"They can accurately assess which of two behaviours is more likely to bring them a reward by summing together a series of probabilistic clues."

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"Human language may have evolved from the use of gestures by our ape ancestors, and not just from primitive vocalisations, according to a new study."

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"The study is the first to demonstrate that raising chimpanzees in a human cultural environment enhances their cognitive abilities, as measured by their ability to understand how tools work."

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"...they have identified for the first time a neuronal mechanism that helps us rapidly distinguish similar, yet distinct, places. The discovery helps explain the sensation of déjà vu." Intri

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"...the brain only chooses to remember memories it thinks are most relevant, and actively suppresses those that are similar but less used, helping to lessen the cognitive load and prevent confusi

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"A cognitive bias is something that our minds commonly do to distort our own view of reality. Here are the 26 most studied and widely accepted cognitive biases."

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"Researchers found that the brains of older East Asian people respond less strongly to changes in the foreground of images than those of their Western counterparts."

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"This is the first time that evidence has been offered to show cross-linguistic differences in colour perception in an objective task..." Interesting implications.

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"Nevertheless, it is now clear the raven is one of the very smartest creatures we know about." Just bigging up the family, y'know.

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"What started out as a research hobby -- trying to understand how people use sound in the world -- turned into something more when he realized "the power of harnessing musical listening"

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"The verb forms the heart of a sentence. Although a lot of research has been done into the role that verbs play during the transfer of information, less is known about exactly how and when the li

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"Problem drinkers often don't know how to take a joke or understand a punchline, according to German researchers." Interesting - personal observational experience seems to back this one up.

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"...our semantic distinction between irony and metaphor actually corresponds to real differences in how the brain processes those statements." Well, *that* was counter-intuitive

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"Should we observe signs of consciousness in machines is it therefore logical to assume that society will naturally issue moral precepts of a similar weight onto our silicon-brained companions? I

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"Satellite navigation systems can stunt your brain, preventing it from developing, according to scientists. They have discovered that taxi drivers have actually grown more brain cells because of

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"...though virtual experiences improved people's memories of the camera's functions, it also increased false positives -- that is, more people believed it could do things that it couldn't do.&quo

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"Humpback whales have a type of brain cell seen only in humans, the great apes, and other cetaceans such as dolphins, U.S. researchers reported on Monday."

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"New insight into one of the most intriguing word-associated conditions may have been found, with the discovery that, for one type of synaesthesia at least, the meaning of a word is key to the se

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"Instead of giving the robot a rigid set of instructions, the researchers let it discover its own nature and work out how to control itself [...] The ability to build this "self-model"

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"Parents who engage in the age-old tradition of picture-book reading are not only encouraging early reading development in their children but are also teaching their toddlers about the world arou

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"Now, in a first of its kind study, scientists are shining the light on this mysterious practice -- attempting to explain what actually happens physiologically to the brain of someone while speak

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"Experiments involving real and simulated robots suggest that the relationship between physical movement and sensory input could be crucial to developing more intelligent machines."

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"To me the most interesting result of the study is that self-imposed deadlines don't appear to help procrastinators [as much as external deadlines]: they need rigid, externally-imposed deadlines

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"Even if a computer passes the Turing Test it will not really be aware that it has passed the Turing Test." Nova Spivak is (literally) betting against hard AI.

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"...if we understand how their vision and memory system manages to be so elaborate in a brain the size of a sesame seed we will be able to use this technology to make more intelligent auto-pilot

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I have yet to observe these results myself. Meh!

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Online round-up of material about the well-known but poorly-understood Turing Test.

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"The battle by scientists against "irrational" beliefs such as creationism is ultimately futile, a leading experimental psychologist said today." As long as we continue to describe

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Scientists have identified a gene that just might be the key to the unique evolution of the human brain.

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VCTB interviews Prof. Igor Aleksander about Neural Systems Engineering - the field of science that is attempting to create conscious machines.

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