Cognitations

<p>For ages, we've pictured our ancestors as living in small, equal societies, sharing everything around campfires without bosses. Think of popular ideas like the "noble savage" or "primitive communism." But what if...

<p>Conversations shape nearly every aspect of our lives. We joke, argue, persuade, gossip, and comfort—all through spoken and unspoken signals we barely even notice. Yet behind every casual chat, awkward silence, or...

<p>We often talk about the modern challenge of work-life balance. However, long before the existence of offices, commutes, and calendars, our ancestors lived as hunter-gatherers. Did they actually enjoy more leisure...

<p>We rarely stop to think about how we make sense of the sounds around us — how we find voices in a noisy room, or why two people can hear completely different things in the same audio clip. Today’s guest explores the...

<p>In our episode with Amy Orben, we discussed a big problem in the research on how social media potentially affects mental health. That is, a lot of studies ask really vague, broad questions. For instance, asking 'What...

<p>Humans inhabit a social world. With the march of history and the discovery of novel technologies, our ability to socialise has been in a state of constant flux to varying degrees. However, modes of human interaction...

<p>Humans are curious creatures who seek out knowledge about every aspect of the world. We also value knowledge to a great degree. Having a good education is very well-perceived and is a priority of many parents. We...

<p>The relationship we sustain with non-human animals is rich and complex. We take care of them, we exploit them, we eat them, and we tell stories about them. The psychological dimensions of this multifaceted...

<p>In this update episode, Tanay and Jay reflect on the journey so far and some special guests crash the show...</p>

<p>Contemporary life is replete with problems. A very salient example of such a problem is depression, which according to the World Health Organization, affected 5% of the global population in 2019. That is 280 million...

<p>Like many of our cognitive abilities, it is easy to take vision for granted. On a daily basis, vision seems rather simple: various objects, people, landscapes present themselves before us; and, if our eyes are open...

<p>After eight episodes where we discussed intricacies of different areas of cognitive science — reasoning, the evolution of cultures, our relationship to our bodies, public policy, how children learn language...

<p>Language is oftentimes viewed as a paradigmatically human capacity. Indeed, we have observed no other creature exhibit linguistic abilities with the same complexity and freedom as our own. Conversely, humans are...

<p>Most actions humans take are social in nature. If they are not directly geared towards affecting others' behaviors and thoughts, they are at least likely to have some impact on their lives. One can wonder if there is...

<p><br></p> <p>Our daily experiences (e.g. thinking, acting, talking to people etc.) give us the idea that we/our mind is a singular entity i.e. a unified inner space or soul that perceives and acts on the complex world...