Michael Tanenhaus awarded top cognitive science prize
Tanenhaus is best known for developing the Visual World Paradigm, which uses eye movements to study the mechanisms behind speech and language comprehension.
Piantadosi named ‘rising star’ by Association for Psychological Science
Steven Piantadosi, an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences, was recognized as one of this year’s outstanding psychological scientists in the early stages of their post-PhD research career.
Machine learning advances human-computer interaction
Machine learning provides computers with the ability to learn from labeled examples and observations of data. Researchers at Rochester are developing computer programs incorporating machine learning to teach robots and software to understand natural language and body language, make predictions from social media, and model human cognition.
What humans and primates both know when it comes to numbers
University researchers show that primates — like humans — have the ability to distinguish between large and small quantities of objects, irrespective of the surface area those objects occupy.
Brain training video games help improve kids vision
A new study by vision scientists finds that children with poor vision see vast and lasting improvement in their peripheral vision after only eight hours of playing kid-friendly video games.
This is your brain on sentences
What does the meaning of a word look like? Researchers have, for the first time, decoded and predicted the brain activity patterns of word meanings within sentences, and successfully predicted what the brain patterns would be for new sentences.
Brain tune-up from action video game play
Numerous studies have found that playing action video games such as “Call of Duty” helps cognitive functioning. Brain and cognitive sciences professor Daphne Bavelier explains how shooting zombies can enhance brain skills. / Scientific American
Did human-like intelligence evolve to care for helpless babies?
A self-reinforcing cycle of large brains, early birth, vulnerable infants, and intelligent parents is at the center of a novel model of human intelligence developed by brain and cognitive science researchers.
What ‘drives’ curiosity research?
Scientists have been studying curiosity since the 19th century, but combining techniques from several fields now makes it possible for the first time to study it with full scientific rigor, according to the authors of a new paper.
Can we unconsciously ‘hear’ distance?
Because sound travels much more slowly than light, we can often see distant events before we hear them. That is why we can count the seconds between a lightning flash and its accompanying thunder. Now researchers in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences have shown that our brains can also detect and process sound delays that are too short to be noticed consciously, and that we use that information to fine tune what our eyes see when estimating distance.