Cognitive Science

The latest breakthroughs, innovations, and cool happenings at the cutting edge of the world of cognitive science. Updated daily.

Least Effort and Alignment in Task‐Oriented Communication

Abstract Conversational partners align the meanings of their words over the course of interaction to coordinate and communicate. One process of alignment is lexical entrainment, whereby partners mirror and abbreviate their word usage to converge on shared terms for referents relevant to the conversation. However, lexical entrainment may result in inefficient mimicry that does not […]

Published on April 25, 2025

Psychological richness offers a third path to a good life

Psychologists have long debated the relative benefits of a happy life versus a meaningful life, assuming these to be only two major dimensions of a good life. Here, we propose an alternative: a psychologically rich life, or a life filled with diverse, interesting experiences. Psychologically rich lives not only feel different from meaningful or happy […]

Published on April 25, 2025

Where is my mind? A neurocognitive investigation of mind blanking

During wakefulness, our thoughts transition between different contents. However, there are moments that are seemingly devoid of reportable content, referred to as mind blanking (MB). It remains unclear what these blanks represent, highlighting the definitional and phenomenological ambiguities surrounding MB. We map out MB in terms of its reportable expressions, neurophysiology, and relationship to adjacent […]

Published on April 25, 2025