A Machine with a Soul

By Dr Llewellyn Cox, Principal, LieuLabs

On an otherwise unremarkable Saturday in June 2014, a group of computer scientists, public figures, and celebrities gathered at London’s Royal Society. They were all there for one reason — to engage in a text-based chat game to determine if a computer could pass the “iconic” Turing test.

A few hours later, the results were in. Professor Warwick of Reading University announced that a chatbot had successfully tricked 33% of the judges into thinking it was a real boy, and had therefore become the first computer to have passed the Turing test:

It is fitting that such an important landmark has been reached at the Royal Society in London, the home of British science and the scene of many great advances in human understanding over the centuries. This milestone will go down in history as one of the most exciting. — Prof. Kevin Warwick

 

Within hours, breathless tweets, likes and pins swept across the internet, announcing this amazing result to the world, or at least across the subculture that apparently really f***ing loves science, but doesn’t seem to have much time or inclination toward actual critical analysis. A day or so later came the rebuttals and debunkings from the more inquisitive corners of the online universe. So what really happened, and what does a machine passing a Turing test mean for society?

Neural Sweet Talk: Taste Metaphors Emotionally Engage the Brain

By Morgan Kelly for Princeton University News

So accustomed are we to metaphors related to taste that when we hear a kind smile described as “sweet,” or a resentful comment as “bitter,” we most likely don’t even think of those words as metaphors. But while it may seem to our ears that “sweet” by any other name means the same thing, new research shows that taste-related words actually engage the emotional centers of the brain more than literal words with the same meaning.

Researchers from Princeton University and the Free University of Berlin report in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience the first study to experimentally show that the brain processes these everyday metaphors differently than literal language. In the study, participants read 37 sentences that included common metaphors based on taste while the researchers recorded their brain activity. Each taste-related word was then swapped with a literal counterpart so that, for instance, “She looked at him sweetly” became “She looked at him kindly.”

Researchers from Princeton University and the Free University of Berlin found that taste-related metaphors such as “sweet” actually engage the emotional centers of the brain more than literal words such as “kind” that have the same meaning. If metaphors in general elicit a similar emotional response, that could mean that figurative language presents a “rhetorical advantage” when communicating with others. (Photo illustration by Matilda Luk, Office of Communications)

The Science of Emotion in Marketing: How Our Brains Decide What to Share and Whom to Trust

By Courtney Seiter for the Buffer Blog

Every day it seems like we feel hundreds of different emotions – each nuanced and specific to the physical and social situations we find ourselves in.

According to science, it’s not that complicated by a long shot. A new study says we’re really only capable of four “basic” emotions: happy, sad, afraid/surprised, and angry/disgusted.

But much like the “mother sauces” of cooking allow you to make pretty much any kind of food under the sun, these four “mother emotions” meld together in myriad ways in our brains to create our layered emotional stews.

Robert Plutchik’s famous “wheel of emotions” shows just some of the well known emotional layers.

In this post we’ll take a close look at each of the four emotions, how they form in the brain and the way they can motivate us to surprising actions.

Learning Second Language ‘Slows Brain Ageing’

Republished from BBC News | Health

Learning a second language could improve reading and intelligence skills

Learning a second language can have a positive effect on the brain, even if it is taken up in adulthood, a University of Edinburgh study suggests.

Researchers found that reading, verbal fluency and intelligence were improved in a study of 262 people tested either aged 11 or in their seventies.

A previous study suggested that being bilingual could delay the onset of dementia by several years. The study is published in Annals of Neurology.

The big question in this study was whether learning a new language improved cognitive functions or whether individuals with better cognitive abilities were more likely to become bilingual. Dr Thomas Bak, from the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, said he believed he had found the answer.

Using data from intelligence tests on 262 Edinburgh-born individuals at the age of 11, the study looked at how their cognitive abilities had changed when they were tested again in their seventies.

Scientists Search for the Best Sleepers

Working to unravel the secrets of sleep, gene by gene.

By Sumathi Reddy for the Wall Street Journal

In a lab at the University of California, San Francisco, a husband-and-wife team is working to unravel the secrets of sleep, gene by gene.

