Shows
CognitationsEP #17 | The Anthropology of Leisure Time | Mark DybleWe often talk about the modern challenge of work-life balance. However, long before the existence of offices, commutes, and calendars, our ancestors lived as hunter-gatherers. Did they actually enjoy more leisure time than we do? And did the shift to farming mark the beginning of longer workdays and less free time? Today’s guest is the person to answer these questions, or at least some of them…Mark Dyble is an Assistant Professor in evolutionary anthropology at the University of Cambridge. He has broad interests in understanding variation in behaviour and biology across human populations. Previously, he g...2025-06-2754 min
CognitationsEP #16 | What do Auditory Illusions Reveal about the Brain? | Daniel PressnitzerDaniel Pressnitzer. Originally trained in engineering, he went on to complete a Master's degree in acoustics, signal processing, and computer science in Paris. He earned his PhD at Ircam, where he studied auditory perception, focusing on musical consonance and dissonance. He then spent several years in the UK conducting postdoctoral research at the Centre for the Neural Basis of Hearing in Cambridge. In 2000, he returned to France to join the CNRS as a researcher. Now a Director of Research at CNRS, he is also a founding member and the current head of the Audition team at the École normale s...2025-05-301h 05CognitationsEP #15 | Social Media and Mental Health: The Cognitive Turn | Georgia Turner & Lukas GunscheraIn our episode with Amy Orben, we discussed a big problem in the research on how social media potentially affects mental health. That is, a lot of studies ask really vague, broad questions. For instance, asking 'What is social media doing to our mental health?' is like asking 'How does food affect young people’s health?' To really answer the latter question, we need to get more specific—are we talking about junk food or vegetables? And what about the kid’s health history, like if they have diabetes? Some researchers think that using well-established theories from cognit...2025-05-0251 minCognitationsEP #14 | How can Social Media Affect Mental Health? | Amy OrbenHumans inhabit a social world. With the march of history and the discovery of novel technologies, our ability to socialise has been in a state of constant flux to varying degrees. However, modes of human interaction have undergone a massive shift in the 21st century with the emergence of smartphones and social media platforms. According to a Pew report, almost half of US teens say that they are online ‘almost constantly’. This is understandably terrifying for the previous generation, especially parents of young people, witnessing this shift in sociality. Simultaneously, in the current public discourse, claims about the negative impact...2025-03-281h 19CognitationsEP #13 | Knowledge, Communication & Curiosity | Jennifer NagelHumans are curious creatures who seek out knowledge about every aspect of the world. We also value knowledge to a great degree. Having a good education is very well-perceived and is a priority of many parents. We sometimes take pride in possessing knowledge, and tend to feel embarrassed when our ignorance gets put on display. More fundamentally, many of our social interactions require tracking what others know and signaling what we ourselves know. For instance, discussing politics with a foreigner might require extra care, as our knowledge of social and economic issues might be specialized relative to the contexts...2025-02-281h 32CognitationsEP #12 | Understanding Animal Minds | Jacob BeckThe relationship we sustain with non-human animals is rich and complex. We take care of them, we exploit them, we eat them, and we tell stories about them. The psychological dimensions of this multifaceted relationship are usually taken for granted, but it’s puzzling when you think about it. We don’t bat an eye upon hearing of seductive snakes, gentle, honey loving bears or mystery solving, criminal catching dogs. And yet, when pushed, many of us will readily admit that animals don’t have exactly the same psychological traits and tendencies as humans. How can this be? When we per...2025-01-311h 04CognitationsBONUS EP | Meet The Hosts & Season 2 AnnouncementsIn this update episode, Tanay and Jay reflect on the journey so far and some special guests crash the show...2024-11-041h 08CognitationsEP #11 | Human Behavioral Ecology: Putting Depression & Poverty In Context | Daniel NettleContemporary life is replete with problems. A very salient example of such a problem is depression, which according to the World Health Organization, affected 5% of the global population in 2019. That is 280 million people – a very large number indeed. Another such problem is poverty and inequality. According to the World Bank, around 700 million people live in extreme poverty – an even larger number. Why are these problems on the rise? Are there features of contemporary societies that are exacerbating this problem? Moreover, how do these problems, namely rising inequality and depression, interact? How can an evolutionary and/or behavioral ecology perspective add nove...2024-07-191h 12CognitationsEP #10 | Insights into Sight: Visual Perception, Saccades, Eye-Tracking | Thérèse CollinsLike many of our cognitive abilities, it is easy to take vision for granted. On a daily basis, vision seems rather simple: various objects, people, landscapes present themselves before us; and, if our eyes are open and function well, we are bestowed with a visual experience of these things. We then act on this experience in all the ways the world affords. In reality, things are much more complex than this naive experience might lead us to think. For instance, visual perception isn’t passive in the way just described. Rather, our sense organs and brain are constantly performing an...2024-06-201h 16CognitationsEP #9 | The History And Foundations Of Cognitive Science | Pierre JacobAfter eight episodes where we discussed intricacies of different areas of cognitive science — reasoning, the evolution of cultures, our relationship to our bodies, public