculiar cognitive function, called sense of morality.

We have no idea how it evolve but it seems to have some function and affect their behaviors. Somehow.

I want to know how this strange cognitive function affect humans behavior?

For example, most of us don't just grab fried chicken and run away. We sense that it's politically incorrect and not profitable. However, some may think it's just wrong and don't do it anyway without thinking if it's profitable or not. Or do they?

It seems that people are more willing to negotiate if they think those who pressure them have earned their profit "rightfully". People are more likely to condemn if they think what others do is wrong.

But that seems to be a very amateur observation.

When we see someone put gun on someone's head, we are more likely to think, we should punish this robber rather than thinking what does he want. On the other hand, people are more willing to pay tax that goes to welfare recipients. That's probably because we think that robbing is wrong, while voting for welfare is right.

In general, how does our sense of right and wrong affect our behavior and how does that lead to our individual profit or our selfish genes?

The 2 things I have in mind is

1. People tend to do what's right
2. In conflict, people tend to side with those they think is right. For example, if a thief is beaten up to death, conservatives would side with those who protect their properties while liberals would side with the thieves.

# Answer
This is an interesting question which seems that even the experts are still investigating it to a degree.

Take a look at the links I provide in this answer and look at the **conformity studies** like the Milgram Experiment and the works of Dr Phil Zimbardo with his Stanford Prison Experiment and his book on The Lucifer Effect (a study of the Psychology of Evil and heroism) etc.

Stanley Milgram tested earlier conformity studies by Solomon Asch to see what extent the experiment can reach.

It seems that even though there are a few who are an exception, there are those with high moral standards who can be swayed into doing something bad. Especially when their actions are "justified" by someone in authority **or seem to have more knowledge of the situation**.

There seems to be a fine line which can be very blurry to a degree. For a rather pessimistic view on society have a look at this article.
> 2 votes

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Tags: moral-psychology
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# Question
Title: While spoting a liar, whether observing the verbal cue or observing the non-verbal cue helps?
While spotting a liar,is it paying attention to verbal cues such as **pauses in speech and speech disturbances, including "ahs," stutters, and incomplete sentences** that weighs more or is it paying attention to non-verbal cues such as **inconsistent eye contact, increased degree of eye contact, blink frequency, chin movement** that weighs more

# Answer
> 3 votes
It is not entirely clear whether you are asking how much weight *should* we place on different cues (if we want to spot liars) or how much people actually *do* use these cues. There is a big literature on lie detection though. Here is a recent paper that discusses some of this work and will give you a start.

Some of the salient points are:

* People are actually pretty bad at guessing truths and lies, though it is hard to do experiments on.
* Although there are some cues that give people away, these are faint and unreliable. The most reliable ones are actually just the things that they say (the facts).
* Non-verbal cues and speech disturbances are actually pretty poor cues even though people think they are good ones. They are also pretty easy to fake.

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Tags: social-psychology, behaviorism, deception
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# Question
Title: Do we have technology to ethically measure the changes of interstitial space in sleeping humans?
Lulu Xie et al write in their paper Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain:

> Using real-time assessments of tetramethylammonium diffusion and two-photon imaging in live mice, we show that natural sleep or anesthesia are associated with a 60% increase in the interstitial space

Do we have technology to do the similar measurements in humans and not only in mice? Have those measurements been done?

# Answer
Technically, it seems possible to perform the procedure before and after sleep. I am not sure if this has been done though. To what extent this is an invasive procedure I do not know, but it appears to involve surgery.

Both methods pose ethical challenges and it appears that these methods are relevant in clinical settings, where the cost-to-benefit analysis would suggest a benefit to the patient.
> 2 votes

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Tags: sleep
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title: Myer Brigg type for Ni > Ti > Fi > Se

text:
# Question
Title: Myer Brigg type for Ni > Ti > Fi > Se
I'm reading about Myer Briggs personality types and Jung cognitive functions for the first time. Based on my understanding, it seems like each of the 16 MB personality profiles attempt to map to some combination of the 8 Jung cognitive functions.

But I can't seem to find an MB profile that maps to the following Jung cognitive function combination

* Primary function - Introverted Intuition
* Auxillary function - Introverted Thinking
* Tertiary function - Introverted Feeling
* Inferior function - Extroverted Sensing

Is it because the Jung cognitive function combination I stated is a theoretically and/or practically impossible? If so, why is that the case?

# Answer
If you look more into the history of the creators of the Myer's Briggs, you will notice that it is loosely based off Jungian archetypes. It was not created with 16 types initially. Actually, the Jungian theory is only in a few scales (I-E, S-N, T-F), and one of the criticisms of this test is that the theoretical basis really was not preserved.

The combinations you have discussed might not be available, because statistically, it would not have a lot of strength. I would worry about intercorrelated scales, because there is some evidence out there that they are currently, and that does not provide a lot of statistical strength for an actual assessment.

You could further investigate the manual and gain more insight through some of these readings:

Myers, I. Briggs. (2003). MBTI manual: a guide to the development and use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. 3rd ed. Mountain View, Calif.: CPP.

Capraro, R. M, & Capraro, M. M. (2002). Myers-Briggs Type Indicator score reliability across: Studies a meta-analytic reliability generalization study. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 62, 590-602. doi: 10.1177/0013164402062004004

Pulver, C. A., & Kelly, K. R. (2008). Incremental validity of the Myers-Briggs type indicator in predicting academic major selection of undecided university students. Journal of Career Assessment, 16(4), 441-455. doi: 10.1177/1069072708318902
> 2 votes

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, jung
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title: Megalomania versus schizophrenia

text:
# Question
Title: Megalomania versus schizophrenia
Why is megalomania a part of schizophrenia, the latter having to do with personality splits, as opposed to being a disorder of its own. According to Polya's book, thinking big is one of the thinking techniques that makes you good at mathematics, so, by this argument, every mathematician would be a megalomaniac.

But schizophrenia has nothing to do with it, because it can be looked at as a separate, possibly related problem. Find more inspiration in Polya's book.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Schizophrenia symptoms vary widely from patient to patient. Only a subgroup of schizophrenics experience grandiose delusion. According to one school of thought, humanistic psychotherapy, individuals have different degrees of congruence between the self and the ideal self, with consequences for self-realization. If one thinks to much of one self, one risks not to develop as a person as one is satisfied.

However, in Logos therapy, the view is that one should think better of oneself in order that one dares to approach situations that one would have not dared to approach otherwise, according to Viktor Frankl, thereby opening up to new experiences. A different advice applies to people with perhaps the most realistic worldview: patients with depression are perhaps aligned with their self-image, but their low sense of self-worth reduces their ability to take action.

When the images do not match the objective "self" either depression or megalomania could result.

Some mathematicians also have schizophrenia - a famous example being John Forbes Nash Jr. whose life was portrayed in A Beautiful Mind. That is why I do not see how your observation is necessarily controversial. Being able to think outside the box requires some distance to reality. Some studies have suggested a link between creativity and schizophrenia. Nevertheless, it is important to note that creativity without constraints has no real application in life, other than perhaps art.

Some of the most creative artists choose a specific formula, so that they can restrict their thoughts. For example, Bach chose to write fugues. He could have written only fantasias instead, but for a creative person this is not as challenging as the logic of a fugue. Mathematicians are very structured and write proofs.

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Recommended reading:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201509/mad-genius-schizophrenia-and-creativity

(By the way, if you wish to recommend a book, adding a title or a link helps others to find it. :-)

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, schizophrenia, cognition
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# Question
Title: Academic Background for Switchtracking Phenomenon
In one recent episode of Hidden Brain podcast, they talk about a pattern in conversation called "Switchtracking". It references to the the "Thanks for the Feedback" book by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen.

