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Intermediate science knowledge predicts overconfidence Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-11-28 Carmen Sanchez, David Dunning
Lackner et al. found science overconfidence peaks at intermediate levels of knowledge. Those with intermediate knowledge also hold the most negative attitudes toward scientists. In doing so, they provide a novel measure of overconfidence that measures the tendency to give incorrect answers as opposed to answering, ‘I don’t know’.
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Ethical reasoning versus empathic bias: a false dichotomy? Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-11-15 Kyle Fiore Law, Paige Amormino, Abigail A. Marsh, Brendan Bo O’Connor
Does empathy necessarily impede equity in altruism? Emerging findings from cognitive and affective science suggest that rationality and empathy are mutually compatible, contradicting some earlier, prominent arguments that empathy impedes equitable giving. We propose alternative conceptualizations of relationships among empathy, rationality, and equity, drawing on interdisciplinary advances in altruism
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Generating meaning: active inference and the scope and limits of passive AI Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-11-15 Giovanni Pezzulo, Thomas Parr, Paul Cisek, Andy Clark, Karl Friston
Prominent accounts of sentient behavior depict brains as generative models of organismic interaction with the world, evincing intriguing similarities with current advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI). However, because they contend with the control of purposive, life-sustaining sensorimotor interactions, the generative models of living organisms are inextricably anchored to the body and
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Advisory Board and Contents Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-11-14
Abstract not available
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Subscription and Copyright Information Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-11-14
Abstract not available
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When expert predictions fail Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-11-08 Igor Grossmann, Michael E.W. Varnum, Cendri A. Hutcherson, David R. Mandel
We examine the opportunities and challenges of expert judgment in the social sciences, scrutinizing the way social scientists make predictions. While social scientists show above-chance accuracy in predicting laboratory-based phenomena, they often struggle to predict real-world societal changes. We argue that most causal models used in social sciences are oversimplified, confuse levels of analysis
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Cognitive fossils: using cultural artifacts to reconstruct psychological changes throughout history Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-11-08 Nicolas Baumard, Lou Safra, Mauricio Martins, Coralie Chevallier
Psychology is crucial for understanding human history. When aggregated, changes in the psychology of individuals – in the intensity of social trust, parental care, or intellectual curiosity – can lead to important changes in institutions, social norms, and cultures. However, studying the role of psychology in shaping human history has been hindered by the difficulty of documenting the psychological
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When Are Social Protests Effective? Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-31 Eric Shuman, Amit Goldenberg, Tamar Saguy, Eran Halperin, Martijn van Zomeren
Around the world, people engage in social protests aimed at addressing major societal problems. Certain protests have led to significant progress, yet other protests have resulted in little demonstrable change. We introduce a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of social protest made up of three components: (i) what types of action are being considered; (ii) what target audience is being affected;
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Intergroup conflict as contest and disease Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-28 Nir Halevy, Alexander P. Landry
Intergroup conflict has been conceptualized as a strategic interaction (conflict-as-contest) and separately as a pathological condition (conflict-as-disease). We highlight how insights and tools from the former perspective can potentially inform the latter. Harnessing the science of strategic decision-making can facilitate the development of novel approaches for mitigating intergroup conflict.
