Cognitive Science

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

When Stronger Knowledge Slows You Down: Semantic Relatedness Predicts Children’s Co‐Activation of Related Items in a Visual Search Paradigm

Abstract A large literature suggests that the organization of words in semantic memory, reflecting meaningful relations among words and the concepts to which they refer, supports many cognitive processes, including memory encoding and retrieval, word learning, and inferential reasoning. The co‐activation of related items has been proposed as a mechanism by which semantic knowledge influences […]

Published on June 16, 2019

Rationalization and Reflection Differentially Modulate Prior Attitudes Toward the Purity Domain

Abstract Outside Western, predominantly secular‐liberal environments, norms restricting bodily and sexual conduct are widespread. Moralization in the so‐called purity domain has been treated as evidence that some putative violations are victimless. However, respondents themselves disagree: They often report that private yet indecent acts incur self‐harm, or harm to one’s family and the wider community—a result […]

Published on June 16, 2019

Affordance Compatibility Effect for Word Learning in Virtual Reality

Abstract Rich sensorimotor interaction facilitates language learning and is presumed to ground conceptual representations. Yet empirical support for early stages of embodied word learning is currently lacking. Finding evidence that sensorimotor interaction shapes learned linguistic representations would provide crucial support for embodied language theories. We developed a gamified word learning experiment in virtual reality in […]

Published on June 16, 2019