How Do You Encourage Saving? A new study shows that people who feel powerful save more money.

By Susan Greenberg for Stanford GSB News

Americans have never been particularly good at saving money. In 2013, for example, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that Americans saved on average only 4.5% of their household income, while Europeans saved nearly 8% and Australians more than 11%. But according to a new study by Stanford Graduate School of Business researchers, there’s a way to change that: simply make people feel more powerful.

“When it comes to managing finances, it’s easy for people to feel overwhelmed and out of control,” says PhD student Emily Garbinsky. “How to help consumers regain control and make better decisions with their money is the focus of my work.” To do so, she relies on the strong relationship between money and power, investigating how feelings of power critically influence financial decision-making. She demonstrates, in collaboration with Stanford GSB professorJennifer Aaker and Anne-Kathrin Klesse of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, that making consumers feel more powerful increases their motivation to save.

Tell Me Lies

By Dr Llewellyn Cox, Principal, LieuLabs

Image from: The Maury Show

The young gentleman on the Maury Show is looking uncomfortable. He shuffles uncomfortably in his seat as the genial Maury Povich reads aloud the results of his recent polygraph test to the audience in the studio, who dutifully greet each new result with a hearty chorus of boos.

You told the Lie Detector that you did not sleep with Tiffany’s best friend, Candace.

The Lie Detector determined that was a lie.

More booing. Tiffany, a heavy-set young woman sitting in the next seat along, jumps to her feet and screams a continual stream of expletives at the young man that lasts for at least a minute. The censorious *bleep* edit will be working overtime on this episode. An immense bodyguard effortlessly holds her back as she flails madly around him with her fists, trying to make contact with the young man’s face. Eventually, she gives up and storms off the stage, a mobile camera crew hot in pursuit as she flees backstage to the Green Room.

How to Tell When Neuroscience-Based Programs are Well-Developed

Originally posted in The Science of Learning Blog.

By , Scientific Learning

I am sure you have noticed that there are many technology programs out there that claim to “build,” or improve your brain function. Every week I receive emails from companies advertising brain games that promise to train attention and memory skills. You may have wondered, do “brain games” really work? A recent article in The New York Times entitled “Do Brain Workouts Work? Science Isn’t Sure,” actually asked that very question as well.

How would a memory brain game that I purchase from a website be different from a card or board game like “Concentration”? How is an attention game different or better than the concentration required to read a good book or play a card game that requires focused and sustained attention to cards played or discarded each round? Do good old fashioned paper pencil activities like crossword puzzles help with brain function? How about Bridge or Chess? Does watching Jeopardy on Television help your memory? Wouldn’t any challenging video game help us with attention if we had to stay focused for long periods of time to get to a new level?

The answers to the above questions are all “yes, to some degree.” The brain is the only organ of our body that changes each day based on our experiences. And if we do any activities that challenge memory or attention for extended periods of time it will likely be beneficial for improving those capacities. If I play bridge, for example, many hours a week, I will likely get better at the game and boost my short term (working) memory as well. But, neuroscientists who study brain plasticity, the way the brain changes with stimulation (or lack of stimulation), have determined there are ways to enhance the beneficial effects of brain exercises to maximize the efficiency and positive outcomes so that children or adults can specifically target some capacities over others in a short period of time. And, controlled research is showing these targeted exercises have benefits on other brain capacities as well.

What Makes a Mind?

By Dr Llewellyn Cox, Principal, LieuLabs

ASK a person to describe themself, and they will probably recite a list of their physical features — their height, weight, the color of their skin, hair, and eyes. If they’re more a more externalized type, they might mention their job, sexuality, religion, or a major life achievement. Some might feel a desire to be precise and catalog their external features: their eyes, face, arms, hands, legs, feet, fingers, and toes for you.

Few will ever mention their brain.

Stanford Study Finds Walking Improves Creativity

By May Wong for Stanford News

Stanford researchers found that walking boosts creative inspiration. They examined creativity levels of people while they walked versus while they sat. A person’s creative output increased by an average of 60 percent when walking.

Many people claim they do their best thinking while walking. A new study finds that walking indeed boosts creative inspiration. Photo by L.A. Cicero