Author: tom

They’re Made out of Meat!

“They’re Made Out of Meat” is a short story by Terry Bisson. It’s a great rift of the improbability of the human situation, and particularly relevant to psychologists (e.g. “So … what does the thinking?”)

The full text is here. The story has its own wikipedia page, and there’s a YouTube film here.

Now, for your listening delight Erin Revell and Geraint Edwards, at my request, have recorded the story so I can play parts of it during a lecture. The result was too good not to share, so with Terry Bisson’s permission, here’s a link for the whole thing:

Terry Bisson’s “They’re Made Out of Meat”

(Cross-posted at mindhacks.com)

tweets

Tweets for 2011-07-07

Estimates of the totals spent globally on the component processes of scholarly communication and research, http://t.co/ByVXwdZ #
Is there anything interesting to say about neuroethics other than "knowledge of the brain may make us question our ideas of responsibility"? #
The Research Digest is dead, long live @ResearchDigest ! RT @christianjarret Hi everyone. I've made this my own personal feed. #
Today: Town meeting for BBSRC call on skill acquisition and high performance in sport, in Camden Town, London #
DHL have a bizarre idea of how science works (but are obviously keen to bask in it's reflected glory) http://t.co/ciPO3Qc #
Today: sharing the bill with Elizabeth Loftus, and others, talking to prospective University psychology students in Sheffield #
My talk title is "Thinking Meat: putting brain and mind together", and is inspired by Terry's Bisson's story http://t.co/cs33Org #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-06-30

Wrong-headed report bracingly rebutted in comments @timeshighered: Academic offices just not efficient, says report http://t.co/eTwXt2M #
At the exploratorium. Possibly the best science museum in the world? #
The restrooms at the exploritorium are tiled with the Bristol cafe wall illusion! http://t.co/FoZpfMW #
Good things coming up at skeptics in the pub #Sheffield http://t.co/qFTfpw4 including @jonronson next monday #
I interviewed @jonronson once. The text is on his website: http://t.co/7nJQpJM #
“there's a reason why "wired" – means both "connected to the internet" and "high, frantic, unable to concentrate" http://t.co/8K6KWTU #
RT @vaughanbell: 30-Second Psychology is available http://t.co/xft1b1Z Edited by @researchdigest contributions from me @mocost @tomstafford #
Back in the hot UK #
We're hiring an RA http://t.co/1TaTa4r if you're a psychologist with a bent for signal processing (or vice versa) get in touch #
The next Psychology in the Pub event, 20 July, in Sheffield, on Media Violence, looks good http://t.co/pGZ81iu #
Get yer prism googles and giant fluffy model neurons here http://t.co/s2PHLi5 hot tip via CVNet #
PhD student? Fancy taking your psychological experience to parliament? BPS POST scheme is for you http://t.co/QrfvQxT #
an unpublished thought is an unfinished thought RT @alexfradera: Quote: http://t.co/8sAaP2P #
Thumbs up! TMS used to demonstrate rapid cortical plasticity for recently practiced movements, Classen et al 1998 http://t.co/TDutRwH #
Come and work with me on augmenting human sensory-motor capacity – only 12 days left to apply http://t.co/1TaTa4r #
RT @PsyBlog Why Concrete Language Communicates Truth. Use unambiguous language and people will believe you http://t.co/PBLgqXE #
RT @jonahlehrer: The virtue of realistic simulators, or why flying is so safe http://t.co/2uvz7Ft #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-06-23

I will be in Berkeley, California, and environs, for the next ten days #
Keynes vs Broken Window Fallacy: if govt refuses to spend during recession, should you break the windows of govt offices? @TimHarford #
Calculation vs perception in expertise; chess grandmaster edition: http://t.co/zsEO3tq via @TimHarford #
“We believe caffeinated coffee is the best current option for long-term protection against Alzheimer’s memory loss" http://t.co/MiE86MV #
Via @mathewe, fantastic footage of -and reflection on – a moment of sublime motor expertise http://t.co/Rh6YoxK #
Stallman: ebook readers "take away the traditional freedoms of readers" "ending friendship between people who read" http://t.co/OIZdSKw #
The Overton Window visualises the range of policies that are currently within the bounds of public acceptability http://t.co/rA1hZfh #
including Sheffield @timeshighered: 7 UK universities plan to ditch degree classifications & adopt GPA http://t.co/1yLOMPm #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-06-16

RT @tomwalton: Prince Philip looks like Quentin Blake drew him #
Today: York for the Yorkshire Vision Network meeting #
University of Sheffield Psychology Department graduate Jessica Ennis made MBE – http://t.co/myF7Y4a Well done @J_Ennis ! #
Didn't think it was possible for @jonmsutton to go up in my estimation, but it turns out he's a Sheffield psych grad like me & @J_Ennis ! #
Videos of psychologists talking about their research – professionalpsychology.tumblr.com 'Psychology according to psychologists' #
European rail travel made easy http://t.co/0D7u0rr @loco2 #
RT @jonahlehrer: Can a stupid mental exercise really make us smarter? http://t.co/kJoNO4d <– for some value of 'smarter', yes #
5 summer students starting today. Remembering Daniel's pep-talk "Show them its about the work, it'll be about the work" http://t.co/YBxqlBG #
RT @mikedewar How a climate skeptic asks for the time: bit.ly/j5Z7vm #
University of Sheffield "Real Stories" http://t.co/dJNT29c Local aspects of the work of our arts and humanties deptartments #
It happens to the best of us: Study of Nobel prize winning research rejected by journals http://t.co/t1oaEcV (which was itself rejected) #
Considering submitting to the Journal of Universal Rejection http://t.co/v8Ibge0 "the most prestigious journal (judged by acceptance rate" #
Just got my reminder email that I signed up for in November, from http://t.co/n6YZ17L Love these guys #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-06-16

