Great story in Sunday’s New York Times about people who are trying to be more productive despite the prevalence of interruptions such as email, IM, and the myriad electronic documents we have open at any one time.
Apparently the best solution is to have a VERY LARGE monitor.
MAGAZINE | October 16, 2005
Meet the Life Hackers
By CLIVE THOMPSON (NYT) News
Can anyone find a way to make your constantly beeping and dinging computer leave you alone and let you work? Inside the nascent field of interruption science.
October 18, 2005
October 10, 2005
UConn Cog Sci Colloquium -- Friday, Oct. 14
Sorry I’m going to miss this one …
Speaker: Herbert Terrace, Columbia University
Title: "Thought without Language"
Time: 4pm, Friday, October 14, 2005
Place: Class of '47 Room, Babbidge Library, University of Connecticut / Storrs
In recent years, the Cartesian view that animals can’t think because they lack language has been attacked on two fronts. One objection is that animals can in fact learn language, e.g., they can produce grammatical sequences in American Sign Language or in artificial languages made up of visual stimuli. Another group of psychologists argue that animals can in fact think without language. I will defend the latter position and provide evidence that rhesus macaques can learn complex sequences of arbitrary items, that a monkey can gauge its knowledge of a particular sequence and use that knowledge metacognitively to determine when to request hints as to the identity of the next item of that sequence, that college students and monkeys use similar spatial representations to represent sequences, and that a naïve monkey can acquire serial knowledge by observing an expert perform a list. Given such serial expertise, why is a non-human primate unable to learn the most rudimentary linguistic skills? The answer takes us back to Descartes’ distinction between human and animal intelligence. I will argue that Descartes was right about the uniqueness of language but for the wrong reason. What animals lack is not the ability to think but a theory of mind. Language is of little value if you cannot infer what another individual is thinking.
Speaker: Herbert Terrace, Columbia University
Title: "Thought without Language"
Time: 4pm, Friday, October 14, 2005
Place: Class of '47 Room, Babbidge Library, University of Connecticut / Storrs
In recent years, the Cartesian view that animals can’t think because they lack language has been attacked on two fronts. One objection is that animals can in fact learn language, e.g., they can produce grammatical sequences in American Sign Language or in artificial languages made up of visual stimuli. Another group of psychologists argue that animals can in fact think without language. I will defend the latter position and provide evidence that rhesus macaques can learn complex sequences of arbitrary items, that a monkey can gauge its knowledge of a particular sequence and use that knowledge metacognitively to determine when to request hints as to the identity of the next item of that sequence, that college students and monkeys use similar spatial representations to represent sequences, and that a naïve monkey can acquire serial knowledge by observing an expert perform a list. Given such serial expertise, why is a non-human primate unable to learn the most rudimentary linguistic skills? The answer takes us back to Descartes’ distinction between human and animal intelligence. I will argue that Descartes was right about the uniqueness of language but for the wrong reason. What animals lack is not the ability to think but a theory of mind. Language is of little value if you cannot infer what another individual is thinking.
October 09, 2005
Politicians Blogging -- Election Effects?
US Senator Barak Obama is podcasting. He reads some prepared remarks – about 10 minutes each – once a week. I’ve heard him present some suggestions for how to handle cleanup and poverty issues in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and voicing thoughtful, reasoned comments on why he voted against John Roberts’ nomination for the Supreme Court.
I like the idea of politicians blogging and wonder what effect (if any) this kind of communication might have on the next election. If I can listen to politicians speaking at my convenience, might I learn more about them than I would via the press? Might I have a better chance of making a well-reasoned decision about them? Or are there not enough people listening to podcasts to make a difference?
I know one thing: I do like listening to Senator Obama.
I like the idea of politicians blogging and wonder what effect (if any) this kind of communication might have on the next election. If I can listen to politicians speaking at my convenience, might I learn more about them than I would via the press? Might I have a better chance of making a well-reasoned decision about them? Or are there not enough people listening to podcasts to make a difference?
I know one thing: I do like listening to Senator Obama.
Blogging & Podcasting News
Just discovered that CBS News is blogging too. I prefer the casual yet newsy tone of NBC’s Daily Nightly, but CBS offers an RSS feed.
And have I mentioned that the News Hour is podcasting? I don’t have time (or patience) to watch TV News, but I like reading blogs and listening to podcasts.
And have I mentioned that the News Hour is podcasting? I don’t have time (or patience) to watch TV News, but I like reading blogs and listening to podcasts.
October 05, 2005
"Rama" & art
Australia's ABC Radio National program "All in the Mind" recently interviewed the "Marco Polo of Neuroscience", V.S Ramachandran. He talks a little about neuroscience and a lot about how humans perceive art.
When he was at Hampshire. "Rama" talked more about neuroscience and a little about art, so if you want to hear more of what he says about artistic universals. Hmmm. You can read the transcript or listen to an mp3 or podcast of the show. Despite his quirks, Ramachandran has fascinating things to say, and he explains complex neuroscience in bits that are (relatively) easy to understand.
Natasha Mitchell introduces Ramachandran by saying, "His adventurous book Phantoms in the Brain should be by your bed if you haven’t read it." I totally agree -- it's a great read.