In general it happens when you get a feedback unrelated to the topic you are concerned in a conversation. Here is how it is defined at respective NPR post:

> Switchtracking, as defined by author Sheila Heen, is when "someone gives you feedback, and your reaction to that feedback changes the subject."

I'm wondering if there is any academic background supporting this phenomenon (There is neither references section in the book nor podcast page). Is it called something else in academia? I could not find any references to some academic publications in the fields of CogSci, management, or behavioral economics.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Switch-tracking seems very similar to the **"Dialogue Alignment"** in Psycholinguistics and some other fields of Cognitive Science. *For a successful conversation interlocutors need to develop similar representations*. Switch-tracking, however seems an abstract conceptual domain problem, but dialogue alignment mostly investigates issues in a more concrete linguistic domain.

Here are some related publications:

> * Pickering, M. J., & Garrod, S. (2006). Alignment as the basis for successful communication. Research on Language and Computation, 4(2-3), 203-228.
> * Garrod, S., & Pickering, M. J. (2007). Alignment in dialogue. The Oxford handbook of psycholinguistics, 443-451.
> * Brennan, S. E., Galati, A., & Kuhlen, A. K. (2010). Two minds, one dialog: Coordinating speaking and understanding. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 53, 301-344.

And this one investigates bilingual alignments:

> * Purmohammad, M. (2015). Linguistic alignment in L1–L2 dialogue. Language and Dialogue, 5(2), 312-333.

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Tags: social-psychology, bias
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# Question
Title: What are the correlations between HEXACO and NEO-PI factors?
My background is more strongly grounded in the Big 5 model of personality. I'm gradually getting familiar with the HEXACO model of personality. I realise that HEXACO is not just the Big 5 plus honesty-humility. But given that the Big 5 will be many people's frame of reference when learning about the HEXACO, what is a quick summary of how HEXACO and the Big 5 differ.

In particular, what are the correlations between measures of HEXACO and NEO-FFI or NEO-PI (i.e., arguably the most popular big 5 measure)?

# Answer
Based on n = 290, I found this correlation matrix in Gaughan et al (2012) (I think the adjusted R-squareds are for regression models predicting domain scores from the domains of the other measure; e.g., 50% of variance in honesty-humility was predicted by the five NEO domain scores).

Summarising these correlations, focusing on the HEXACO:

* Honesty-humility is most closely related to agreeableness but is not the same
* Emotionality is related to neuroticism, but also quite distinct the correlation is much weaker than would be required to argue it is a similar construct.
* Extraversion is mostly the same in both models, but hexaco extraversion seems to be more related to neuroticism (-) than NEO neuroticism.
* Agreeableness (HEXACO) is moderately related to NEO agreeableness, but there are clearly differences. HEXACO agreeableness also has a notable correlation with neuroticism (-).
* Conscientiousness is mostly the same in both models.
* Openness is similar in both models, but not massive.

Focusing on the NEO

* Neuroticism is distributed across hexaco emotioanlity, extraversion, and agreeableness

### So in summary

* HEXACO Extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness can probably be related to a similar interpretative framework as the NEO/Big 5 literature.
* Relating HEXACO to NEO agreeableness and neuroticism is difficult. Using emotionality as a proxy for neuroticism is definitely problematic.

### Another empirical study

Here was another study I found in Ashton et al (2014) using Big 5 markers.

Correlations between honesty-humility and agreeableness were not as strong as above. Also, the negative correlation between neuroticism and extraversion was much smaller.

### How it is discussed in a paper

I found this paragraph from Dunlop et al (2016) to be a good quick summary of the differences:

> Within the HEXACO model, the Openness, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness factors generally correspond to their Big Five counterparts. The Emotionality and Agreeableness factors of the HEXACO represent rotational variants of Neuroticism and Agreeableness in the Big Five. However, the most prominent difference between the HEXACO and Five Factor model is the addition of the HEXACO Honesty-Humility factor ... (Ashton & Lee, 2007; Ashton, Lee, & de Vries, 2014).

### References

* Gaughan, E. T., Miller, J. D., & Lynam, D. R. (2012). Examining the utility of general models of personality in the study of psychopathy: A comparison of the HEXACO-PI-R and NEO PI-R. Journal of personality disorders, 26(4), 513.
* Dunlop, P. D., Bourdage, J. S., de Vries, R. E., Hilbig, B. E., Zettler, I., & Ludeke, S. G. (2016). Openness to (reporting) experiences that we never had: Overclaiming as an outcome of the knowledge accumulated through a proclivity for cognitive and aesthetic exploration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
* Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., & de Vries, R. E. (2014). The HEXACO honesty-humility, agreeableness, and emotionality factors a review of research and theory. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18(2), 139-152.
> 6 votes

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Tags: personality
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# Question
Title: What is a principle that describes competitive advantage in this case
I gave up long ago on formulating what seems like a new concept as I came to peace with the fact that billions of people alive and dead means there's very little room for **new concepts**. (just an anecdote, not the focus of my question)

So I want to know what theory or concept describes the idea in which constantly comparing two things (or more?) in a "yin and yang" like opposition would associate rivalry between the two things even if non existed before the intentional creation of this comparison.

This idea came to me through observation of how politics and media works, whether scientifically intended or just mere learned through experience, in instigating seemingly unrelated concepts in a comparison situation, and enforcing that comparison on the masses to create such rivalry between the two concepts; then have the ability to influence external factors to skew the mass opinion one way or the other. It works because they're using it then with the oldest trick in the books: divide and conquer. So they get those two things, put them in such a rivalry comparison where if one existed the other can not exist at the same time, creating division and "teams" of sort, then appealing to each team in some way or the other to win its loyalty.

---

**So the question is:**

What theory or concept describes the creation of rivalry between two ideas to instigate division?

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One idea I had was really just describing it as "competition". But this doesn't work; In competition, there's variable degrees of existence of each competing idea. However in the case of my question, where one idea exists in some context, the other idea can't.

# Answer
> 0 votes
"**Binary Opposition**"

Systems are "binary" when they are composed of only two parts. It's easy to imagine things "in opposition," like the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, or the World War II alliances known as the "Axis Powers" and "the Allies." For an opposition to be truly "binary," however, the opposing classes of thing/idea must be mutually exclusive. That is, membership in one class must make impossible membership in the other. source

My observation is that this is being politicized and used in conjunction with other techniques to exert control. So they're creating "Binary Oppositions".

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Tags: social-psychology
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# Question
Title: What is the term for enjoying seeing bad/unlikable characters die?
I just watched the Purge 3 and noticed that they include characters intentionally there for you to dislike, so they can satisfy you with their misfortunes. In the first movie, it's a very satisfying brutal smashing of the woman's face on a desk. In the third movie, it jumps to an uncut scene of shooting a young teenage girl in the face with a shotgun, as well as a mass shooting at a church. I find it somewhat disturbing that I enjoy seeing this, and am also unsure if its a bad thing or not. What is the psychological term for this? I'd like to read about it.

# Answer
> 2 votes
The term you are looking for is the german word *Schadenfreude* which was adopted into English. The wikipedia page that I linked here should be a good start for reading and you could continue by checking the resources from the section "Scientific studies" there.

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, emotion
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# Question
Title: Term for being unable to see how hard something is because you already understand it
What's the term for when it's impossible for someone to understand the possible interpretations of something because they already know what it means. I remember hearing what it was a while ago so I know there is one.