RT @tomwalton: Prince Philip looks like Quentin Blake drew him #
Today: York for the Yorkshire Vision Network meeting #
University of Sheffield Psychology Department graduate Jessica Ennis made MBE – http://t.co/myF7Y4a Well done @J_Ennis ! #
Didn't think it was possible for @jonmsutton to go up in my estimation, but it turns out he's a Sheffield psych grad like me & @J_Ennis ! #
Videos of psychologists talking about their research – professionalpsychology.tumblr.com 'Psychology according to psychologists' #
European rail travel made easy http://t.co/0D7u0rr @loco2 #
RT @jonahlehrer: Can a stupid mental exercise really make us smarter? http://t.co/kJoNO4d <– for some value of 'smarter', yes #
5 summer students starting today. Remembering Daniel's pep-talk "Show them its about the work, it'll be about the work" http://t.co/YBxqlBG #
RT @mikedewar How a climate skeptic asks for the time: bit.ly/j5Z7vm #
University of Sheffield "Real Stories" http://t.co/dJNT29c Local aspects of the work of our arts and humanties deptartments #
It happens to the best of us: Study of Nobel prize winning research rejected by journals http://t.co/t1oaEcV (which was itself rejected) #
Considering submitting to the Journal of Universal Rejection http://t.co/v8Ibge0 "the most prestigious journal (judged by acceptance rate" #
Just got my reminder email that I signed up for in November, from http://t.co/n6YZ17L Love these guys #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-06-09