policy, how children learn language, schizophrenia, the relationship between economics and neuroscience – one can wonder, what even is cognitive science?. How can a field of scientific investigation cover such a wide array of diverse phenomena across different levels of explanation? Why even use the term ‘cognitive science’? Don’t neuroscience and psychology cover it all? Well, there are answers to this question. In today’s episode, in order to gain some clarity and a step back, we tur...2024-05-271h 30CognitationsEP #8 | A Child's First Words: Psycholinguistics, Development & Linguistic Communities | Alejandrina Cristia & Camila ScaffLanguage is oftentimes viewed as a paradigmatically human capacity. Indeed, we have observed no other creature exhibit linguistic abilities with the same complexity and freedom as our own. Conversely, humans are often viewed as vitally linguistic. Our diverse societies and communities seem to be knit together by the thread of spoken, signed and written words. We tell stories, pass down documents, express our joys and grievances… all by articulating our thoughts into sequences of sounds, markings or gestures. It is therefore not surprising that the first words of a child tend to be celebrated. But what goes into the ut...2024-04-161h 15CognitationsEP #7 | Social Cognition & Social Motivation: Autism, Climate Change & Public Policy | Coralie ChevalierMost actions humans take are social in nature. If they are not directly geared towards affecting others behaviors and thoughts, they are at least likely to have some impact on their lives. One can wonder if there is something special in one’s mind that determines the behaviors that are oriented towards others. After all, we do colloquially talk of social skills or social intelligence. So, what is so special about social behaviors? Another domain that makes the question painfully apparent is that of progress requiring collective action. Indeed, why are we so reliably capable of learning a difficult ne...2024-03-181h 11CognitationsEP #6 | The Architecture of the Mind: Cognitive Neuroscience, Modules and Methods | Nancy Kanwisher
Our daily experiences (e.g. thinking, acting, talking to people etc.) give us the idea that we/our mind is a singular entity i.e. a unified inner space or soul that perceives and acts on the complex world around us. On the other hand, we tend to speak in ways that point to a relative segmentation of the mind – one often hears that some individuals are particularly talented at solving mathematical equations, that women are more empathic than men, that some children have a very rich imagination and are hence destined for a creative line of...2024-02-201h 12CognitationsEP #5 | Predictive Processing and Mental Health | Sam Wilkinson
What is normal? What is a disorder? Often, when we interact with people who behave in ways we cannot understand, the question of defining ‘normal’ and sane behaviour becomes apparent. Importantly, when we ourselves exhibit thoughts and behaviours which are viewed as deviant from the commonly accepted definition of normality, we might feel helpless, judged, and inadequate. Historically, behaviours that are diagnostic of mental disorders were viewed as irrational or disruptive. However, recent breakthroughs in cognitive science can shed new light on redefining psychiatric phenomena while erasing the stigma of irrationality. What are these breakthroughs? What goes i...2024-01-171h 31CognitationsEP #4 | Neuroeconomics & Learning in Humans, Rats and Robots | Stefano PalminteriA defining feature of us humans is that we continuously adapt to our environments in order to thrive. One key component of this process is ‘learning’ the contingencies of our environment. Since the 19th century, this phenomenon has been studied under the moniker of “conditioning”, and is usually associated with Pavlov and his famed dogs. Despite the fact that this seems trivial to many today with regard to dogs and other animals, and that we cannot assume that humans, with their complex mental lives merely act with the prospect of a reward, the basic idea behind these principles has enjoyed...2023-12-141h 19CognitationsEP #3 | Minding the Body | Frédérique de VignemontOur relationship with our body is extremely complex. We have a wide range of different kinds of sensations: that is, the senses, pains, pleasures, the feeling of heat, of cold and so on. We also do things with our body, we engage in athletic activities, we harm one another, we pleasure one another, we jump for joy, we frown in disbelief, we hunch over in despair… How can we disentangle this giant knot of doings and feelings that is the body? How can we study our perception of the body? What is the relationship between the body and its en...2023-11-201h 02CognitationsEP #2 | Cognitive Approaches To Studying Culture | Olivier MorinCulture is everywhere: it includes art, the dissemination of theories and of social norms, customs, the food we cook and eat, and so on. Culture also seems to be what distinguishes different communities, families, or entire countries and continents. Is it possible to explain such heterogeneous and complex phenomena? Can we identify the cognitive, environmental or social factors that underlie the spread of practices, norms and ideas? What is it that allows certain traditions to survive and develop, sometimes for hundreds or thousands of years?
Olivier Morin is a tenured CNRS researcher at the...2023-10-011h 08
CognitationsEP #1 | The Evolutionary Function Of Reasoning and Epistemic Vigilance | Hugo MercierHumans reason about many matters: from the most simple of concerns, like the planning of a weekend outing; to the most complex and intellectual topics. Given the ubiquity of reasoning, and the broad range of situations which call for it, we tend to take it for granted. But for these very same reasons, the study of reasoning is quite central to understanding the workings of the human mind. One can wonder how we came to acquire such a capacity, how our minds are so wired to make inferences, the places where reasoning breaks down, and so much more.
2023-07-0355 min