Basically, if someone is predisposed to only see something a certain way because that was what was originally in their head, so they can't see it the way other people do, not because they're being closed minded but it's almost like a perception bias.

Take a picture that can be seen certain ways, like that duck/rabbit 'illusion'. If I told you that what I made was a duck and all you ever can see is a duck, then if someone with a fresh perspective see's a rabbit then the duck seeing person will think they're wrong. The person who see's a duck might be right, but it doesn't mean that the person who sees a rabbit is a complete moron. I want to use this term to describe User Interface interaction and how even though it can be developed appropriately it might be easy for users to intuit interaction differently and thus making it difficult to adapt to the UI developers design

# Answer
I'm not sure if this is an exact answer, but several topics come to my mind to describe this phenomena, mainly these ones:

1. Expertise (e.g. Expertise reversal effect),
2. Schemas and mindsets,
3. Availability heuristic (or other biases and fallacies that influence expectations).

It might depend on the aspect or scientific field from which you want to describe it. For example, there might also be some learning-based justifications from neuroscience perspective (e.g. reinforcement learning models for synaptic plasticity).
> 3 votes

# Answer
Maybe you are looking for the **curse of knowledge**:

> The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that occurs when, in predicting others' forecasts or behaviors, individuals are unable to ignore the knowledge they have that others do not have, or when they are unable to disregard information already processed.
> 1 votes

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Tags: perception
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# Question
Title: Can a sufficiently complex ANN simulate consciousness?
Current Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are capable of doing variational inference and learning representations and factors to explain the inputs, the outside world.

When the network gets bigger and more complicated, nothing will stop it from trying to explain, learn and predict its own inner states.

I think consciousness can be generated from this close loop process.

I remember that Hofstadter's Godel Escher Bach describes similar idea, I am just exicted about thinking it through. I want to know if there are references of similar or opposite ideas. I guess I am a strange loop is another book about this, but I haven't start reading it.

# Answer
> 7 votes
David Chalmers has argued against the thermostat view, suggesting that adaptation to the environment is not sufficient. John Searle also disagrees that the current state of machine learning is capable of consciousness on the grounds that information processing is not a sufficient criterion (public lecture, 2016). Both of these philosophers emphasize clarity in their presentation of arguments and I highly recommend reading some of their books for a general introduction to current problems in consciousness and perception.

## Complexity

In 1998, Tononi and Edelman published a science paper on Consciousness and Complexity. One of the main proponents, from the same lineage of researchers, links the complexity criterion to consciousness: Anil Seth and colleagues have suggested that a measure of complexity is central to explaining consciousness (pdf). His works are probably a good starting point if you are interested in a possible link between (abstract formulations that are relevant to both) artificial intelligence and consciousness.

## Recurrent Processing

Although "recursive complexity" is a concept in Anil Seth's work, if you are particularly interested in the role of recurrent processing for consciousness, Victor Lamme's work on vision could be a starting point: Lamme & Roelfsma (2000)

## Et cetera

For various views and perspectives, visit the most complete collection of references on consciousness online: http://consc.net/online/

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Tags: consciousness, neural-network
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# Question
Title: Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity interpretation
A paper I'm looking at titled "Synaptic Modifications in Cultured Hippocampal Neurons: Dependence on Spike Timing, Synaptic Strength, and Postsynaptic Cell Type" (can be found here) showed a relationship between spike timing and LTP/LTD. However, I'm having a bit of difficulty understanding what Figure 7 shows:

Since this photo I've seen published in multiple textbooks and reviews, it seems like a very important figure to understand what is going on. According to what they wrote in the introduction:

"Our results showed that postsynaptic spiking that peaked within a time window of 20 msec after synaptic activation resulted in LTP, whereas spiking within a window of 20 msec before synaptic activation led to LTD"

My understanding is that you have two neurons, a presynaptic neuron and a postsynaptic neuron and then based on their relative firing timings, that tells you whether or not there is an increase or decrease in the synaptic weight provided that the timings are close enough together. What confuses me as a non-biologist is how a postsynaptic spike could occur before the presynaptic spike does? I would think the only way a postsynaptic spike occurs is when the presynaptic neuron fires into the postsynaptic one. And then this time interval... is it from when the timing of the last presynaptic spike to the first spike of the postsynaptic one? Or from the first presynaptic spike since you would need multiple of them to induce a spike from the postsynaptic one? I'd mainly like to ask for more clarity over how to interpret what is happening.

# Answer
> 5 votes
The best explanation for STDP that I've ever seen is Nicky Case's Neurotic Neurons. In this Explorable Explanation, I think you'll find that your misunderstanding lies in the fact that both the pre-synaptic (Neuron A) and the post-synaptic neuron (Neuron B) exist in a network of other neurons. They are not only connected to each other. You are correct in saying that it often takes more than one incoming spike to make a neuron fire. These spikes are usually coming from other neurons (Neuron C, D, E... etc). So it's incorrect to think that "the only way a postsynaptic spike occurs is when the presynaptic neuron fires into the postsynaptic one".

So, to summarize, yes the time interval is the time difference between the last pre-synaptic spike to the first spike of the post-synaptic spike. These neurons exist in a network of neurons. It's probably best to think of STDP as a coincidence detector.

# Answer
> 1 votes
If you have two unidirectional neurons (ignoring back-propagation), both will elicit an action potential above a certain treshold. As you probably know, action potentials have a certain recovery rate. However, it is the intracellular processes that distinguish LTP from LTD. In LTP, Ca2+ influx is higher than in LTD and activates a protein cascade. LTP activates Ca2+/calmodulin kinase II (CaMKII), while LTD deactivatse CaMKII. Both LTP and LTD are *input specific***repeated stimulation at different frequencies will result in different neurotransmitory processes at the synapse**, due to different levels of Ca2+ influx, which in turn triggers two different types of protein cascades that have a significant impact on the connectivity as well as the type of memory that the type of plasticity (LTP or LTD) is associated with.

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<sub> Mostly paraphrased from: Manahan-Vaughan, D. (2010). Hippocampal Long-term Depression as a Declarative Memory Mechanism. In: P. K. Stanton, C. Bramham, & H. E. Scharfman (Eds.). (2010). *Synaptic Plasticity and Transsynaptic Signaling*, Ch. 18, pp.305-315. NY: Springer. </sub>

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Tags: neuroscience, theoretical-neuroscience, plasticity
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# Question
Title: Finding the anterior comissure to set origin in a SPECT image using SPM/ISAS
I am learning how to use SPM and ISAS to analyze ictal and interictal SPECT. However I am stuck at a point of their tutorial.

In the item 1.2 one has to set the origin for the SPECT image. That is, to pinpoint the anterior commissure. This is a fairly easy task in a MRI, but very hard to do in a SPECT. How am I to find a tiny anatomical area in such a blurry image (like the one below)?

Are there any anatomical references that I should be using in order to find the approximate area for the anterior commissure?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

# Answer
You can use the Whole Brain Atlas by Harvard to look at the normal brain anatomy in 3-D with MRI/PET.

Check the Anterior Commissure (AC) on the MRI and sync it with the PET or SPECT. It helps.

More specifically, select "Anterior Commissure" and T1/FDG and click sync to show all the orientations in the same modalities and anatomical structure. It helps to find the anterior commissure in a normal brain using nuclear medicine image.
> 1 votes

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Tags: neuroimaging, spm
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# Question
Title: What is the equivalent of a Hamming network in the NEF?
After doing a bit of research, I'm somewhat convinced that Hamming networks are networks that classify, but only put out a single result, as opposed to other networks which output multiple results. In this case, is the equivalent in terms of the NEF a classifier (measuring similarity with a dot product between two vectors) followed by an associative memory?