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Neural mechanisms of domain-general inhibitory control Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-26 Jan R. Wessel, Michael C. Anderson
Inhibitory control is a fundamental mechanism underlying flexible behavior and features in theories across many areas of cognitive and psychological science. However, whereas many theories implicitly or explicitly assume that inhibitory control is a domain-general process, the vast majority of neuroscientific work has hitherto focused on individual domains, such as motor, mnemonic, or attentional inhibition
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Interactive repair and the foundations of language Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-16 Mark Dingemanse, N.J. Enfield
The robustness and flexibility of human language is underpinned by a machinery of interactive repair. Repair is deeply intertwined with two core properties of human language: reflexivity (it can communicate about itself) and accountability (it is used to publicly enforce social norms). We review empirical and theoretical advances from across the cognitive sciences that mark interactive repair as a
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Plasticity–stability dynamics during post-training processing of learning Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-17 Takashi Yamada, Takeo Watanabe, Yuka Sasaki
Learning continues beyond the end of training. Post-training learning is supported by changes in plasticity and stability in the brain during both wakefulness and sleep. However, the lack of a unified measure for assessing plasticity and stability dynamics during training and post-training periods has limited our understanding of how these dynamics shape learning. Focusing primarily on procedural learning
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Rethinking cortical recycling in ventral temporal cortex Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-17 Emily Kubota, Kalanit Grill-Spector, Marisa Nordt
High-level visual areas in ventral temporal cortex (VTC) support recognition of important categories, such as faces and words. Word-selective regions are left lateralized and emerge at the onset of reading instruction. Face-selective regions are right lateralized and have been documented in infancy. Prevailing theories suggest that face-selective regions become right lateralized due to competition
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The ebb and flow of cognitive fatigue Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-14 Erik Bijleveld
If you are currently feeling tired, you are not alone: feelings of fatigue are incredibly common. In a recent study, Matthews et al. investigated moment-to-moment fluctuations in fatigue using behavioral experiments and computational modeling. The study offers a precise account of how fatigue waxes (during physical and cognitive effort) and wanes (during rest).
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Unlocking the brain secrets of social media through neuroscience Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-13 Christian Montag, Laura Marciano, Peter J. Schulz, Benjamin Becker
Neuroscientific buzzwords, such as ‘brain hacks’, have become commonplace when discussing social media (SM)-platform engineering. Despite societal debates, few studies have used neuroscientific approaches to validate the claims empirically. We call here for a transformative shift engaging scientists and other stakeholders to address this critical knowledge gap.
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Consciousness in the cradle: on the emergence of infant experience Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-12 Tim Bayne, Joel Frohlich, Rhodri Cusack, Julia Moser, Lorina Naci
Although each of us was once a baby, infant consciousness remains mysterious and there is no received view about when, and in what form, consciousness first emerges. Some theorists defend a ‘late-onset’ view, suggesting that consciousness requires cognitive capacities which are unlikely to be in place before the child’s first birthday at the very earliest. Other theorists defend an ‘early-onset’ account
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Advisory Board and Contents Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-10
Abstract not available
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Subscription and Copyright Information Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-10
Abstract not available
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Seeing social interactions Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-05 Emalie McMahon, Leyla Isik
Seeing the interactions between other people is a critical part of our everyday visual experience, but recognizing the social interactions of others is often considered outside the scope of vision and grouped with higher-level social cognition like theory of mind. Recent work, however, has revealed that recognition of social interactions is efficient and automatic, is well modeled by bottom-up computational
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Wayfinding across ocean and tundra: what traditional cultures teach us about navigation Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-10-03 Pablo Fernandez-Velasco, Hugo J. Spiers
Research on human navigation by psychologists and neuroscientists has come mainly from a limited range of environments and participants inhabiting western countries. By contrast, numerous anthropological accounts illustrate the diverse ways in which cultures adapt to their surrounding environment to navigate. Here, we provide an overview of these studies and relate them to cognitive science research
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Naturalistic reinforcement learning Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-29 Toby Wise, Kara Emery, Angela Radulescu
Humans possess a remarkable ability to make decisions within real-world environments that are expansive, complex, and multidimensional. Human cognitive computational neuroscience has sought to exploit reinforcement learning (RL) as a framework within which to explain human decision-making, often focusing on constrained, artificial experimental tasks. In this article, we review recent efforts that use
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Inner speech as language process and cognitive tool Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-26 Charles Fernyhough, Anna M. Borghi
Many people report a form of internal language known as inner speech (IS). This review examines recent growth of research interest in the phenomenon, which has broadly supported a theoretical model in which IS is a functional language process that can confer benefits for cognition in a range of domains. A key insight to have emerged in recent years is that IS is an embodied experience characterized
