Cognitive Science

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

Action Predictions Facilitate Embodied Geometric Reasoning

Abstract Task-relevant actions can facilitate mathematical thinking, even for complex topics, such as mathematical proof. We investigated whether such cognitive benefits also occur for action predictions. The action-cognition transduction (ACT) model posits a reciprocal relationship between movements and reasoning. Movements—imagined as well as real ones operating on real or imaginary objects—activate feedforward mechanisms for the […]

Published on March 21, 2025

Studying memory narratives with natural language processing

Cognitive neuroscience research has begun to use natural language processing (NLP) to examine memory narratives with the hopes of gaining a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms underlying differences in memory recall, both across groups and tasks. However, the diversity of NLP approaches can make it challenging for researchers to know which techniques to use and […]

Published on March 20, 2025

How to Live in the Moment: The Methodology and Limitations of Evolutionary Research on Consciousness

Abstract There is much interest in investigating the evolution question: How did consciousness evolve? In this paper, we evaluate the role that evolutionary considerations can play in justifying (i.e., confirming or falsifying) hypotheses about the origin, nature, and function of consciousness. Specifically, we argue against what we call evolution-first approaches to consciousness, according to which […]

Published on March 19, 2025