Cognition
@cognitionjournal.bsky.social
EiC team: Johan Wagemans, Ian Dobbins, Ori Friedman, and Katrien Segaert
This adds a new twist to linguistic relativity: Grammar nudges our sense of how valuable future events really are, because of how certain we are about them. We call this the modal hypothesis (Fig 3)
November 10, 2025 at 6:29 PM
This adds a new twist to linguistic relativity: Grammar nudges our sense of how valuable future events really are, because of how certain we are about them. We call this the modal hypothesis (Fig 3)
It’s not future tenses like will that drive this effect. Instead, the obligation in English to use a modal like may lowers its perceived probability (i.e. Sub-Figure C was supported but not A or B in Fig 2). This makes the future feel less certain and therefore less valuable.
November 10, 2025 at 6:29 PM
It’s not future tenses like will that drive this effect. Instead, the obligation in English to use a modal like may lowers its perceived probability (i.e. Sub-Figure C was supported but not A or B in Fig 2). This makes the future feel less certain and therefore less valuable.
How did we study this? We combined experiments, bilingual comparisons, and large-scale text analyses. Together these show that English future grammar shifts both how people talk about and evaluate the future, note higher use of low-certainty modals in English (Fig 1).
November 10, 2025 at 6:29 PM
How did we study this? We combined experiments, bilingual comparisons, and large-scale text analyses. Together these show that English future grammar shifts both how people talk about and evaluate the future, note higher use of low-certainty modals in English (Fig 1).
Findings: Immersive movement produced richer, event-specific free recall; joystick control yielded more generalized/semantic-like descriptions—knowledge accrued over repeated routes.
November 7, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Findings: Immersive movement produced richer, event-specific free recall; joystick control yielded more generalized/semantic-like descriptions—knowledge accrued over repeated routes.
New in Cognition: Episodic Recall after VR navigation with naturalistic leg/head movement (immersive) vs handheld joystick (restricted). Sabharwal-Siddiqi et al. (sameerss.bsky.social adekstreme.bsky.social) tests the dependence of episodic memory on body movement and spatiotemporal encoding.
November 7, 2025 at 6:06 PM
New in Cognition: Episodic Recall after VR navigation with naturalistic leg/head movement (immersive) vs handheld joystick (restricted). Sabharwal-Siddiqi et al. (sameerss.bsky.social adekstreme.bsky.social) tests the dependence of episodic memory on body movement and spatiotemporal encoding.
A trial-wise analysis reveals a very strong correlation between confidence and guessing rate for transparent motion, but extremely weak correlation between confidence and precision (SD) for both motion types.
October 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
A trial-wise analysis reveals a very strong correlation between confidence and guessing rate for transparent motion, but extremely weak correlation between confidence and precision (SD) for both motion types.
In a new paper in Cognition, @marshallgreen.bsky.social and Michael Pratte examine how perceptual confidence is derived from our internal representations. #CognitiveScience #Perception #Metacognition
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October 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
In a new paper in Cognition, @marshallgreen.bsky.social and Michael Pratte examine how perceptual confidence is derived from our internal representations. #CognitiveScience #Perception #Metacognition
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Even when emotions aren’t relevant to a task, they still guide our focus. Using a Posner cueing task for exogenous attention orientation —a paradigm designed to isolate reflexive attention— we discovered the TEASC effect:
October 20, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Even when emotions aren’t relevant to a task, they still guide our focus. Using a Posner cueing task for exogenous attention orientation —a paradigm designed to isolate reflexive attention— we discovered the TEASC effect:
We think about others’ thoughts about our thoughts to navigate romance, sarcasm, gossip, and nuclear standoffs. But recursive mentalizing is hard. In a model contest, I show that under pressure our inner vision goes blurry, not blind. #TheoryOfMind
October 11, 2025 at 4:23 PM
We think about others’ thoughts about our thoughts to navigate romance, sarcasm, gossip, and nuclear standoffs. But recursive mentalizing is hard. In a model contest, I show that under pressure our inner vision goes blurry, not blind. #TheoryOfMind
In our study, we investigated how people evaluate everyday socio-political arguments in the context of their prior beliefs about the topics being discussed.
October 1, 2025 at 3:14 PM
In our study, we investigated how people evaluate everyday socio-political arguments in the context of their prior beliefs about the topics being discussed.
We often argue about what’s true, without ever asking what we mean by ”truth”. Different ideas of truth can derail a debate long before facts are discussed. In this work, we use conceptual scaling to explore how people understand truth.
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September 23, 2025 at 2:20 PM
We often argue about what’s true, without ever asking what we mean by ”truth”. Different ideas of truth can derail a debate long before facts are discussed. In this work, we use conceptual scaling to explore how people understand truth.
(1/7)
(1/7)
Consistent with the theory, our experiments show that self-handicapping increases naive observers’ evaluations, but not for sophisticated observers when the actor fails. The theory also explains past experiments with different setups and methods.
September 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Consistent with the theory, our experiments show that self-handicapping increases naive observers’ evaluations, but not for sophisticated observers when the actor fails. The theory also explains past experiments with different setups and methods.
The theory involves a naive observer who evaluates the actor’s competence, an actor who seeks to impress the naive observer through strategic self-handicapping, and a sophisticated observer who considers the actor’s decision whether to self-handicap.