Is it a paradox that both sedatives and stimulants are pleasurable? @BrainStraining @vaughanbell #
got a spare ticket for Ani Difranco in Salford (and a lift from Sheffield) tonight! Anyone want? #
Want to spend a week in Sardinia learning about how to embed intrinsically motivated flexible learning in robots? http://bit.ly/emOtWE #
Now this is useful robotics http://vimeo.com/13514262 robot delivers you beer at work #
People of the twitterverse: can you recommend me a crowd-funding website and/or introductions to the same? #
Seeking to talk to someone who has experience/knowledge of Creative Commons licensing. Suggestions anyone? #
Speaking of which, buy my 'The Narrative Escape' for Kindle here http://j.mp/gmg2iX #radio4 #
I can open 2 instances of Word, but not of Excel. Why the assumption that I'll never want to look at 2 spreadsheets simultaneously? #
The problem with psychoanalysts is their tendency to be the conspiracy theorists of mind and culture #
♺ @dougald: Fascinated by the exchanges @uniteddiversity have been having with authors re: piracy – http://bit.ly/fV2vI9 #copyright #
Thought it was impossible to smell underwater? Not for the star-nosed mole. It re-inhales its own air bubbles http://is.gd/2Y6yUh #
"I didn't used to believe in synaesthesia, but then I saw scents" (via @alexfradera) #
If I publish a paper, I sign over copyright for my figures to the publisher. Can I avoid this If I copyright them with a CC license first? #
.@tom_chance is my IP guru, thanks Tom! #
The bowtie. Extinct in the wild? #
Subitizing exists for touch http://is.gd/LLe8kL #
Iconnote is a blog by Alison G. Gibbons http://iconnote.blogspot.com/ #
Useful innovations in teaching http://is.gd/a87jep #
RT @NewPubThink: "Intellectual life is not dead within the university, but nor is it safe there." http://bit.ly/hu1Nnp #
Guardian Law "Legal Heroes" series http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/series/legal-heroes #
So who's up for breakfast/lunch in east london tomorrow? #
Brunch in Cambridge Heath #
(The neuroscience of) The Quick and the Dead http://youtu.be/_aMfSwuObb0 #
Trying to learn mixed models logistic regression using #rstats Now feel whatever the statistics equivalent of "really high" is #
Evidence based date questions http://is.gd/og9T63 from okcupid #
"New technologies and the Reinvention of the Author" http://is.gd/bsH1KF Prospect Magazine Literary Festival event your bag @alteralison? #
Templeton Positive Neuroscience Awards will grant $2.9 million at the intersection of Neuroscience and Positiv… (cont) http://deck.ly/~hrC4Y #
Congratulations Tweetdeck, you've added enough functionality to break why I like twitter. I quit. And your mobile version is buggy as hell #
This looks like it could be very useful for dealing with email: http://www.boxbe.com/ Anyone got any experience? #
More fun than it should be : http://isparade.jp/ #
RT @AlecPatton UK Universities could learn from Texas, where they admit the top 10% from every high school http://wp.me/pwY1p-EV #
RT @alexfradera Stewart Lee on the instumental view of learning http://j.mp/h6oqmk #
I have organised an away day for my research group. They are under orders to eat greek food, play snooker and talk about science #
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ #
Oh, look @sheffielduni now does a MSc in Science Communication. http://bit.ly/gdgMkM I wonder if the course directors use twitter? #
You understand that relative percentages are meaningless. Maybe it's because you're not a Londoner http://yfrog.com/hshzjrkj #
If you want to do a PhD in Sheffield supervised by me, now is the time to let yourself be known! #
Psychology PhD projects at the University of Sheffield (I'm in here a few times) http://psy-phd.group.shef.ac.uk/ #
Ok, annoyingly my projects aren't listed in the previous link. Here's what's on offer: http://tomstafford.staff.shef.ac.uk/phd.htm #
Get my ebook about dreams, morality and stories for $0.99 or £0.71 http://mindhacks.com/2011/02/15/the-cut-price-narrative-escape/ #
A note on human behaviour: Enjoying the Natural History Museum yesterday, I came across this exhibit http://bit.ly/eCSMe0 #
Milgram's "obedience" studies, not about obedience after all? Excellent post http://ht.ly/3Xl5z & chimes with my ebook:http://bit.ly/dW7z6b #
Columbia University prof. tells it like it is on US TV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCPz2SzROFQ #
The ebook reader in 2050 http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2011/01/stephen-collinss-cartoon-e-book-reader-2050/ #
Consumers born or made? "Advertising…is the only institution which we have for instilling new needs" Potter (1954) http://bit.ly/hQxQHN #
Evidence-based viva preparation http://bit.ly/hxBF2W thanks @keepstherainoff #
Most of us are not really too busy or overwhelmed, we just have that feeling because of our choices about how we structure our time #
Had loads of fun talking to skepticallyspeaking.com about computational cognitive neuroscience and Mind Hacks. Interview broadcast next week #
Lifehack: once you finally find the thing you are looking for, put it in the place you looked first for it -> an adaptive filing system! #
Why Twitter’s New Retweet Feature Sucks http://outspokenmedia.com/social-media/twitters-new-retweet-feature-sucks/ #
Look's great! RT @profschwabe New PhD position in my group. Check out http://www.informatik.uni-rostock.de/ars/?page_id=140 #
Looks great! RT @profschwabe New PhD position in my group. Check out http://www.informatik.uni-rostock.de/ars/?page_id=140 #
Talking in York, 13th of May: "Infering cognitive architectures from high-resolution behavioural data" http://idiolect.org.uk/notes/?p=1363 #
Clay Shirky's list of people who change the world by helping us look at it in a particular light http://say100.saymedia.com/thought-leaders #
Now, every time I use a semicolon, I think of Kurt Vonnegut #
Stress Potentiates Early and Attenuates Late Stages of Visual Processing http://bit.ly/ghEASn via @mariapage #
Manchester Cafe Scientifique. Robin Dunbar in april! http://www.cafescientifique.org/manchester via @McrSciFest #
love the idea of 'procedural literacy' @tom_chance: "Why humanities students should learn to program" – http://ur1.ca/3axxp #
Manchester #
"The Attention Economy and the Net"
by Michael H. Goldhaber (1997) http://www.well.com/user/mgoldh/AtEcandNet.html #
I have bought a Victorian copy of the textbook which was used to teach maths for 2000 years. Yes, 2000 years. http://yfrog.com/h5g4wnfj #
Saturday I'm organising a workshop on Improv and particularly on status, taught by the wonderful @alexfradera. Get in touch if you want in #
aka Saturday #impro workshop #sheffield #lastminute #free #
The Great Important Conversation (Sorry No Ducks) http://idiolect.org.uk/notes/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/sorry-no-ducks.jpg #