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The cognitive (lateral) hypothalamus Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-25 Melissa J. Sharpe
Despite the physiological complexity of the hypothalamus, its role is typically restricted to initiation or cessation of innate behaviors. For example, theories of lateral hypothalamus argue that it is a switch to turn feeding ‘on’ and ‘off’ as dictated by higher-order structures that render when feeding is appropriate. However, recent data demonstrate that the lateral hypothalamus is critical for
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Musical synchrony, dynamical systems and information processing: Merger or redundancy? Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-20 Alexander P. Demos, Caroline Palmer
Abstract not available
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Environmental statistics and experience shape risk-taking across adolescence Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-20 Simon Ciranka, Ralph Hertwig
Adolescents are often portrayed as reckless risk-takers because of their immature brains. Recent research has cast doubt on this portrayal, identifying the environment as a moderator of risk-taking. However, the key features of environments that drive risk-taking behaviors are often underspecified. We call for greater attention to the environment by drawing on research showing that its statistical
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Integrating theory and models of musical group interaction Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-20 Peter E. Keller
Abstract not available
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An ‘embedded brain’ approach to understanding antisocial behaviour Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-15 Essi Viding, Eamon McCrory, Arielle Baskin-Sommers, Stephane DeBrito, Paul Frick
Antisocial behaviour (ASB) incurs substantial costs to the individual and society. Cognitive neuroscience has the potential to shed light on developmental risk for ASB, but it cannot achieve this potential in an ‘essentialist’ framework that focuses on the brain and cognition isolated from the environment. Here, we present the case for studying the social transactional and iterative unfolding of brain
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Subscription and Copyright Information Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-12
Abstract not available
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Advisory Board and Contents Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-12
Abstract not available
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Motivating vaccination with financial incentives Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-14 Pol Campos-Mercade, Armando N. Meier, Devin Pope, Florian H. Schneider
Governments and organizations often offer cash payments for vaccination. How effective are such payments? A literature review shows that incentives usually increase vaccination, especially for nonhesitant populations and when using guaranteed payments. Concerns about negative unintended consequences are unsupported. We also discuss open questions and avenues for future research.
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Living on the edge: network neuroscience beyond nodes Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-14 Richard F. Betzel, Joshua Faskowitz, Olaf Sporns
Network neuroscience has emphasized the connectional properties of neural elements – cells, populations, and regions. This has come at the expense of the anatomical and functional connections that link these elements to one another. A new perspective – namely one that emphasizes 'edges' – may prove fruitful in addressing outstanding questions in network neuroscience. We highlight one recently proposed
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Prediction during language comprehension: what is next? Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-11 Rachel Ryskin, Mante S. Nieuwland
Prediction is often regarded as an integral aspect of incremental language comprehension, but little is known about the cognitive architectures and mechanisms that support it. We review studies showing that listeners and readers use all manner of contextual information to generate multifaceted predictions about upcoming input. The nature of these predictions may vary between individuals owing to differences
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Dynamic reading in a digital age: new insights on cognition Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-09 Sixin Liao, Lili Yu, Jan-Louis Kruger, Erik D. Reichle
People increasingly read text displayed on digital devices, including computers, handheld e-readers, and smartphones. Given this, there is rapidly growing interest in understanding how the cognitive processes that support the reading of static text (e.g., books, magazines, or newspapers) might be adapted to reading digital texts. Evidence from recent experiments suggests a complex interplay of visual
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A goal-centric outlook on learning Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-09 Gaia Molinaro, Anne G.E. Collins
Goals play a central role in human cognition. However, computational theories of learning and decision-making often take goals as given. Here, we review key empirical findings showing that goals shape the representations of inputs, responses, and outcomes, such that setting a goal crucially influences the central aspects of any learning process: states, actions, and rewards. We thus argue that studying
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A collective neuroscience lens on intergroup conflict Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-09 Kelong Lu, Yafeng Pan
How do team leaders and followers synchronize their behaviors and brains to effectively manage intergroup conflicts? Zhang and colleagues offered a collective neurobehavioral narrative that delves into the intricacies of intergroup conflict. Their results underscore the importance of leaders’ group-oriented actions, along with leader–follower synchronization, in intergroup conflict resolution.
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Understanding memorability through artificial and artist intelligence Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-09 Lore Goetschalckx, Claudia Damiano
Davis and Bainbridge reveal a consistent memorability signal for artworks, both online and in a museum setting, which is predicted by the intrinsic visual attributes of the paintings. The fusion of artificial intelligence (AI) with artistic intuition emerges as a promising avenue to deepen our understanding of what makes images memorable.