PS, according to the ABC Radio National web site, Natasha is at MIT for a year on a fellowship.
When he was at Hampshire. "Rama" talked more about neuroscience and a little about art, so if you want to hear more of what he says about artistic universals. Hmmm. You can read the transcript or listen to an mp3 or podcast of the show. Despite his quirks, Ramachandran has fascinating things to say, and he explains complex neuroscience in bits that are (relatively) easy to understand.
Natasha Mitchell introduces Ramachandran by saying, "His adventurous book Phantoms in the Brain should be by your bed if you haven’t read it." I totally agree -- it's a great read.
PS, according to the ABC Radio National web site, Natasha is at MIT for a year on a fellowship.
Nature Neuro, etc. offers RSS feeds
Did you know that the journal Nature (plus its myriad imprints) has rss feeds?
You can get them for Nature itself, Nature Neuroscience, and Nature Neuroscience Reviews -- plus a whole bunch more. Check out the Nature page for info. on RSS feeds and the URLs for the various journals.
A subscription is required to see most of the content, but you can probably go to your local university library or request articles through Interlibrary Loan.
See the Open Directory if you want to find a good RSS feed reader (besides the Mac’s Safari browser).
You can get them for Nature itself, Nature Neuroscience, and Nature Neuroscience Reviews -- plus a whole bunch more. Check out the Nature page for info. on RSS feeds and the URLs for the various journals.
A subscription is required to see most of the content, but you can probably go to your local university library or request articles through Interlibrary Loan.
See the Open Directory if you want to find a good RSS feed reader (besides the Mac’s Safari browser).
October 03, 2005
Read the Sacred Neuron, free online!
The Sacred Neuron is netLibrary’s free book of the month. Here’s their blurb about it, which might interest some cognitive scientists out there:
"Why do we think that some things are beautiful, and others ugly? Why do we think that some things are good, and others evil? Why do we think that some things are true, and others false? These are questions that have puzzled thinkers for millennia. In the past they have been answered by separating our emotional from our rational responses. But recent scientific research suggests that the questions now deserve very different answers."
The book is free to read online during October; free registration will be required.
Thanks to Chris for the link!
"Why do we think that some things are beautiful, and others ugly? Why do we think that some things are good, and others evil? Why do we think that some things are true, and others false? These are questions that have puzzled thinkers for millennia. In the past they have been answered by separating our emotional from our rational responses. But recent scientific research suggests that the questions now deserve very different answers."
The book is free to read online during October; free registration will be required.
Thanks to Chris for the link!
October 02, 2005
Philosophers’ Imprint
Edited by philosophers
Published by librarians
Free to readers of the Web
More open access, this time in philosophy. Gotta love their tag line.
Heard about this at a fabulous scholarly communication colloquium at UMass last week.
Their goal? “Although the Imprint is edited by analytically trained philosophers, it is not restricted to any particular field or school of philosophy. Its target audience consists primarily of academic philosophers and philosophy students, but it also aims to attract non-academic readers to philosophy by making excellent philosophical scholarship available without license or subscription.” (from their About page)
I did see a range of philosophical articles, including a few in what I would consider cognitive philosophy.
Go, open access journals!
Published by librarians
Free to readers of the Web
More open access, this time in philosophy. Gotta love their tag line.
Heard about this at a fabulous scholarly communication colloquium at UMass last week.
Their goal? “Although the Imprint is edited by analytically trained philosophers, it is not restricted to any particular field or school of philosophy. Its target audience consists primarily of academic philosophers and philosophy students, but it also aims to attract non-academic readers to philosophy by making excellent philosophical scholarship available without license or subscription.” (from their About page)
I did see a range of philosophical articles, including a few in what I would consider cognitive philosophy.
Go, open access journals!
Gorillas using tools!
CNN and the AP are reporting that chimps can use tools. A team at the Bronx zoo studied some gorillas in the Republic of Congo who used large sticks to measure the depth of water and perform other tasks.
The full article is being published in the PLoS Biology (Public Library of Science; yay! open access) as First Observation of Tool Use in Wild Gorillas.
Both gorillas described in the CNN story were female. Figures.
The full article is being published in the PLoS Biology (Public Library of Science; yay! open access) as First Observation of Tool Use in Wild Gorillas.
Both gorillas described in the CNN story were female. Figures.
October 01, 2005
Response to O'Reilly
My favorite dj, Vin Scelsa, has a letter to the editor in the Oct 1, 2005 New York Times in response to Tim O'Reilly's Sept 28 op-ed piece about authors & Google Scholar.
Vin compares his work of playing digital music (which he does for WFUV in New York on Saturday nights, and Sirius Disorder on Sunday nights) to what Google Scholar is trying to do with print books.
Music is to be played, Vin implied, and books are for use, said Ranganathan. Vin puts the two together in a nice letter.
Vin compares his work of playing digital music (which he does for WFUV in New York on Saturday nights, and Sirius Disorder on Sunday nights) to what Google Scholar is trying to do with print books.
Music is to be played, Vin implied, and books are for use, said Ranganathan. Vin puts the two together in a nice letter.
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