Cognitive Science

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

Applying Interdisciplinary Innovations to Advance Theories of Social Behavior: Response to Van Dessel and Colleagues

I thank Van Dessel, Gawronski, and De Houwer [1] for their thoughtful response to my opinion article [2]. However, their core objection, regarding the validity of the multiple systems account of learning and memory, appears misplaced. The contribution of my article was not to propose this broad framework for learning and memory; the memory systems […]

Published on April 19, 2019

How Efficiency Shapes Human Language

We review recent research on the burgeoning topic of how language structure is shaped by principles of efficiency for communication and learning.Work in this area has infused long-standing ideas in linguistics and psychology with new precision and methodological rigor by bringing together information theory, newly available datasets, controlled experimentation, and computational modeling.We review a number […]

Published on April 19, 2019

Does Explaining Social Behavior Require Multiple Memory Systems?

Amodio [1] argues that social cognition research has for many decades relied on imprecise dual-process models that build on questionable assumptions about how people learn and represent information. He presents an alternative framework for explaining social behavior as the product of multiple dissociable memory systems, based on the idea that cognitive neuroscience has revealed evidence […]

Published on April 19, 2019