September 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
The theory involves a naive observer who evaluates the actor’s competence, an actor who seeks to impress the naive observer through strategic self-handicapping, and a sophisticated observer who considers the actor’s decision whether to self-handicap.
How do background voices derail our thoughts? Our study shows that distracting words disrupt deliberate memory retrieval not necessarily by grabbing attention, but because they are processed incidentally, forcing us to suppress their meaning.
September 16, 2025 at 2:12 PM
How do background voices derail our thoughts? Our study shows that distracting words disrupt deliberate memory retrieval not necessarily by grabbing attention, but because they are processed incidentally, forcing us to suppress their meaning.
Highlighting “women and children” as victims increases moral outrage, and this is not due to equating them with “civilians” or overestimating the number of their causalities.
September 15, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Highlighting “women and children” as victims increases moral outrage, and this is not due to equating them with “civilians” or overestimating the number of their causalities.
20/ The results showed that people really were better at detecting lures related to coherent videos. When it came to reject fragmented lures, they actually performed at chance level! (Exp. 3 also replicated our order-related findings from Exp. 1 and 2).
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
20/ The results showed that people really were better at detecting lures related to coherent videos. When it came to reject fragmented lures, they actually performed at chance level! (Exp. 3 also replicated our order-related findings from Exp. 1 and 2).
19/ Basically, only half of the images participants saw were actual stills from the video (originals); the rest (lures) had been doctored in a manner that misrepresented causally relevant details. Here, the red burger and the barrel switched position.
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
19/ Basically, only half of the images participants saw were actual stills from the video (originals); the rest (lures) had been doctored in a manner that misrepresented causally relevant details. Here, the red burger and the barrel switched position.
15/ In Experiment 1, we tested the hypothesis regarding recall of event order. It was a within-subjects study, meaning each participant saw both coherent and fragmented videos. As predicted, people were better at remembering the order of coherent events.
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
15/ In Experiment 1, we tested the hypothesis regarding recall of event order. It was a within-subjects study, meaning each participant saw both coherent and fragmented videos. As predicted, people were better at remembering the order of coherent events.
10/ We should probably note that all the previous GIFs were just snippets – here’s a complete fragmented video from Experiment 1 (these videos were the shortest), in case you are curious:
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
10/ We should probably note that all the previous GIFs were just snippets – here’s a complete fragmented video from Experiment 1 (these videos were the shortest), in case you are curious:
9/ Coherent videos also had cuts, but they only changed the point of view (i.e., position of the camera) and did not interfere with the causal structure of the event. We hypothesized uninterrupted causal links would lead to more accurate event recall.
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
9/ Coherent videos also had cuts, but they only changed the point of view (i.e., position of the camera) and did not interfere with the causal structure of the event. We hypothesized uninterrupted causal links would lead to more accurate event recall.
8/ Importantly, fragmented videos were not completely devoid of causal structure. Instead, they contained causal discontinuities: After each cut in a fragmented video, objects would abruptly be in different positions and move at different speeds.
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
8/ Importantly, fragmented videos were not completely devoid of causal structure. Instead, they contained causal discontinuities: After each cut in a fragmented video, objects would abruptly be in different positions and move at different speeds.
7/ But back to causal structure: In all of our three experiments, we varied the causal structure of these unfamiliar events. Videos with a high degree of causal structure we called coherent; those with interrupted causal structure we called fragmented.
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
7/ But back to causal structure: In all of our three experiments, we varied the causal structure of these unfamiliar events. Videos with a high degree of causal structure we called coherent; those with interrupted causal structure we called fragmented.
5/ As we were not interested in specific content – to the contrary, we wanted to eliminate its influence – we did not present movies or TikTok clips to our participants, but rather fairly odd videos of arbitrary objects hitting each other.
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
5/ As we were not interested in specific content – to the contrary, we wanted to eliminate its influence – we did not present movies or TikTok clips to our participants, but rather fairly odd videos of arbitrary objects hitting each other.
Did this study uncover a new fountain of youth?
By investigating semantic memory networks across the lifespan, it was found that creativity helps preserve memory organization & retrieval process flexibility in older adults.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@sergioagnoli.bsky.social
By investigating semantic memory networks across the lifespan, it was found that creativity helps preserve memory organization & retrieval process flexibility in older adults.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@sergioagnoli.bsky.social
September 13, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Did this study uncover a new fountain of youth?
By investigating semantic memory networks across the lifespan, it was found that creativity helps preserve memory organization & retrieval process flexibility in older adults.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@sergioagnoli.bsky.social
By investigating semantic memory networks across the lifespan, it was found that creativity helps preserve memory organization & retrieval process flexibility in older adults.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@sergioagnoli.bsky.social
"Learn what is detectable, detect what is useful: acquisition of German plural as a classification problem"
📢New paper from: Sergei Monakhov, Holger Diessel, & Brisca Balthes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
📢New paper from: Sergei Monakhov, Holger Diessel, & Brisca Balthes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
September 2, 2025 at 7:42 PM
"Learn what is detectable, detect what is useful: acquisition of German plural as a classification problem"
📢New paper from: Sergei Monakhov, Holger Diessel, & Brisca Balthes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
📢New paper from: Sergei Monakhov, Holger Diessel, & Brisca Balthes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...