# Answer
An Associative Memory *is* a classifier and *is* equivalent to a Hamming Network.

For documentation on the NEF Associative Memory, see this practical Nengo documentation and the paper "A biologically realistic cleanup memory: Autoassociation in spiking neurons". Basically, each ensemble of an associative memory computes the similarity measure of the input firing pattern to a given firing pattern. Mutual inhibition is then used between the nodes to find the most similar input so that only the ensemble with the most similar input outputs a signal. In an associative, this output similarity signal is used to map the input pattern to a new output pattern.

A Hamming Network is a classifier that receives patterns with input nodes also detecting similarity. However, unlike the Associative Memory it has a binary output using mutual inhibition. That being said, it would be easy to add a thresholding ensemble to the output of the Associative Memory to accomplish this.

In conclusion, an Associative Memory is basically a Hamming Network implemented using the NEF.
> 2 votes

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Tags: neural-network, nef
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title: What do NaNs represent in an SPM β-map?

text:
# Question
Title: What do NaNs represent in an SPM β-map?
I've estimated a model for an fMRI dataset, so I now have a `beta_*.nii` file for each regressor in my model. In a seperate step, I've defined ROIs using marsbar and proceeded to extract the corresponding voxels in one of these β-maps.

However, the ROI extracted from said β-map contains only `NaN` values. Why should there be NaNs at all? What does such a null value represent in the context of model βs?

# Answer
Apparently, this can happen when your ROI is near the edge of the brain as reported here. The thread is pretty old though so this might have been fixed by today and there is another reason in your case.
> 5 votes

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Tags: fmri, spm
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# Question
Title: Scientific way to prove you are ambidextrous, right handed or left handed?
I grew up in a country where my grandmother's generation used to believe that left handed were related with the Devil, so I know many friends that have been "corrected" when kids and now they are right handed.

Is there a scientific way to find out if you are in truth right handed or if you were corrected?

Assuming you were originally left handed but you were grown as right handed, does that makes you a non-natural ambidextrous?

# Answer
> 3 votes
I don't know whether the following has been used to distinguish natural from "corrected" right handers, but following up on the suggestion from @user3169, the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory contains a range of handedness tasks, many of which would probably not be as explicitly trained as writing or eating, and which thus potentially could be used in distinguishing natural from corrected right handers.

There is an online version of the inventory here.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Fingtertapping, Pegs, Dynamometer Testing could be used to evaluate if one side is more dominant than the other and to what degree. Using one hand at a time and then compare results.

Fingertapping: press the counter lever fully as many times as possible within a certain time frame.

Pegs: start with a metal plate with rows of peg holes, and all cylindrical pegs in a pile. Fill the holes from left to right, row upon row, one hand at a time, as quickly as possible i.e. for time.

Dynamometer: measure grip strength using the device.

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Tags: behaviorism, motor
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# Question
Title: How neural mechanisms lead to the creation of habits or destructive behaviours?
You get horny, and you don't prevent yourself. You just go after satisfying your need. Another time you do this. Again another time, and more and more.

A time comes when you feel like you can't control yourself, even if you want to. In the beginning you could if you wanted to, but now things seem to be out of your control.

Personally I've experienced this pattern about food, lust, and responsibility. Empirically I think there should be a pattern that our decisions today will effect our decisions tomorrow. That is, with each decision, mind changes to make that decision easier next time.

Does this truly exist? Do we have a theory or a research behind this pattern?

I think each decision effects mind in a way that we might say that special connections are made between neurons and those special connections will impact next decisions of the same kind. I searched and couldn't find anything.

# Answer
> 1 votes
I will attempt to answer your question. However, I will not be able to provide a neurological explanation of the mechanisms of this pattern.

First off, apparently such a thing does exist. In cognitive and behavioural psychology fields, such a pattern has been studied extensively by many researchers ever since. One example of a theory that addresses this pattern is a repackaged popular theory known as the *Theory of Cognitive Dissonance* by an American cognitive psychologist named Leon Festinger.

The theory of dissonance attempts to explain this pattern through suggesting that when a person makes a decision, he/she will end up repeating this decision sometime later due to feeling remorseful after making the decision. Some people tend to feel more remorseful than others when making a decision such as smoking a cigarette or drinking alcohol so they end up abusing these substances. When one makes a decision, he/she tries to convince himself/herself that "it must be right, or otherwise I would not have done it". If, however, he/she has decided earlier that it is too wrong to do it, then the dissonance from doing it will be greater and one will be more likely to redo the action that caused him the remorse. Examples of this exist with the buyer's remorse, smoker's remorse (that's why they have these labels on the cigarette packets that scare you even more) and even the liker's remorse (clicking the like button in facebook). In all cases you realize that you have done something wrong, so you simply do it again.

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Tags: brain-training, theory-of-mind
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title: Nobel Prize in Cognitive Science

text:
# Question
Title: Nobel Prize in Cognitive Science
What is the highest award for rewarding someone in cognitive sciences research/applications?

# Answer
> 3 votes
To the best of my knowledge, there is one and only one psychologist who received the Nobel prize: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel\_Kahneman

The prize was awarded for economy.

So, it's possible for cognitive scientists to win the actual Nobel prize if his or her work is relevant to any of the Nobel prize categories.

Maybe there are other laureates whose work could be seen as cognitive science.

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Tags: methodology, cognitive
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title: What is the effect of scolding kids

text:
# Question
Title: What is the effect of scolding kids
Is there any harmful effect of scolding kids. Also does that affect more to kids who are 1 year old or to those who are much older like 5 years and so.

By the term scolding I mean: Shouting, yelling, using intimidating gesture (staring with wide open eye), showing anger, using harsh words (irrespective of the fact the kids know the meaning of the word or not ), and like... and any of the combination of these. And even shouting and hitting with hands but very gently with anger

# Answer
I have a feeling that many answers to your question will be influenced by anecdotes and personal parental style than actual research. A quick literature review suggests that there is evidence for both positive and negative influences of customary, nonabusive physical punishment, such as spanking.

A literature review by Larzelere (2000) found that nine studies indicated beneficial outcomes, such as reduced noncompliance and fighting. In contrast, five studies that controlled for the level of child misbehavior did find detrimental outcomes. However, a further analysis found that alternative forms of discipline also showed detrimental outcomes when using a similar research method. The author concludes that "The outcomes differ by methodologic, child, and subcultural factors as well as by how the physical punishment was used".

A later meta-analysis by Larzelere and Kuhn (2005) found that conditional spanking was more effective in reducing child noncompliance and antisocial behavior in 10 of 13 studies. They added that overly severe or predominant use of physical punishment "compared unfavorably with alternative disciplinary tactics". In short, there seems to be a threshold whereas some amount of scolding (physical spanking in this case) can be a beneficial tool in a parent's disciplinary toolkit, while excessive amounts of scolding (such as relying on spanking exclusively) can be detrimental.

