cogtest http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/ en-us Copyright 2006 Thu, 07 Sep 2006 09:58:36 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Musings of the week Click on the "comments" link below to post.

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/09/musings_of_the_week.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/09/musings_of_the_week.html Thu, 07 Sep 2006 09:58:36 +0000 Final Exam Questions Post 'em here. Feel free to answer other students questions if you're able.

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/final_exam_questions.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/final_exam_questions.html Wed, 24 May 2006 14:18:36 +0000 Psychopathology or evolution? I keep telling myself that I should stop going to CNN's website because there are too many news stories related to child death. But, this story is directly related to a discussion we had a while back about whether instances of infanticide were due to random psychopathology or evolutionary pressures. What do you think?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/24/kids.tossed.ap/index.html

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/psychopathology_or_evolution.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/psychopathology_or_evolution.html Wed, 24 May 2006 13:57:51 +0000 Why do we circumcise? If selection pressure are heaviest on sex organ morphology, aren't we flirting with danger by cutting on the penis? The American Academy of Pediatrics now says that there's no health-related justification for rutine circumcisions. There is significant pain associated with this surgery and in the week following. Interesting that in european cultures where insurance doesn't rutinely pay for circumcision, most people DON'T get circumcised. So, is there a pricetag associated with our circumcision value?

AAP Policy

Circumstraint

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/why_do_we_circumcise.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/why_do_we_circumcise.html Tue, 16 May 2006 11:03:49 +0000 Sex Ratios ... This from Linda...thoughts?

In class today, we talked about the male and female differences in birth, and I found an interesting paper on the topic. It talks about a relationship between partnership-status and resultant offspring sex. The writer of the paper found a ratio which correlates to what we were speculating would be the percentage: when the mother had a spouse/partner, there was 51.5% male births. However, the percentage was 49.9% male births mothers who weren't living with a spouse or partner at conception. Anyways, while this paper doesn't exactly explain the genetics involved, it provides some support for the idea of conditions impacting the success of male vs. female babies.

http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/9a0hvptgwr27dyvnyd9l/contributions/j/v/0/g/jv0gc97rbeurq5xw.pdf

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/sex_ratios.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/sex_ratios.html Fri, 12 May 2006 13:51:30 +0000 Women Get Paternal Clues in Men's Faces Eugina found the following interesting article. What's your explanation for this?

I found this article, which says that women are attracted to men who look like they would be good fathers. In this study, women thought that men who looked like they would be good fathers were generally less masculine. Doesn't this kind of contrast what we've been learning about mate selection, esp. the article we discussed today? How can women simultaneously prefer dominant, masculine men and less masculine men if resources and parental investment are both important? Does it have anything to do with the dual mating strategy?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060509/ap_on_sc/liking_kids

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/women_get_paternal_clues_in_me.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/women_get_paternal_clues_in_me.html Thu, 11 May 2006 11:56:08 +0000 Does Culture Reinforce Genetic Selection? I was just thinking the other day about the degree to which culture grows out of evolutionary drives. For example, marriage (a meme) emerging from evolutionary pressures toward monogamy 1 million years age. I'm still facinated with this finding of earlier menarche in lower SES urban areas. For sure, there are cultural factors such as greater educational (both sex-ed and otherwise) levels in middle/upper class populations of suburbia, who presumably abstain from sex for a longer period of time ......

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/does_culture_reinforce_genetic.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/does_culture_reinforce_genetic.html Tue, 09 May 2006 12:34:12 +0000 Exam Questions Post 'em here

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/exam_questions.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/05/exam_questions.html Sun, 07 May 2006 00:12:14 +0000 "Thank You" Why do we say it? What are the proximal and ultimate explanations?

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/04/thank_you.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/04/thank_you.html Wed, 26 Apr 2006 12:07:49 +0000 Updates to class today I tried to do some digging on the decrease in brain size in modern humans. The textbook only mentions this -- with no explanation. I did find a stat that the brains of humans today are 4% smaller than that of Cro-Magnon. So this may be the origin of the statistic. That said, Cro-magnons were tall, averaging around 6 feet for males. Though their EQ was probably the same as ours today. What this means is that if you take a group of tall individuals (cro-magnons) and compare their brain size to the average human male (averaging in tall and short groups) today, you'll observe a decrease. Statistically, this is called regression to the mean. So, brain sizes have likely not been increasing. That's my interpretation after 10 mins of internet research. Let me know if you find anything interesting.

In other news, I also stumbled on some information doing the above "research". Skulls were recently (since the printing of my reference books) uncovered in Africa indicating that modern humans existed as long ago as 160,000 ya. They do have a brow ridge, but more closely resemble modern, as opposed to archaic, homo sapiens. Some believe they should be put in a different subspecies: Homo sapiens idaltu. Still, this is further evidence that we evolved out of Africa and are not decendants of neandertals. click here for a pic.

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/04/updates_to_class_today.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/04/updates_to_class_today.html Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:36:54 +0000 Evo Psych: more on NOMA We talked a bit today about the domains of science and religion pressing hard against each other in certain places, like the existence of a soul? What are your feelings about this?

Also, what about difficulties reconciling the fact that we live in, and have evolved in, a physical world subject to rather strict physical laws? Does God choose to just operate within those laws, as Ken Miller suggests? Is there an issue with God creating laws that he can't break?

Click on the "Comments" link below to post a response. You can post anonymously by not including your name if you wish.

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/04/evo_psych_more_on_noma.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2006/04/evo_psych_more_on_noma.html Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:04:02 +0000 Support for the Peripheral Hypoth of Distracted Driving Click here for the story

text messaging seems like the worse combination of attentional and peripheral resource demands

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2005/12/support_for_the_peripheral_hyp.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2005/12/support_for_the_peripheral_hyp.html Fri, 02 Dec 2005 11:30:53 +0000 Your Life is Half Over! Just heard a radio show on NPR today about this guy who has a new book about our perceptions of the passage of time. The idea is that when we are young time seems to creep by more slowly than when we are older. So, the summer vacation of your 10th year seemed long and full; while your summer vaca this year may have seemed much quicker. This guy's done computations that reveal that though you may 60 years ahead of you, it will speed by much faster than you think. Bottom line: in terms of perception of time passing, your life is half over.

I can't help but compare this to the reminiscence bump theories. Do we remember more info from the teens to mid-twenties because we have more time to encode them (as time is moving perceptually more slowly). Einstein would certainly have something to say about this, but I'm not smart enough to know what that might be.

Any thoughts?

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2005/11/your_life_is_half_over.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2005/11/your_life_is_half_over.html Sat, 19 Nov 2005 17:58:50 +0000 Bot Talk Post your favorite bot exchanges here. Be sure to mention the name of the bot, so others can have fun with it.

http://www.chatterboxchallenge.com/

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2005/11/bot_talk.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2005/11/bot_talk.html Thu, 17 Nov 2005 21:57:04 +0000 Classical Conditioning Have you come under the control of a stimulus? Do you find yourself exhibiting the same behavior (feelings are behaviors too) in response to some previously neutral stimulus? If so, you may be the victim of classical conditioning. Bare it all here.

]]> http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2005/10/classical_conditioning.html http://bloggery.wlu.edu/cogtest/2005/10/classical_conditioning.html Mon, 31 Oct 2005 16:13:03 +0000