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Attention with or without working memory: mnemonic reselection of attended information Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-07 Yingtao Fu, Chenxiao Guan, Joyce Tam, Ryan E. O’Donnell, Mowei Shen, Brad Wyble, Hui Chen
Attention has been regarded as the ‘gatekeeper’ controlling what information gets selected into working memory. However, a new perspective has emerged with the discovery of attribute amnesia, a phenomenon revealing that people are frequently unable to report information they have just attended to moments ago. This report failure is thought to stem from a lack of consolidating the attended information
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Action observation network: domain-specific or domain-general? Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-09-02 Li Wang, Yi Jiang
The action observation network (AON) has traditionally been thought to be dedicated to recognizing animate actions. A recent study by Karakose-Akbiyik et al. invites rethinking this assumption by demonstrating that the AON contains a shared neural code for general events, regardless of whether those events involve animate or inanimate entities.
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Bridging the data gap between children and large language models Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-31 Michael C. Frank
Large language models (LLMs) show intriguing emergent behaviors, yet they receive around four or five orders of magnitude more language data than human children. What accounts for this vast difference in sample efficiency? Candidate explanations include children’s pre-existing conceptual knowledge, their use of multimodal grounding, and the interactive, social nature of their input.
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What are large language models supposed to model? Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-31 Idan A. Blank
Do large language models (LLMs) constitute a computational account of how humans process language? And if so, what is the role of (psycho)linguistic theory in understanding the relationship between artificial and biological minds? The answer depends on choosing among several, fundamentally distinct ways of interpreting these models as hypotheses about humans.
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Effects of COVID-19 on cognition and brain health Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-30 Sijia Zhao, Sofia Toniolo, Adam Hampshire, Masud Husain
COVID-19 is associated with a range of neurological, cognitive, and mental health symptoms both acutely and chronically that can persist for many months after infection in people with long-COVID syndrome. Investigations of cognitive function and neuroimaging have begun to elucidate the nature of some of these symptoms. They reveal that, although cognitive deficits may be related to brain imaging abnormalities
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Semantic cognition versus numerical cognition: a topographical perspective Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-26 Rocco Chiou, Daniel Margulies, Mojtaba Soltanlou, Elizabeth Jefferies, Roi Cohen Kadosh
Semantic cognition and numerical cognition are dissociable faculties with separable neural mechanisms. However, recent advances in the cortical topography of the temporal and parietal lobes have revealed a common organisational principle for the neural representations of semantics and numbers. We discuss their convergence and divergence through the prism of topography.
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On semantic structures and processes in creative thinking Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-25 Yoed N. Kenett, Roger E. Beaty
Abstract not available
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Creativity and semantic memory: the answers are upstream Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-25 John Kounios, Yongtaek Oh
Abstract not available
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The neural ingredients for a language of thought are available Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-23 Nina Kazanina, David Poeppel
The classical notion of a ‘language of thought’ (LoT), advanced prominently by the philosopher Jerry Fodor, is an influential position in cognitive science whereby the mental representations underpinning thought are considered to be compositional and productive, enabling the construction of new complex thoughts from more primitive symbolic concepts. LoT theory has been challenged because a neural implementation
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Social disconnection and mortality: new evidence for old truths Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-18 Bin Yu
In an updated meta-analysis of 90 prospective studies with over two million adults, Wang et al. found that social isolation and loneliness were linked to a substantial increase in all-cause mortality in the general population. They also discovered a higher mortality risk in isolated individuals with cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer.
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How does brain geometry influence human brain function? Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-18 Na Luo, Jiaqi Zhang, Tianzi Jiang
Recent work by Pang et al. enriches our understanding of how the anatomy of the human brain constrains its function by demonstrating that brain geometry plays a crucial role in predicting neuronal dynamics. We highlight some key findings from this work while also addressing some points of confusion that could potentially cause public misunderstanding.
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Emotion representations in context: maturation and convergence pathways Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-17 Shaozheng Qin
How does the human brain develop stable emotion representations? According to recent work by Camacho et al., neural representations of contextualized emotional cues are distinct and fairly stable by mid-to-late childhood and activation patterns become increasingly similar between individuals during adolescence. Here, I propose a framework for investigating contextualized emotion processing.