* Larzelere RE. (2000). *Child Outcomes of Nonabusive and Customary Physical Punishment by Parents: An Updated Literature Review*. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 3(4), 199-221.
* Larzelere RE and Kuhn BR. (2005). *Comparing Child Outcomes of Physical Punishment and Alternative Disciplinary Tactics: A Meta-Analysis*. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 8(1), 1-37.
> 9 votes

# Answer
yes it does have harmful effects on the children regardless of their age. may be children dont understand the words but the understands the emotions and expression behind the words. anger is a universal expression which can be understand by everyone regardless of age. showing anger or scolding contributes to stubbornness in children and it also induce negative feelings in children for the person who scold. children also imitates their elders so they learn to show anger as u do by shouting yelling etc.
> 1 votes

# Answer
**Is there any harmful effect of scolding kids. Also does that affect more to kids who are 1 year old or to those who are much older like 5 years and so.**

The simple answer is, "yes there can be harmful effects" and "yes younger kids are probably more affected."

Scolding and the perceptions by the child being scolded are both multivariate in nature. The act of scolding is multivariate because there can be multiple actions of differing intensities taking place during the scolding. No two scolding episodes are precisely alike. The perceptions of the child being scolded are very important. How does the child perceive the angry face or the raised spanking hand? Does the child experience intense fear that can have long-lasting effects? These are important questions.

The age of the child is important with regard to the child's perceptions. An older child getting spanked by his mom or yelled at by his mom might find it to be somewhat humorous. A much younger child, with much less life experience, could find the same scolding horrendous.
> -3 votes

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Tags: emotion, developmental-psychology, parenting
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# Question
Title: What is meant by this theory that there are only 3 possible kinds of cognitive loads?
I don't understand this theory that states there are only three kinds of mental loads:

> The theory is that there are basically three different kinds of demands or loads that you can make on a person: Cognitive (thinking and remembering), Visual, and Motor.

Source, Posted on February 17, 2011 by Susan Weinschenk.

What about things like listening to someone speak? Or if someone's learning to play a musical instrument and is trying to hit the right note. Is this only in the context of interaction design.

# Answer
The source you mention is a web blog about computer and office work. The blog doesn't describe a 'theory', not even a hypothesis for that matter, it just outlines a starting point for a popular scientific blog on cognitive load in everyday life. It all depends on the task what adds mental load. Every input, let it be acoustic (e.g. speech), visual (e.g. computer tasks), touch or internal mental processes can all increase cognitive load.

I can recommend reading the wiki page on cognitive load as a starting point to better understand different aspects of **cognitive load theory**.
> 3 votes

# Answer
I'm a current PhD student in Cognitive Load Theory, and I have to agree with @Christiaan above, the article you refer to is just a blog, and doesn't refer to any theory specifically.

IF the article is referring to Cognitive Load Theory itself, then there are 3 described types of cognitive load.

1. Intrinsic Load - The load for how innately difficult the task is to the learner (this varies based on previous expertise).
2. Extraneous Load - The load for how effective the instructional strategy or materials being presented are (bad instructions from a teacher or poorlly designed worksheets increase this type of load).
3. Germane Load - the load devoted to actual learning, that is information processing, integration and schema acquisition.

Your article mentions different sensory inputs, and while there are aspects of CLT that relate to different types of sensory input, they aren't ever referred to as 'kinds of cognitive load'. If anything these may be referred to as 'working memory channels' based on Baddeley & Hitch's model of working memory.
> 2 votes

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, cognitive-neuroscience
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title: Model for the Un/Conscious Mind

text:
# Question
Title: Model for the Un/Conscious Mind
As far as modern psychology is concerned, is there currently a standard scientific model for the conscious and unconscious mind, as well as conscious experience/perception? If so, are there any recommended resources (scientific books/articles) that detail this model?

I am currently reading *The Mind Illuminated* by John Yates, and while the book itself is tremendously helpful in the study and practice of mindfulness, I wanted to do some fact checking and research on the information presented in the book.

In the book John Yates describes all conscious perception, that is, *visual*, *auditory*, *somatosensory*, *gustatory*, *olfactory*, and *mind sense* (thoughts, memories, emotions) as taking on one of two qualities:

**Attention**: The cognitive ability to select and analyze specific information (sensory input, thoughts, memories, emotions, etc.) and ignore other information arising from a vast field of internal and external stimuli

**Awareness**: A general cognizance of sensory information; mental objects like thoughts, memories, and feelings; and the overall state and activity of the mind. Unlike attention which isolates and analyzes specific objects, peripheral awareness is inclusive holistic, and only minimally conceptual.

For example, in vision, objects of *attention* result in focused and sharper visual perception, whereas object of *awareness* form our periphery and are more blurry.

In the **Mind-System** model, Yates describes the mind as having a structure depicted in this image

Where the mind is divided into Unconscious and Conscious, and the Unconscious Mind is composed of the Sensory and Discriminating Mind.

My question to academics: does this information sound consistent with what is presented in modern day psychology & cognitive science? And where may find more academic explanation of these types of models.

# Answer
> 3 votes
I only know of one Cognitive Model dividing the unconscious and conscious mind is presented by Paul Thaghard in "Two theories of consciousness: Semantic pointer competition vs. information integration". I explain this model in layman's terms in my blog post. In this answer, I'll compare Thaghard's model to Yate's model you've presented above.

Yate's model is based on the ideas of Global Workspace Theory (GWB). GWB posits that unconscious processes compete for the spotlight of attention so that they can enter consciousness. This seems to be what Yate's is suggesting in this diagram and would tie in nicely with mindfulness meditation.

GWB isn't a bad model. It makes a few predictions and describes a lot of phenomena (comas, certain types of blindness). However, it's not easily testable or disprovable. How do these unconscious processes interact? What type of representation would unconscious processes use and how does this relate to neurons? Can I build a computation model of consciousness based off this specification? These are the things that Paul's model worries about and specifies. Paul's model is essentially a more specified version of the Yate's model. It defines a representation (Semantic Pointers) which relates to neurons and makes testable claims.

To summarize and get back to your question, Yate's model is vaguely consistent with Cognitive Science, but it is under-specified. For further reading on more specific models, check the links in this answer.

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Tags: perception, unconscious, model
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# Question
Title: Why do some people believe that life is a zero-sum game and that if you harm someone, you will benefit?
I have a strong feeling that many people consider life as a zero-sum game, i.e. they always assume that you'll benefit, if you harm/disadvantage someone. Any research on this?

# Answer
There is definitely more than one aspect to this question. One of them is if there is a certain type of person that views life as a zero-sum game. What I looked into is if there is a certain type of person that actually gains something from hurting others. There seems to be: The everyday sadist. Buckels, Jones and Paulhus (2013) mean that there is a sadist personality type that is expressed in everyday life. (See: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/24/11/2201 and http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/everyday-sadists-take-pleasure-in-others-pain.html for an article summing up the scientific article). These researchers have been looking into traits that they call the "Dark Triad". "When aggression was easy, sadism and Dark Triad measures predicted unprovoked aggression. However, only sadists were willing to work for the opportunity to hurt an innocent person." People strong in this trait would probably feel affirmed by a world view that enables them to fund pleasure with a rationale behind it. This answer is inadequate as a complete response to your question. Something I'd like to look into further is the Just World hypothesis, where the belief that the world should mete our justice leads us to act in a certain way.
> 3 votes

# Answer
This kind of thinking can be connected simply with psychoticism, which is classed as personality trait by Eysenck (1976). One pole of this trait is connected with altriusm and pro-social behaviours and the second one with psychopathy, schizofrenic and criminality behaviours.

More:

1) Eysenck, H. J (1976) Psychoticism as a dimension of personality

2) Erik Woody†,\* andGordon Claridge (2011) Psychoticism and thinking
> 2 votes

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Tags: social-psychology, bias
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# Question
Title: Why we are more optimistic about ourselves and our peers and pessimistic about others?
I watched a ted talk which is about optimism bias by Tali Sharot. It stated that we are more optimistic about ourselves and our peers and we are more passimistic about others.But, I can't find an apt explanation for it.I observed this behaviour in all humans at some extent.