Sheffield Friday Night Ride on the theme of "bounded infinity". Math. theory + cycling = awesome? http://www.sfnr.org.uk @sheffieldfnr #
RT @Mark_Changizi: "Look at This Crazy Russian Nuke Plant: Are 10,000 Buttons Safer Than One Screen?" http://t.co/BtlCqlZ by @johnpavlus” #
RT @Mark_Changizi: "Are Physical Interfaces Superior to Virtual Ones?"
http://t.co/BRDppzA by @mims” #
Great critique of Mad Men http://t.co/cGq7lAh via @kat_jennings_ #
RT @edyong209: People don’t know when they’re lying to themselves http://t.co/UktB3eH #
In London? Need a talented graduate? My RA, Anna, is now looking for work paid or unpaid in research or psychology/clinical related. #
anyone remember the story about a craftsman who defends a high price for quick work with "you're paying for the 20 years it took to learn"? #
All the original illustrations from Alice in Wonderland http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/alice2a.html #
"it's time for a phone to save us from our phones" http://youtu.be/EHlN21ebeak really? #dynamicofcapitalism via @timoarnall #
9-11 September 2011 http://www.edalefolkfestival.co.uk/ #sheffield #folk #
A to-do list with only two times: now and tomorrow: RT @TimHarford Time management, simple style: http://goo.gl/i3IVm #
Has anyone a ref for that study about republicans vs demoncrats on judgements of material fact? Ie party affiliation affects what u believe #
Tomorrow: Talking on how the Internet affects attention at 2cv.co.uk Now: grudgingly removing reference to the Panopticon from presentation #
Yes, Bentham's prison and Foucault's metaphor for society. I was convinced it was relevant at some point, but can't remember how now 😉 #
"Our brain has astounding navigation capabilties, and libraries of books harness our brain’s natural capabilities" http://is.gd/oDaLI8 #
Funded study at the University of Bremen at UG, Masters and PhD level http://is.gd/obU74A #
FoE report: The Role of Psychology in Environmental Campaigning and Activism http://is.gd/IkAzIr #
Now in press at Cog Sci: "Pieron’s Law holds during Stroop conflict: insights into the architecture of decision making" http://bit.ly/hJoo4j #
Any psychologists out there interested in experimental philosophy? http://sites.google.com/site/experimentalphilosophygroupuk/ #
Talking at @rattlecentral this lunchtime about the Psychology of Attention and how we might design tech. which helps us concentrate #
More carnivalesque wonders at the Western Bank Library gallery #Sheffield http://t.co/0BeDXf8 #
RT @jonahlehrer The Virtues Of Play, or why that preschool lawsuit is insane http://bit.ly/eNsuHa #
http://sheffielduniversaleducationcollective.wordpress.com/ "For free radical education in the city" #sheffield #
RT @rattlecentral: Weeknotes № 1307 http://t.co/hKGUN49 Skiing, our Adaptive Unconscious and Mr Fante. Fante who, you ask… ?” #
Two hours to kill in Wolverhampton. Any suggestions? #
Machynlleth #
Amen RT @bengoldacre "if you don’t link to primary sources, I just don’t trust you" http://t.co/LUJEztg” #
Have fun and learn about science with this game from arms manufacturers BAE systems http://t.co/NhgkUbY @djyates contains vis search task! #
RT @PsyBlog: 10 Rules That Govern Groups. What most groups of people have in common http://t.co/GMLlnxq #
Advanced publication copy of Yates & Stafford (2011) on saccadic decision making http://bit.ly/cGO9oV now available @djyates #
The psychological benefits of solitude http://bo.st/fTitJw (via @iamsamthomas ) #
So, will today's UCU strike be associated with a downspike or upspike in subsequent papers published? #
beautiful RT @oliverburkeman: RT @MotherJones: Best journo-job want ad ever ever: http://t.co/G6AkBj5 #
From @jonahlehrer: success comes from sustained hard work, not native talent http://t.co/i3jSKHn #
Alison Gopnick: studies in young children show that direct teaching hampers curiosity & understanding cf exploration http://t.co/Yl6Jh91 #
More evidence, via @researchdigest, that napping is a good thing: a midday nap tunes out -ve emotions, tunes in +ve ones http://t.co/nyYTnx5 #
From @jonahlehrer http://t.co/3xucleK prosocial behaviour not predicted by city size = culture is all to play for #
From @vaughanbell: the Hallucinogenic Goggles hack http://t.co/IAXWpii #
.@tomwalton the archers is the marmite of radio #
This! RT @johannhari101: "Glib, cheap pessimism is the enemy of progress” #
#Sheffield Publicity Department flag still up at Pye Bank at 0900 this morning @TomCommon @andybrownphoto http://t.co/mrWCdAZ #
RT @kevgillan: Posted 'Reminder: the budget deficit was not caused by welfare spending!' http://t.co/yFYRWEk #
Read @dougald on what's right and wrong with the big society http://bit.ly/gMfCAj #
Telling: "Statistics alone seem to be troubling for the courts," http://bit.ly/gpcwWr #sex #epistemology #
£40,000 in Public Engagement Grants available from the British Psychological Society http://www.bps.org.uk/grants #
Which laptop should I buy? My priorities are a) portability b) it should play nicely with Ubuntu Linux #
Apparently everybody has been using bootstrapping on their data for years. Who knew? #
Great talk in Sheffield last night RT @mindhacksblog A history of psychology through objects: http://bit.ly/fcPD3G @sciencemuseum #
attn @alterAlison RT @mariapage The evolving art of storytelling – http://goo.gl/XHEH5 #
Recommended for all psychologists: get yourself on a neuroanatomy course and dissect a real brain (e.g. http://www.neurocourses.com/ ) #
Book review of "Holy Ignorance". The symbiosis between secularism and fundamentalism http://t.co/JljXxja attn. @dougald @M_Hargraves #
Am interested in arguments for/against AV – can anyone recommend any research-based resources? #
RT @SciCafe: 04 April #Autism epidemic disease, psychosocial disorder or post-modern condition http://t.co/wzTWoLI #SciCafe #Sheffield #
I interviewed @lkblackburne about her ebook "From Words to Brain"
http://www.40kbooks.com/?p=7499 #
No2av people say av makes coalition more likely. Sounds like a testable statement to me. Can I have some evidence either way? #
RT @StatFact RT @almostandy "It is easy to lie with statistics; it is easier to lie without them." — Frederick Mosteller #
fMRI confirmation of predictive coding in visual perception http://tw.physorg.com/221118448 (via @mariapage) #
Today: at Society for Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour symposium on 'active vision' in York http://t.co/4Pog4JA #
Why we love @GeorgeMonbiot: a tenacious commitment to following up the evidence, even if uncomfortable: http://t.co/Rm0iiLD #
Political Scientists on AV http://t.co/9OJeLmy #
Last talk of the day and @djyates knocks it out of the park! Soon we will be taking over the world with our eye tracking research. #
For some loose sense of "world" #
i-perception, an open-access journal of human, animal, and machine perception http://i-perception.perceptionweb.com/ #