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Do contemplative practices make us more moral? Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-12 Kevin Berryman, Sara W. Lazar, Jakob Hohwy
Contemplative practices are a staple of modern life and have historically been intertwined with morality. However, do these practices in fact improve our morality? The answer remains unclear because the science of contemplative practices has focused on unidimensional aspects of morality, which do not align with the type of interdependent moral functioning these practices aspire to cultivate. Here,
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Advisory Board and Contents Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-08
Abstract not available
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Decoding social rewards via inter-areal coordination frequency in the brain Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-10 Masaki Isoda
Vicarious reward plays a pivotal role in shaping altruism and prosociality. However, neural circuit mechanisms underlying the distinction between vicarious reward and experienced reward are poorly understood. Putnam et al. recently demonstrated that the two types of reward are represented by distinct coordination frequencies within the same cingulate–amygdala pathway.
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Subscription and Copyright Information Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-08
Abstract not available
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Timing of lifespan influences on brain and cognition Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-08 Kristine B. Walhovd, Martin Lövden, Anders M. Fjell
Modifiable risk and protective factors for boosting brain and cognitive development and preventing neurodegeneration and cognitive decline are embraced in neuroimaging studies. We call for sobriety regarding the timing and quantity of such influences on brain and cognition. Individual differences in the level of brain and cognition, many of which present already at birth and early in development, appear
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Algorithm-mediated social learning in online social networks Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-03 William J. Brady, Joshua Conrad Jackson, Björn Lindström, M.J. Crockett
Human social learning is increasingly occurring on online social platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok. On these platforms, algorithms exploit existing social-learning biases (i.e., towards prestigious, ingroup, moral, and emotional information, or ‘PRIME’ information) to sustain users’ attention and maximize engagement. Here, we synthesize emerging insights into ‘algorithm-mediated social
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Separating desire from prediction of outcome value Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-08-03 Kent C. Berridge
Individuals typically want what they expect to like, often based on memories of previous positive experiences. However, in some situations desire can decouple completely from memories and from learned predictions of outcome value. The potential for desire to separate from prediction arises from independent operating rules that control motivational incentive salience. Incentive salience, or 'wanting'
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Theory of collective mind Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-07-31 Garriy Shteynberg, Jacob B. Hirsh, Wouter Wolf, John A. Bargh, Erica J. Boothby, Andrew M. Colman, Gerald Echterhoff, Maya Rossignac-Milon
Theory of mind research has traditionally focused on the ascription of mental states to a single individual. Here, we introduce a theory of collective mind: the ascription of a unified mental state to a group of agents with convergent experiences. Rather than differentiation between one’s personal perspective and that of another agent, a theory of collective mind requires perspectival unification across
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Searching for answers: expert pattern recognition and planning Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-07-26 Fernand Gobet, Andrew J. Waters
Does expertise mostly stem from pattern recognition or look-ahead search? van Opheusden et al. contribute to this important debate in cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence (AI) with a multi-method, multi-experiment study and a new model. Using a novel, relatively simple board game, they show that players increase depth of search when improving their skill.
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Understanding patch foraging strategies across development Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-07-25 Alex Lloyd, Essi Viding, Ryan McKay, Nicholas Furl
Patch foraging is a near-ubiquitous behaviour across the animal kingdom and characterises many decision-making domains encountered by humans. We review how a disposition to explore in adolescence may reflect the evolutionary conditions under which hunter-gatherers foraged for resources. We propose that neurocomputational mechanisms responsible for reward processing, learning, and cognitive control
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Multiple routes to enhanced memory for emotionally relevant events Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-07-19 Nina Rouhani, Yael Niv, Michael J. Frank, Lars Schwabe
Events associated with aversive or rewarding outcomes are prioritized in memory. This memory boost is commonly attributed to the elicited affective response, closely linked to noradrenergic and dopaminergic modulation of hippocampal plasticity. Herein we review and compare this ‘affect’ mechanism to an additional, recently discovered, ‘prediction’ mechanism whereby memories are strengthened by the
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A pull versus push framework for reputation Trends Cogn. Sci. (IF 19.9) Pub Date : 2023-07-17 Jillian J. Jordan
Abstract not available