Cognitive Science

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

A Dual Model of Leadership and Hierarchy: Evolutionary Synthesis

From the popularity of authoritarian political leaders to the under-representation of women in boardrooms, leadership is an important theme in current human social affairs. Leadership is also a prominent research topic in the biological, social, and cognitive sciences. However, these active literatures have evolved somewhat independently and there is a need for synthesis. A comparative-evolutionary approach […]

Published on October 17, 2019

Weber’s Law: A Mechanistic Foundation after Two Centuries

Weber’s law appears to be a universal principle describing how we discriminate between physical magnitudes. However, this law remained purely descriptive for nearly two centuries. A study by Pardo-Vazquez et al. finally provides a mechanistic explanation, revealing how both accuracy and reaction-time performance lawfully emerge during sensory discrimination tasks. Read Full Article (External Site) Dr. David […]

Published on October 17, 2019

What Does a Horgous Look Like? Nonsense Words Elicit Meaningful Drawings

Abstract To what extent do people attribute meanings to “nonsense” words? How general is such attribution of meaning? We used a set of words lacking conventional meanings to elicit drawings of made‐up creatures. Separate groups of participants rated the nonsense words and the drawings on several semantic dimensions and selected what name best corresponded to […]

Published on October 16, 2019