Ever wondered what allows us to be so perceptive about the world around us that it's almost taken for granted? Or why it is so difficult to create a robot with human-like perception, intelligence and understanding?The discovery that the brain forms assumptions about the world in order to facilitate our lives has been one of the most illuminating insights from psychology and neuroscience.Assumptio
23 Vote(s)
August 15, 2010
Cognitive Inferences and Optical Illusions
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July 14, 2010
Political leanings: Who is ‘left wing,’ and who just thinks they are?
A new study reveals that highly educated people make wrong assumptions about their political leanings - they are more likely to think they are left wing when they are more likely to be relatively conservative. The study suggests that some people may end up voting for left of center parties because they hold the mistaken belief that they are left wing.
7 Vote(s)
7 Vote(s)
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Counsellors Struggle To Treat Male Victims Of Domestic Violence, UK
Some trained counsellors feel unprepared to treat male victims of domestic violence due to their own assumptions about domestic abuse...
6 Vote(s)
6 Vote(s)
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June 17, 2010
Communication and Emotional Expression (Part 1): The Female Factor
Expressing emotion - it's an often-cited challenge for those of us on the autism spectrum. Sometimes, it can be hard for others to understand what we're feeling, which may lead to assumptions that we're emotionless...but my experience has been that this is certainly not the case.I've written of a few of my experiences with emotional expression - most notably remorse, a post which generated a grea
10 Vote(s)
10 Vote(s)
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February 27, 2010
Clearing the fog of vision
Neuroscientist Pawan Sinha gave an inspiring talk to TED India about his work on providing treatment for visual problems and how this is over-turning many of our long-standing assumptions about how the brain develops the ability to make sense of the visual world.Sinha focuses on children and adults who have grown up with congenital cataracts - a clouding of the eye's lens that prevents light from
12 Vote(s)
12 Vote(s)
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July 10, 2009
PTSD Is a Valid Diagnosis: Who Benefits From Challenging Its Existence?
PTSD filled a nosological gap by providing a way to characterize the long-lasting effects of trauma exposure.1 This led to a plethora of previously lacking scientific observations. Now the existence of PTSD is being called into question because some of the original assumptions that helped make the case for it have proved to be incorrect.2-4 However, it is possible to update some of the flawed ass
8 Vote(s)
8 Vote(s)
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