Crowd-sourced geiger counter readings from across Japan. http://japan.failedrobot.com/ attn @mikedewar (thanks Alex!) #
Fom the archive: "Cultivated Perception" gestalt principles and graphic design http://mindhacks.com/2004/12/17/cultivated-perception/ #
Ooooo http://opani.com/ "run your R, Octave, Matlab, and Scientific Python scripts in parallel, in the cloud, or locally" #
Musical training benefits all auditory skills (e.g. including language skills). http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v11/n8/full/nrn2882.html #
How you learn a motor skill (blocked vs interleaved practice) effects where in the brain it's stored (revealed by TMS) http://bit.ly/g6edZq #
Progress on early indicators of Parkinson's Disease (Nature, August 2010) http://bit.ly/dTYAQn #
Review in TINS: "Repairing the parkinsonian brain with neurotrophic factors " http://bit.ly/e7PhFF #
Review in TICS on "Training and plasticity of working memory" http://bit.ly/frKmZI #
Blindsight depends on connections from the lateral geniculate nucleus to extrastriate cortical areas http://bit.ly/gifYpm (Nature, 4/2010) #
On using games rather than facts or narrative in museums bit.ly/fPcIMW (via @StoryingShef) #
RT @timeshighered: Surprise! Sheffield has announced £9k fees. We will grant that this is possibly not that much of a surprise. #
3 Phd "demonstratorships" available in Psychology, University of Sheffield http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/psychology/prospectivepg/demonstrators #
heading to Oxford for the Experimental Psychology Society meeting… #
Follow the brilliant @AlecPatton for his ongoing reports on the world's most innovative classrooms http://bit.ly/g88Oxv #
Hello Oxford #
The most accurate estimate of voting intention you should be able to find: http://bit.ly/gn9gIC from the Uni of Nottingham (thanks WJJ!) #
Tickets for @thisisplayful go on sale at noon. Attn @alexfradera #
My short review of @researchdigest's new book The Rough Guide to Psychology. http://bit.ly/g1iSrZ In short: I liked it, a lot #
In fact, my only criticism would be that I couldn't see any mention of Michael Jackson in the book. What's going on @researchdigest ? #
Very excited – since @cigirkalfaoglu has joined, the entire lab is on twitter @djyates @tomwalton @thundercauldron #ff #win #
Now I want to #comedinewithTHE so i can find out what the beef between @timeshighered and @wesstreeting is #
I am reviewing every cognitive psychology textbook in my office. Most of them are unreadable http://t.co/kyUqXRt #
Not unreadable, because it focuses on debated issues: Mason's "taking sides" http://t.co/IqkdFdy #
Funny and clever, with each chapter title a question: Willingham's "Cognition: the thinking animal" http://t.co/5kRAdqu #
Nice because it is just a collection of original papers : Levitin's "Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core readings" http://t.co/JTmzdaw #
Enjoyable because of David Shanks' disruptive review chapter on memory: "Cognitive Science an introduction" http://t.co/FbFT8G2 #
That was exhausting. Now I can put those books back to some truly useful purpose http://t.co/TS48z7S #
Sheffield Uni research RT @occdigest Drinking habits of freelance musicians are a response to job demands: bit.ly/g9mbov #
Royal Society scheme for pairing MPs & Civil Servants with working scientists http://royalsociety.org/pairing-scheme/ #
How would you convince that you are a psychiatrist and not a patient: loving the answers over at mindhacks.com http://bit.ly/hHBRpW #
RT @jonmsutton Interview with Mike Ambinder, full-time experimental psychologist at Valve Software http://ow.ly/4Cw0l #
RT @BrumProtestor Private Eye reveals that just 18 of 12,000 companies left UK in 3 years because of tax #ukuncut http://twitpic.com/4ly4gd #
Good short piece here by @JonahLehrer "Is Nudging Really Enough?" http://on.wsj.com/hvHFI8 on the limits of nudge agenda #
However, it's a mistake to think of nudge as a theory of human nature. Its a shallow bunch of tricks with a false theory at its root #
For a wise counterpoint to Nudge, see the Steer report from @theRSAorg http://www.thersa.org/projects/reports/steer-the-report #
RT @vaughanbell Excellent piece on the mysterious medieval 'dancing mania' http://is.gd/2J14sh by @psychiatrist #
University of Sheffield research: how to send a public health warning http://bit.ly/gOGVJG #
Yep: that about covers it: How to Fix Any Computer http://theoatmeal.com/blog/fix_computer #
I am unable to find *anything* worth reading on the experimental psychology of concentration. #
For experimental psychologists, "attention" seems to mean only "selection", not concentration. Am I missing a key word? #
Neuroskeptic: The Tufnel Effect, "It's such a fine line between stupid and…uh, clever." http://bit.ly/fxe7au #
ps this is why you should code your analysis, rather than perform it step by step by hand/click #
Introduction to library skills via zombie apocalypse graphic novel http://bit.ly/gFUNmd via @seatrout (the librarians kick zombie ass) #
classic, make sure you check the tables on p2 and p3 RT @almostandy The real meaning of British English http://see.sc/1mevH4 #
RT @mariapage What is IQ measuring anyway? "Role of test motivation in intelligence testing"- http://goo.gl/4HfjZ #
Taking the 10,000 hours of practice theory seriously
http://jamesjchoi.blogspot.com/2011/04/taking-10000-hours-of-practice-theory.html #
RT @TimHarford The political bias of the New York Times: goo.gl/f9BdA (Most interesting is the subtle way in which bias is said to emerge) #
In Sardinia. Science is cool http://t.co/lUHzHxi #
RT @cfernyhough: So I had my fMRI scan, and I can report that it was like being jammed inside R2D2 for the duration of the Battle of Endor #
Egypt's foreign minister says Cairo will permanently open the Rafah border crossing to ease Israel's blockade on Gaza. http://bit.ly/iCnWQ9 #
Psychology in the Pub, 18th of May in #Sheffield on Facebook and friendship over social networks http://bit.ly/kGQ4Kn #
Ah, that old airport riddle – where is the least awful place I can wait for my plane? #
Fortunately, I never travel without my facebook profile. One should always have something sensational to read on the train #
Hello Thessaloniki #
From @almostandy : Why Experimental Psychologists hate psychoanalysis http://t.co/rihxyQI #
RT @BrainStraining: Brilliant essay on how to find academic problems to work on. http://t.co/kQS9Qzi #
Saw this sign in the window of one of Thessaloniki's many boutiques. It's one response to the financial crisis I guess http://t.co/psOxkVH #
Tomorrow I am giving a lecture on evolutionary game theory at City College, Thessaloniki. I am hoping the outcome will be non-zero sum. #
This introduction to Honest Signalling Theory from Uni of Washington Prof Bergstrom is clear, as well as beautiful http://bit.ly/mlThmA #
