Michael Corballis • Mar 14, 2017 •
I recently read a letter from a 92-year-old American who was surprised to discover he knew 203 pop songs in detail, and partially knew another 58. He said he had a poor academic record and in other respects his memory was not exceptional. He was not a singer, but had done some acting. He had also published a book of … Read More
Julie Iles • Aug 19, 2016 •
On every smartphone, there is probably a collection of quickly typed reminders, thoughts, grocery lists, and titbits of information we thought we might forget. Out-sourcing our thoughts and memories like this is called ‘cognitive offloading’. The term involves everyday activities we may take for granted. From using a calculator to check finances to depending on Google Maps to get around, cognitive offloading is what we … Read More
Guest Work • May 24, 2016 •
By Bronson Harry, Western Sydney University Picture a close friend. Imagine their face, the sound of their voice, their height, what they normally wear. You might be surprised to learn you have just used a host of different brain regions to recall this information. Curiously, there is no single brain region that is involved in representing the people … Read More
Guest Work • Sep 03, 2015 •
Guest post by Michael Corballis. In 1963 I enrolled as a PhD student in McGill University’s Department of Psychology in Montreal, Canada. The first seminar was conducted by Donald Hebb, something of a legendary figure in both psychology and neuroscience, and widely remembered for formulating what has come to be known as Hebb’s rule, still regarded … Read More
Lynley Hargreaves • Aug 14, 2014 •
Professor Elaine Reese How much of their early life will your children remember? How coherent a life story can they tell? The University of Otago’s Professor Elaine Reese tells us how successive Marsden grants are helping her unravel the links between parent conversations and the way teenagers handle life – their wellbeing, their level of trust, and whether they … Read More
Karyn O'Keeffe • Jul 29, 2014 •
Last week I read a cool study about false memories after sleep deprivation. Published the week before in Psychological Medicine, the study was comprised of several experiments which examined whether sleep deprivation was associated with creation of false memories of witnessing a plane crash or after being fed misinformation. The researchers asked 193 undergraduate … Read More
Lynley Hargreaves • Jul 02, 2014 •
Associate Professor Donna Rose AddisWhen Associate Professor Donna Rose Addis gets study participants to imagine – for example, their dad in a laser tag park with an inflatable boat – she finds a surprising thing. The more variable their brain signal, the better the story the participants tell. The University of Auckland Associate Professor explains how a Marsden grant … Read More
Lynley Hargreaves • May 07, 2014 •
Dr Rachel Zajac Dr Rachel Zajac works at the intersection of psychology and law. She’s looked at how jurors make their decisions, why eyewitnesses are often mistaken, and why forensic science evidence might not be as reliable as it looks on TV. With clever experiments and careful research, she works to prevent miscarriages of justice. Now she’s focused on … Read More
Michael Edmonds • Dec 30, 2012 •
Over the last couple of days I’ve been memorising the Periodic Table. No, I’m not going stir-crazy. On the contrary, the summer break is my favourite time of the year as it gives me time to reflect, explore new things and read new books. And one of the books I am reading at the moment is ‘Moonwalking with Einstein – … Read More
Michael Edmonds • Dec 30, 2012 •
I’ve just been reading “Moonwalking with Einstein – the Art and Science of Remembering Everything” by Joshua Foer and decided to put some of the techniques to use memorising the Periodic Table in such a way I can name the atomic number of every element (up to 100) or, vice versa, name the element when given only the atomic … Read More