Category Archives: Diplopi

Oxytocin Makes Us More Accepting of Others

Posted on September 29, 2013 by diplopi

Oxytocin, the so-called “cuddle chemical,” plays a role in pregnancy, lactation, and social bonding. New research in Psychoneuroendocrinology shows that it also may make us more accepting of others. Scientists at the University of Freiburg in Germany has proven that one … Continue reading →

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Self Control

Posted on September 26, 2013 by diplopi

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” Tao Te Ching Synonyms for self control: Balance, Constraint, Control, Dignity, Discipline, Discretion, Mastery, Poise, Self government, Sobriety, Stability, Stoicism. “Self-regulatory failure is … Continue reading →

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A Field Guide to Procrastinators

Posted on September 25, 2013 by diplopi

The problem with self-control is that we are usually paying now for a reward later. The consequence is that we discount future rewards and give in to feel good now. In an article published by Tinuke Oluyomi Daniel, Christina Stanton, and … Continue reading →

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The Better than Average Effect

Posted on September 21, 2013 by diplopi

Illusory superiority, often referred to as the above average effect, is a cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their positive qualities and abilities and to underestimate their negative qualities, relative to others. This is evident in a variety of areas including … Continue reading →

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Prosopagnosia

Posted on September 2, 2013 by diplopi

What if you saw your friends but couldn’t recognize them. Or a picture of you and your family, and you just couldn’t distinguish your own face from the rest of the group. Despite the complexity of human faces as visual stimuli, … Continue reading →

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Mooney faces

Posted on September 1, 2013 by diplopi

Mooney Faces are low-information two-tone pictures of faces, used in face perception tasks where participants are asked to identify features and distinguish between real and “false” faces: Humans are highly skilled in face recognition, and this ability has been attributed to … Continue reading →

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Do consciousness and attention refer to different aspects of the same core phenomenon, or do they correspond to distinct functions?

Posted on August 29, 2013 by diplopi

This is an article I wrote about the topic ‘consciousness’ and the mind-body problem. The abstract reads as follows: Consciousness is a fascinating and multi-faceted phenomenon, which is closely related to other well-studied domains such as visual attention, working memory, … Continue reading →

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The hormone Oxytocin increases insight; A better judge of character with nasal spray?

Posted on August 28, 2013 by diplopi

Interesting article from my supervisor, Siri Leknes and colleagues, about how ingesting the hormone oxytocin via nasal spray improves the ability to read people’s facial expressions. Findings like these hold great promise for treatment of mental health disorders and drug … Continue reading →

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Pareidolia, food and religion

Posted on August 27, 2013 by diplopi

A decade-old toasted cheese sandwich said to bear an image of the Virgin Mary were sold on the eBay auction website for $28,000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4034787.stm Illusory face detection can be considered, in a liberal sense, as a form of anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism, … Continue reading →

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Paranormal and Religious Believers Are More Prone to Illusory Face Perception than Skeptics and Non-believers

Posted on August 27, 2013 by diplopi

An interesting article from the University of Helsinki, by Riekki and colleagues (2012) on how paranormal and religious believers are more prone to see illusory faces than skeptics and non-believers.  Summary: Illusory face perception, a tendency to find human-like faces … Continue reading →

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