Ouch: academia as merely the conspicuous consumption of leisure, esteemed for its impracticality http://bit.ly/k4Cant (Veblen, 1899) #
RT @vaughanbell: The convenient fog of war http://t.co/6xFUUBU Why the corrected Bin Laden story will have little impact #
Back in the U of K! #
Epistemology fans: come to the lecture tonight on 17th century science and "the invention of the fact" http://shef.ac.uk/arts-science #
For live-tweeting of the Sheffield council elections tonight, follow the Yorkshire Post's @Jeniharvey #politics #sheffield #vote #
If you are in Nether Edge ward you can vote for the Green Party's @RealRobCole in the local elections today.#sheffield #vote #politics #
"at no time is it permissible to sit idle and observe the poetry of life" http://chzb.gr/eklXv7 #
This week's Art Science encounter: Kinetic sculptor and environmental artist Andrew Stonyer http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/arts-science #
The devil is in the detail of the definition of "optimal" RT@mariapage The brain performs visual search near optimally http://t.co/nla73V9 #
Psychologist of deception Aldert Vrij on the 18 characteristics of good liars http://bit.ly/lXZoeo #
Avon understands evolutionary game theory better than Stringer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lB8C2VfrW4&t=2m11s #
The brain leading us beyond the political left and right – loving this Prospect article by @RSAmatthew http://bit.ly/3DpKm #
Although who is going to tell @RSAMatthew about Hauser's scientific misconduct? Not the best example of research to cite about morality… #
Thursday: "a new and suprising look at physics and theology" http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/arts-science Hugh Pyper is brilliant, recommend #
This will be ace: "Neuroscience and Neuromania" Robin Dunbar and Ray Tallis at the British Academy June 14 http://bit.ly/iDktci #
The ethologist Tinbergen laid out four fundamental questions that can be asked about any animal behaviour http://bit.ly/l8hXme (wikipedia) #
I'm sure someone came up with a fifth somewhere, but I can't remember what it was #
Andy Barto: "It can be easier to evolve a reward signal to learn a behaviour than to evolve the behaviour itself" #
There is a very informed discussion about political ideologies and human nature on my blog http://idiolect.org.uk/notes/?p=1467 #
Without, i should say, any contribution from me! #
.@jamesb here's that simon armitage poem I mentioned last night http://idiolect.org.uk/notes/?p=344 #
Rap is the perfect genre for this – like most rap I can't tell if they take themselves seriously or are sick with irony http://bit.ly/k27VCn #
i heart windows grep http://www.wingrep.com/ #
Vodka company sponsors 'facebook Russian roulette' – if unlucky, you can lose your virtual life http://t.co/CfIhw3B #
Today I am giving a talk in York : "Infering cognitive architectures from high-resolution behavioural data" http://bit.ly/gtSosu #
We have just won funding which will allow me to hire an RA for a year (whoop!), more soon #
Amen @PsychScientists Working out a system's job description really should be the first thing you do in any task analysis #
The questions you never thought to ask, science does for you "Is there a morphine store in the brain of the camel?" http://bit.ly/kDUZVa #
Just spoke to the station manager at Sheffield train station – they're planning 150 new cycle parking places. Great! #
It costs little to watch, and little more if you happen to get caught up in the action #
The Unsuggester: analyses 50m books, comes back with the books read by the people who don't read the books you do http://bit.ly/C2ccF #
…reveals that the godly don't read "A Game of Thrones", for example. Link via @oliverburkeman 's book Help! #
People who read the Old Man and the Sea unlikely to read Mind Hacks. Hmmm.. http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/8387 #
One good thing about submitting to a journal with a 1200 Euro publication fee – I'm going to feel good whether its accepted or rejected! #
If anyone needs a databank of spurious evolutionary thinking and politically motivated science, ask Satoshi Kanawawa http://bit.ly/10WE73 #
Absolutely stoked to be hosting dataist @mikedewar this week. Tonight : exploring Sheffield town #
Great Jon Ronson article on psychopathy in the guardian http://t.co/lyIovkU #
Boggled by http://t.co/uNbcNhQ the hoax which the dupes cannot, by definition, believe is a hoax #
Open access journal goodness: Frontiers in Cognitive Science http://www.frontiersin.org/cognitive_science #
Get a bursary to come and study of one of our masters courses here at Sheffield Psychology Department http://bit.ly/mxrGnX #
Classic paper: Can a Fly Ride a Bicycle? Wolf et al, 1992 http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/337/1281/261.short #
Advertising space available for purchase in lecture halls at Aston University http://bit.ly/kvZqpC "Reach our students today!" #
Great interview by @researchdigest in @psychmag with David Halpern, head of govt's "Behavioural Insight Team" http://ow.ly/53xFL #
London calling #
RT @StoryingShef: Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. ~H. Arendt. #
Oh look, uk crowd funding (just for the arts though) http://t.co/aeuDr0q @mikedewar @jamesb #
A man just gave me a pound before going home to torrent my book. That man is a gentleman! #
Congratulations – well deserved! RT @mariapage I got the scholarship. It's official. Too many good things happening lately!!!! #
RT @mariapage: Interesting: Futuristic Strobe Eyewear May Improve Your Game – http://t.co/OsL2c90” #
Had forgot that the full text of my article in Prospect about confabulation is here http://idiolect.org.uk/notes/?p=894 #
Can you help my friend james? RT @jamesb Know anyone involved in running a dating service? Intros much appreciated (for work BTW!) #
RT @TimHarford Who would win in a fight between Neal Stephenson and William Gibson? http://goo.gl/uSCFW Scroll to Q4. HT @edyong209 #
Unexpectedly spending the evening in Oxford. Hello Oxford #
RT @StoryingShef: Funding arts in HE: Interesting response to critics of his new private uni by Prof Grayling http://t.co/bU8mIPY #
RT @oliverburkeman: "Nausea wells to the throat…" Tezza Eagleton weighs in on Grayling University http://t.co/F5ov0d5 #
Your political ideology affects what you view as the true self http://econ.st/jkNcxX report on Knobe's x-phi work from The Economist #
Which China Melville book should I nominate for my book group? #
"Advertisers try and sell material products using transcendent values" http://cantsellmelove.tumblr.com/ here are some examples #
"I wouldn’t pity ‘generation rent’. I’d pity the people who are slightly older and bought at the wrong moment." http://bit.ly/kzda6c ouch! #
Great reveiw of latest Adam Curtis documentary by @qwghlm http://bit.ly/mMAZWf #