What makes the difference? Is there any scientific explanation?

# Answer
> 1 votes
I'm going to take the evolutionary standpoint. Many of these reasons and explanations Tali Sharot already gave in her talk. You could also check out her books. I'm going to try to make the point I see in it clear. First the basics of evolutionary advantages - traits in a species are favored by evolution if they make it likelier for us to survive and procreate. (those with unfavorable characteristics are less likely to survive in order to procreate!) The genes we have are more likely to be passed on if we reach a mature age, find a partner and successfully rear our offspring. This is the basic idea behind an evolutionary explanation. As she says, optimism makes it more likely for us to reach for higher goals - and also for achieving them. Hope and our happiness leads to better health, reduces stress and a longer life span and thus, it's more likely that we're going to pass on our genes. Why not for others? We know that bad things happen and that the world is dangerous, but if we can convince ourselves that it happens to others, rather than us, we'll be happier. Well, that's very basic evolutionary explanation. Here's an article that goes into this: https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/12/12/science-of-optimism-sharot/ Her full-length book: https://www.amazon.de/Optimism-Bias-wired-bright-English-ebook/dp/B005RZB6VU/ref=asap\_bc?ie=UTF8

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Tags: social-psychology, bias
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title: Psychiatric name of disbelief disorder

text:
# Question
Title: Psychiatric name of disbelief disorder
What psychiatric disorder would describe someone who doesn't believe anything presented to them (other than what they already know and are sure is true)?

P.S. Not to be distinguished by those that have a disorder because they are confused.

Thanks.

# Answer
My research on your question has so far not showed any disorder that matches this description. Something we all suffer from, however, is confirmation bias. We interpret new information in the light of our current views and disregard information that don't match our existing beliefs. Research has shown that being confronted with convincing arguments for the opposite view might strengthen our belief in the one we already hold. You can read more about this in books like Mistakes Were Made But not By Me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistakes\_Were\_Made\_(But\_Not\_by\_Me)
> 2 votes

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Tags: psychiatry
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# Question
Title: Is there a such thing as collective narcissism?
Maybe I'm referring to the dominant ideology, but is it possible for people to get together and combine their narcissistc ideologies together and share them? Are there any good papers on this subject?

# Answer
Possibly worth considering: Theodor W. Adorno. "What Does Coming to Terms with the Past Mean?" (1959) included among selected writings in "Can One Live after Auschwitz? A Philosophical Reader (2003).

Adorno wrote: "On the subjective side, in the psyche of people, National Socialism increased beyond measure the collective narcissism, simply put: national vanity. The individual’s narcissistic instinctual drives, which are promised less and less satisfaction by a callous world and which nonetheless persist undiminished as long as civilization denies them so much, find substitute satisfaction in the identification with the whole. This collective narcissism was severely damaged by the collapse of Hitler’s regime, but the damage occurred at the level of mere factuality, without individuals making themselves conscious of it and thereby coping with it."
> 3 votes

# Answer
So "Narcissis" was an actual "person" in Greece who so fell in love with himself he bacame a flower that always was by the waterside so he could see his reflection and how pretty he was. Therefore my answer is "no" in the Historical sense of the word. "Looking at the mirror" is a powerful tool in psychology though and the irony that Narcissis was a male is interesting. A collection of male narcissists ... the only thing that comes to mind is Hollywood.
> 2 votes

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Tags: social-psychology
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# Question
Title: Thinking with organs/systems other than the brain
Neurohormones are produced in many different bodily systems other than the brain--skin, intestines, stomach, etc. Has there been any research suggesting whether or not some people might actually perform cognitive functions normally associated only with the brain (like processing sensory input to make complex decisions) with parts of their body other than their brain?

For example, crows have demonstrated they are capable of complex problem solving, even though they do not have a cerebral cortex. Scientists now believe crows use their telencephalon to perform complex reasoning tasks.

Thus, crows use a part of their physiology not previously associated with complex reasoning for complex reasoning.

So, to extend the idea even further, could humans also be using organs or systems to handle processes usually presumed to be handled only by the brain?

Since so many bodily systems produce neurohormones, they seem like likely possible candidates.

Has any research been done to test this proposition?

# Answer
> 3 votes
To answer your question – no. It is the brain that ‘thinks’ and does complex cognitive reasoning. And actually, it depends what you mean by ‘thinking’. I have studied Neuroscience for a long time and there is no evidence to suggest that the type of complex reasoning you are talking about is performed by any organ other than the brain (in any animal).

It is true that other organs than the brain produce neurohormones, but it doesn’t mean these organs are the site of action of these neurohormones.

As for the specific parts of the brain involved – I don’t know – there is still a lot of research on this going on. The telencephalon is part of the brain, and includes both the cerebral cortex and sub-cortical regions. There is strong evidence to suggest the prefrontal cortex (cortex) and hippocampus (sub-cortical) are highly-involved in complex reasoning. And many other parts of the brain are also involved in conscious and unconscious cognitive processes.

Yes, we also have a brainstem, a spinal cord and an enteric nervous system, which perform complex neural computations – but they do not ‘think’ the way we commonly think about thinking. As for non-neural parts of an organism – there is no evidence that those ‘think’.

I hope this help. I'd be interested in what others have to say on this.

Regards

HM

BSc (Biomedical Sciences – Neuroscience) (UCL)

\#

Here are some references that I studied from last year:

These University-level textbooks: --- "Anatomy and Physiology" by Tortora et al; --- "Neuroscience" by Purves et al; --- "Principles of Neural Science" by Kandel et al;

Also: The Making of Memory by Steven Rose; The Human Brain by Susan Greenfield;

From Neuron to Cognition via Computational Neuroscience .https://mitpress.mit.edu/neuron-cognition

Cerebral cortex – Scholarpedia article www.scholarpedia.org/article/Cerebral\_cortex

An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function, Miller & Cohen 2001, Annual review of neuroscience

The hippocampal system mediates logical reasoning about familiar spatial environments, Goel et al 2004 - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, MIT Press

Role of the hippocampus in imagination and future thinking Maguire & D Hassabis - 2011 - PNAS

Think Twice: How the Gut's "Second Brain" Influences Mood and Well ... www.scientificamerican.com/article/gut-second-brain/

may be useful: .http://engineering.mit.edu/ask/how-does-random-group-molecules-form-thinking-breathing-human ;;;;; .https://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2013/aug/09/a-new-way-of-thinking-about-how-the-brain-works

As for evidence that anything else than networks of neurons can enable cognitive processes – eg. skin in your leg or bone in your arm – I have never seen. Although computer transistor circuits are a possible (non-biological) candidate.

# Answer
> 2 votes
If, as Harry said, we think only with our brains, the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio wrote about the importance of the body in rational thinking in his book Descartes' Error.

His hypothesis is that the brain continuously computes all informations (state, activity...) coming from our organs $-$ informations which he called "somatic markers" $-$ and thus, the decisions our brains make are biased by these informations. In particular, somatic markers help a lot to discriminate non-relevant "thoughts" or potential decisions.

The book is called "Descartes' Error" because Descartes thought he had to get rid of his feelings to be able to think rationally. Damasio thinks, in the contrary, that feelings help to do so.

I hope this answer complete Harry's one, by showing that if only the brain is capable of thinking, organs are necessary anyway (according to Antonio Damasio at least).

