Category Archives: Cognitive Science

What Causes Feelings: A Question For Psychology?

A central interesting question about people is “what causes us to have certain feelings?”  For example, what kinds of situations cause anger?  Anxiety?  Happiness?  While we all have some rough ideas about these (such as “anger is caused by someone …   Continue reading →

Computational Modeling vs. Mathematical Modeling

Just recently been thinking about “computational modeling”, and I’ve been thinking more and more that the important thing is not so much the “computational” part of modeling (the fact that you’ve simulated a model on a computer), but rather the …   Continue reading →

Biophysics of Computation

I just finished “fast reading” Christof Koch’s book “Biophysics of Computation”, i.e. reading it but not stopping to understand concepts I didn’t get on the first pass, making sure to understand equations, etc.  The book gives a great description of …   Continue reading →

Using LaTex for Math Typesetting

Just a quick post on typesetting mathematics with LaTex.  This summer, in the process of brushing up on a few things, I wanted to make a math study guide, and found that Microsoft Word doesn’t do a great job at …   Continue reading →

Neural Synchronization Followup

Two posts ago I asked a question about neural synchronization – if a group of neurons are firing synchronously, don’t we lose information?  In other words, if many neurons are all saying the same thing, do we really gain anything by …   Continue reading →

Sadness and Anxiety: Incompatible Emotions?

Are there emotions which are “incompatible”?  In other words, could experiencing one emotion make it harder to experience another emotion?  It seems like we have anecdotal evidence on both sides.  On one hand, it can seem very difficult to get someone who …   Continue reading →

Neural Synchronization – Naive Questions

Neural synchronization occurs when many neurons fire together, with their timings aligned, often periodically with a given frequency.  Synchronization is clearly very pervasive in the brain (in EEG recordings of “brain waves” and different brain “rhythms”, for example).  However, I imagine we are still …   Continue reading →

The Role of Mathematics in Psychology

How much math do you need to know for a career in psychology?  The stereotype seems to be that psychology and math are unrelated, but “surprisingly” I’ve found that many areas of psychology can involve quite a bit of math.  This of course can …   Continue reading →

Analysis of Variance, Regression, and the “General Linear Model”

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear regression are two of the most popular statistical techniques used in behavioral research.  I’ve often come across statements to the effect that ANOVA and linear regression are really “the same thing” – that in …   Continue reading →

Simulation Update

Last month I wrote about recreating a brain simulation model in an article I read about (Hamker, 2005).  As I discussed there, the Hamker article describes a computational firing-rate model of several brain areas thought to play a role in …   Continue reading →