quotes science

Quote #270

Post author By tom
Post date June 3, 2011
No Comments on Quote #270

Science is built of facts the way a house is built of bricks; but an accumulation of facts is no more science than a pile of bricks is a house

Henri Poincare, La Science et l’Hypothèse (1901), English translation: Science and Hypothesis (1905), chapter 9 (via Jim Stone)

links

Links for April-May 2011

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-31

Had forgot that the full text of my article in Prospect about confabulation is here http://idiolect.org.uk/notes/?p=894 #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-30

RT @mariapage: Interesting: Futuristic Strobe Eyewear May Improve Your Game – http://t.co/OsL2c90” #

misc

Searching for the timed ‘off’ switch

Post author By tom
Post date May 30, 2011
1 Comment on Searching for the timed ‘off’ switch

I want a button box I can put between the mains and electric devices in my house. Hitting the button lets the electricity flow, turning the device on, and then after a delay the device turns off, freeing me from having think about turning lights etc off all the time. Why doesn’t this exist already?

Link: the technology of our wider wiser selves

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-29

Congratulations – well deserved! RT @mariapage I got the scholarship. It's official. Too many good things happening lately!!!! #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-28

Oh look, uk crowd funding (just for the arts though) http://t.co/aeuDr0q @mikedewar @jamesb #
A man just gave me a pound before going home to torrent my book. That man is a gentleman! #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-27

London calling #
RT @StoryingShef: Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. ~H. Arendt. #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-26

Advertising space available for purchase in lecture halls at Aston University http://bit.ly/kvZqpC "Reach our students today!" #
Great interview by @researchdigest in @psychmag with David Halpern, head of govt's "Behavioural Insight Team" http://ow.ly/53xFL #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-25

Classic paper: Can a Fly Ride a Bicycle? Wolf et al, 1992 http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/337/1281/261.short #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-24

Open access journal goodness: Frontiers in Cognitive Science http://www.frontiersin.org/cognitive_science #
Get a bursary to come and study of one of our masters courses here at Sheffield Psychology Department http://bit.ly/mxrGnX #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-21

Great Jon Ronson article on psychopathy in the guardian http://t.co/lyIovkU #
Boggled by http://t.co/uNbcNhQ the hoax which the dupes cannot, by definition, believe is a hoax #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-20

Absolutely stoked to be hosting dataist @mikedewar this week. Tonight : exploring Sheffield town #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-18