# Answer
> 1 votes
I just want add / clarify something on top of Aika’s answer – I want to say that Damasio’s work does not contradict what I said. This is another big misunderstanding. All our feelings and bodily sensations are a product of the brain, even if the information if initially processed in the peripheral nervous system. Yes, peripherally-computed sensory information is vital to cognitive systems, but it is the brain that integrates all this to construct and simulate somatic marker sensations and rational thinking for complex decision-making. We could theoretically take away all peripheral nerves from the brain and replace them with wires to then input any information we want, to then simulate any type of thought we want in that brain. Unfortunately, while there has been some recent experiments in that, we are very far from that technology.

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Tags: neuroscience, cognitive-neuroscience
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# Question
Title: What is the proportion of excitatory vs. inhibitory neurons in the feline thalamus?
Is there a scientific reference on the numbers (or proportion) of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the thalamus of the cat?

# Answer
I found two articles:

Madarasz et.al. (1985) GABA cells

* 27 % LGN
* 33 % Ventrobasal complex
* 25 % Antero-ventral nucleus

Penny et.al. (1983) GAD-immuninoreactive neurons

* 30 % VentroPosterior

<sub> Madarász, M., Somogyi, G., Somogyi, J., & Hamori, J. (1985). Numerical estimation of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-containing neurons in three thalamic nuclei of the cat: direct GABA immunocytochemistry. Neuroscience letters, 61(1), 73-78.
Penny, G. R., Fitzpatrick, D., Schmechel, D. E., & Diamond, I. T. (1983). Glutamic acid decarboxylase-immunoreactive neurons and horseradish peroxidase-labeled projection neurons in the ventral posterior nucleus of the cat and Galago senegalensis. The Journal of Neuroscience, 3(9), 1868-1887. </sub>
> 2 votes

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Tags: neuroscience, neuroanatomy
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# Question
Title: Why is solitary confinement used so widely?
Prison isolation is likely so hard for inmates because people are sociable creatures. Yet, isolation is still used in prisons ('supermax prisons'), in mental hospitals, but also as a strategy to educate children, given that some parents lock their kids in their room.

Why are those isolations in use? Do they have beneficial effects on prisoners or psychiatric patients? Does it treat their symptoms or criminal traits?

# Answer
> 6 votes
Solitary confinement serves no therapeutic purpose. Two uses of solitary confinement are generally acknowledged, namely as **safety measure** to protect the individual from themselves or to protect others from harm, or as a **measure of discipline** (that is, punishment).

Deprived of normal human interaction, many segregated prisoners reportedly suffer from mental health problems including anxiety, panic, insomnia, paranoia, aggression and depression (Haney, 2003). In experimental subjects hallucinations have been reported too (source: Frontline).

To the question *why* these psychological effects happen there is not much known, as research into the topic is obviously deemed not ethical, and the use of it in correctional facilities and psychiatric wards is scrutinized. In fact, its use in psychiatric environments is starting to decline (source: APA).

However, some guesses might be made on the effects of solitary confinement on the brain. Hallucinations may be caused by the fact that sensory perception is accustomed to dealing with a large quantity of information. In fact, one of the major goals of the higher sensory centers is the *filtering* of irrelevant information rather than processing all of it. When sensory input is deprived, the brain starts to make up things, just as deaf people may develop tinnitus and blind people may see phosphenes and other visual hallucinations (source: BBC Future). The psychological deficits may be sought in the fact that we derive meaning from our emotional states largely through contact with others. Human emotions are thought to have evolved because they aided co-operation among our early ancestors who benefited from living in groups. With no one to mediate our feelings or to determine their appropriateness, the sense of self becomes distorted and the sense of reality disintegrates (source: BBC Future).

<sub>**Reference**
**-** Haney, *Crime & Delinquency* (2003); **49**(1): 124-56</sub>

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, psychiatry, behaviorism, forensic-psychology
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# Question
Title: Difference between content-addressable memory and associative memory?
Often when I'm reading theoretical neuroscience publications, such as "Towards an integration of deep learning and neuroscience", as well as "Memory and the Computational Brain", theorists often mention the importance of content-addressable memories. They are defined as follows in the former publication:

> Content addressable memories are classic models in neuroscience. Most simply, they allow us to recognize a situation similar to one that we have seen before, and to “fill in” stored patterns based on partial or noisy information, but they may also be put to use as sub-components of many other functions.

Is the Associative Memory often used in SPA-based models, such as the model used in "Biologically Plausible, Human-Scale Knowledge Representation", the same thing as a content-addressable memories?

# Answer
From Wikipedia:

> Content-addressable memory (CAM) is a special type of computer memory used in certain very-high-speed searching applications. It is also known as associative memory, associative storage, or associative array \[...\] It compares input search data (tag) against a table of stored data, and returns the address of matching data (or in the case of associative memory, the matching data)

As noted in the above question, there are many implementations of content-addressable memories in neural networks, such as the Hamming network and Hopfield networks. The Associative Memory used in SPA-based models performs the same function as these aforementioned networks and the Wikipedia description. Given a SPA vector as input, the Associative Memory outputs the corresponding vector as an output. Thus, the SPA-based Associative Memory is a content-addressable memory.
> 2 votes

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Tags: memory, theoretical-neuroscience, nef, spa
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# Question
Title: What's the relation between BCM and Oja's learning rule?
A software I'm using has implemented two unsupervised learning algorithms, Oja's and Bienenstock, Cooper, Munro's (BCM) learning rule. I understand that they are two very different algorithms for adjusting a neuron's connection weight, but I was wondering what is the relation between them. Do they both have the same plausibility? Can they be used together or are they mutually exclusive?

# Answer
> 1 votes
Although the effects of BCM and Oja's learning rule have been explored superficially in a computational manner in the context of the NEF, judging from the results (which I've reproduced below) it isn't clear to me if they can/should be combined in any meaningful way.

The best hypothesis that I can come up with is BCM forces the ensemble to be either "ON" or "OFF" by minimising transitory states, while Oja provides limits to how much the connection weights can change. So in a way, Oja provides bounds to BCM? Further investigation is needed.

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Tags: learning, theoretical-neuroscience, computational-modeling
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# Question
Title: What coding scheme does NEF use? Rate or phase?
There is a long-standing debate in theoretical neuroscience about what information of spikes is most important: rate or phase? What stance does the NEF take on this manner?

# Answer
> 2 votes
The NEF has no formal stance on whether rate information or phase information is of importance. All it cares about is spikes.

As proof, consider the derivation of the decoders, which is the core of the NEF.

The Decoders, $d$ are a vector of synaptic weights applied to the activities of neurons (one decoding weight per neuron) to approximate a given function $f(x(t))$. They can be thought of as the axons of a neuron.

Given the spiking neurons activities in the matrix $A$ (rows are neurons, columns are evaluation points), to an input $x$, this relation can be explained as:

$$A \cdot d = f(x(t))$$

Given an equation with one unknown, where a matrix $A$ is combined with a vector $d$ to get another vector $f(x(t))$, this can be solved using linear algebra to find $d$.

Note how there is no mention of rate or phase in this derivation. Admittedly, in the Nengo neural simulator, rate neurons can be used and functions that take phase into account can be calculated, but these design choices are up to the modeller and are not forced by the NEF itself.

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Tags: theoretical-neuroscience, nef
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# Question
Title: What's the difference between a Hamming and Hopfield network?
I have recently discovered that both Hamming and Hopfield networks are both content addressable memories. However, what is the difference between these two networks designs and their performance?