If anyone needs a databank of spurious evolutionary thinking and politically motivated science, ask Satoshi Kanawawa http://bit.ly/10WE73 #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-17

One good thing about submitting to a journal with a 1200 Euro publication fee – I'm going to feel good whether its accepted or rejected! #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-15

The Unsuggester: analyses 50m books, comes back with the books read by the people who don't read the books you do http://bit.ly/C2ccF #
…reveals that the godly don't read "A Game of Thrones", for example. Link via @oliverburkeman 's book Help! #
People who read the Old Man and the Sea unlikely to read Mind Hacks. Hmmm.. http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/8387 #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-13

Vodka company sponsors 'facebook Russian roulette' – if unlucky, you can lose your virtual life http://t.co/CfIhw3B #
Today I am giving a talk in York : "Infering cognitive architectures from high-resolution behavioural data" http://bit.ly/gtSosu #
We have just won funding which will allow me to hire an RA for a year (whoop!), more soon #
Amen @PsychScientists Working out a system's job description really should be the first thing you do in any task analysis #
The questions you never thought to ask, science does for you "Is there a morphine store in the brain of the camel?" http://bit.ly/kDUZVa #
Just spoke to the station manager at Sheffield train station – they're planning 150 new cycle parking places. Great! #
It costs little to watch, and little more if you happen to get caught up in the action #

Me science

One suggestion you are researching a trendy topic

Post author By tom
Post date May 13, 2011
No Comments on One suggestion you are researching a trendy topic

This is a plot of the number of citations turned up by a simple “Web of Knowledge” search for papers containing the words “dopamine” and “reinforcement learning”, against year of publication. The rise, dating from approximately the time of publication of the first computational theory of phasic dopamine function, is rapid. There are, as far as I know, two computational theories of phasic dopamine function. One from Schultz, Dayan and Montague (1997) and one from our team here in Sheffield (Redgrave and Gurney, 2006)

Refs

Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, P. R. (1997). A neural substrate of prediction and reward. Science, 275, 1593-1599.

Redgrave, P., & Gurney, K. (2006). The short-latency dopamine signal: a role in discovering novel actions? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7(12), 967-75.

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-12

Rap is the perfect genre for this – like most rap I can't tell if they take themselves seriously or are sick with irony http://bit.ly/k27VCn #
i heart windows grep http://www.wingrep.com/ #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-11

There is a very informed discussion about political ideologies and human nature on my blog http://idiolect.org.uk/notes/?p=1467 #
Without, i should say, any contribution from me! #
.@jamesb here's that simon armitage poem I mentioned last night http://idiolect.org.uk/notes/?p=344 #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-10

Thursday: "a new and suprising look at physics and theology" http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/arts-science Hugh Pyper is brilliant, recommend #
This will be ace: "Neuroscience and Neuromania" Robin Dunbar and Ray Tallis at the British Academy June 14 http://bit.ly/iDktci #
The ethologist Tinbergen laid out four fundamental questions that can be asked about any animal behaviour http://bit.ly/l8hXme (wikipedia) #
I'm sure someone came up with a fifth somewhere, but I can't remember what it was #
Andy Barto: "It can be easier to evolve a reward signal to learn a behaviour than to evolve the behaviour itself" #

tweets

Tweets for 2011-05-09

This week's Art Science encounter: Kinetic sculptor and environmental artist Andrew Stonyer http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/arts-science #
The devil is in the detail of the definition of "optimal" RT@mariapage The brain performs visual search near optimally http://t.co/nla73V9 #
Psychologist of deception Aldert Vrij on the 18 characteristics of good liars http://bit.ly/lXZoeo #
Avon understands evolutionary game theory better than Stringer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lB8C2VfrW4&t=2m11s #
The brain leading us beyond the political left and right – loving this Prospect article by @RSAmatthew http://bit.ly/3DpKm #
Although who is going to tell @RSAMatthew about Hauser's scientific misconduct? Not the best example of research to cite about morality… #

politics psychology

Human nature is back

This Prospect article by the RSA’s Matthew Taylor reviews an impressive amount of socially relevant psychology research. “Human nature is back”, announces Taylor, showing how the “useful shortcut” of the rational actor is now ready to be replaced by an empircally informed model of man as a social, emoitonal, being. Conclusions include

if we want to live an ethical life we do not have to pore over self-help books, but instead choose the social context that is most likely to prompt us to automatic altruism. Blinkered by the idea of humans as entirely driven by self-interest, we believe that altruistic acts must require conscious effort, perhaps as a result of exhortation from leaders. But if we are living balanced lives and enjoy mutual trust with people, behaving well comes naturally.

and

…susceptibility to social influence is hard-wired in us and not simply a characteristic of those lacking willpower. It may not be as catchy as the original slogan, but “tough on crime, even tougher on the causes of crime”is where the evidence points.

and

social institutions and cultural taboos are ways in which “generations hand down… vital tacit knowledge about human nature.”…[they] have developed to protect us from our psychological frailties, encouraging us to act long term and be socially responsible. These devices include the family, the church and civic organisations. As we become richer, we mistakenly think we do not need them.

It’s a rich brew of research evidence and political ideas. Perhaps even enough to give us hope, as Taylor claims that “new ideas about human nature can contribute to a more substantive meeting of minds between left and right”