# Answer
> 2 votes
Hopfield and Hamming networks are older connectionist networks used to classify noisy binary input data.

Hopfield networks are the basis for Hamming networks, so let's focus on those first.

A Hopfield network is a set of neurons that do classification via mutual inhibition, as shown in the figure below from Wikipedia:

Note the neurons are not like your typical biologically plausible neurons, they have two states "+1" and "-1". Their update rule, which forces them into an output pattern, enables these two states.

A Hamming network is a two-layer network, as shown in this figure (taken from here) where the data is flowing from the bottom:

As you can see, the second layer, sometimes called the MaxNet layer, is identical to the Hopfield Network, however the input layer resembles a classic single-layer perceptron. This single-layer perceptron is train according to the Hamming Distances of the inputs.

Performance wise, as shown in the conclusion "A Comparison of Hamming and Hopfield Neural Nets for Pattern Classification" by Lippmann et al., Hamming nets generally out-perform Hopfield nets.

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Tags: theoretical-neuroscience, computational-modeling
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# Question
Title: What is the difference between two models of situation awareness?
The most famous definition of situation awareness (SA) is the three-level model proposed by Endsley (1995):

> the perception of environmental elements with respect to time or space \[(Level 1 SA)\], the comprehension of their meaning \[(Level 2 SA)\], and the projection of their status in the near future \[(Level 3 SA)\].

However, the definition of Smith and Hancock (1995) is based on Neisser's perceptual-cycle model (Neisser, 1976) and states that SA is:

> adaptive, externally-directed consciousness that has as its products knowledge about a dynamic task environment and directed action within that environment.

**How do these models differ from each other, and do these differences have practical implications?**

Ps. Many more definitions of SA exist. These are all summarized in this document.

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## References

Endsley, M. R. (1995). Toward a theory of situation awareness in dynamic systems. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 37(1), 32-64.

Neisser, U. (1976). Cognition and reality: Principles and implications of cognitive psychology. WH Freeman/Times Books/Henry Holt & Co. ISO 690

Smith, K., & Hancock, P. A. (1995). Situation awareness is adaptive, externally directed consciousness. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 37(1), 137-148.

# Answer
## **Short answer**

Endsley considers SA to be a product. Smith and Hancock argue that SA is a process. Deciding for a definition is important, since it can determine the focus of the research and methodology.

## **Long answer**

**The Three-level model** proposed by Endsley considers SA to be a product. In other words, SA is a mental picture that can be tested by testing an operators knowledge about the current situation. On popular mean of doing is the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT; Endsley, 1988). With the SAGAT, researchers freeze the task (in a simulator) and present the operator with a set of queries, that cover each of the three levels. Examples of these questions in the domain of train traffic controlling is shown in Table 2 (taken form Lo, Sehic and Meijer, 2013).

**The perceptual-cycle model** argues that SA is a cyclical process of attention, in which perception, knowledge, anticipation and action-taking take place concurrently, in order to generate a \`product of consciousness', that is, an understanding of the current situation (see Figure 3, taken from Smith and Hancock, 1995). The product can not be not be seen separately from the process, however; The perception of relevant information will lead to a better understanding, but a better understanding will also direction your attention.

Measuring one's SA as a process implies measuring how well the acquisition of SA is over time. This has, among others, been done with tools such as eye tracking and EEG (For a review, see Salmon, 2006). The perceptual-cycle model does acknowledge the existence of a product of consciousness (and the testing of it with the SAGAT), but this provides an incomplete picture.
> 2 votes

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Tags: io-psychology, human-factors, situation-awareness
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# Question
Title: Is there a scientific opinion about the connection between Asperger Syndrome and AD(H)D?
I have Aspergers and ADD. When I read autobiographies (most of all by female aspergers) I often think that they have actually *at least* a mild form of ADD or ADHD, too.

A German doctor (Dr. Helga Simchen) wrote she thinks that Asperger Syndrome should rather be on the AD(H)S spectrum than on the autism spectrum. My personal opinion is: no. They're nevertheless different things.

But what is the current scientific standpoint about AS and AD(H)S?

# Answer
There is a significant overlap between symptoms of classic Autism, Asperger syndrome, AD(H)D and OCD.

The following graph gives a good overview of how they are correlated at the behavioral and sensory level:

(source)

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### Further reading
> 2 votes

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, cognitive-neuroscience
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title: Does chess enhance cognitive abilities?

text:
# Question
Title: Does chess enhance cognitive abilities?
Some texts advise playing chess with children and mature people. Should I take them seriously, and why should chess boost intellect?

For instance, I would like to be able to read and understand technical texts quickly. Should I learn playing chess for this? In this text, for instance, they hype all kinds of advantages gained from chess, but they raise the meaningful questions at the end:

> • Is there anything else besides playing chess that these GMs can be experts at?
> • Granting these GMs were already genius by birth, is it safe to infer that playing chess has enhanced their overall intellect?

In the course of trolling, they conclude, "Go ahead and grab a chess board." This leaves me pondering if the effect they hyped indeed exists.

# Answer
> 10 votes
Giovanni Sala was concerned by this same question, so he did a meta-analysis of 24 studies in "Beyond the 64 Squares: Does Chess Instruction Enhance Children’s Academic and Cognitive Skills? A Meta-Analysis" and found that there was still a lot of doubt in the results. Specifically, in all the papers, he never found the control group was reasonable. Of course children who played chess rather than doing nothing performed better at various tasks, as can be seen in "Enhancing Creativity in Children by Imparting Chess Training". But what about regular instruction or playing other games?

Consequently, he followed his meta-analysis up with a randomized plucebo controlled trial focused in mathematical cognitive skills in "Does Chess Instruction Enhance Mathematical Ability in Children? A Three-Group Design to Control for Placebo Effects" and found that the effect of chess, when compared to actual mathematics instruction (Control), was meaningless as shown in the tables below. However, it did surpass the game Go in transfer learning outcomes.

As he concluded at his talk at the CogSci 2016 conference (where all the papers I cited come from) which I attended, far transfer-learning is really hard. To improve skills in certain domains, it is better to study that domain than to hope a marginally related activity will grant insight. To make studying that domain easier, new materials need to be developed rather than searching for new related activities.

**Note:** This area is still under active research, as discussed in "The Effects of Chess Instruction on Pupils' Cognitive and Academic Skills: State of the Art and Theoretical Challenges"

# Answer
> 3 votes
I think learning to play chess will have no effect on your ability to understand technical texts. Your time would be better invested in reading the technical texts with accompanying explanatory material. This study by Sala, Gorini and Pravettoni (2015) shows that learning to play chess can improve mathematical problem-solving abilities in young pupils. They go into detail into how and why they think that is, as well as a comprehensive review of other studies that have been made. Many studies have found that chess players are intelligent - but the causality is seldom clear. Chess might simply attract intelligent people.

Reference: Mathematical Problem-Solving Abilities and Chess: An Experimental Study on Young Pupils by Giovanni Sala et al (2015, CC-BY licence).

# Answer
> 0 votes
No. In general, transfer between skills is minimal whether they be cognitive or motor. Thus, studying and practicing chess will make you better at chess.

Studying a technical field that you are trying to master will make you understand that technical field better.

In general, intelligence is correlated with interest and aptitude in intellectual activities. Thus, if anything, the causal relationship is that intelligence causes interest and aptitude in chess.

Furthermore, life involves opportunity costs. Thus, time spent playing chess, is time not spent studying your technical field.

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, learning, transfer
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