34 posts · 15,456 views

I am a psychologist by training. I am a blogger in my spare time. | I am young, my CV is short: 09/2010 – present The University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Master of Brain and Cognitive Sciences | 09/2006 – 06/2010 The University of Glasgow, United Kingdom Master of Arts (Honours) in Psychology, First class

Brain's Idea
34 posts

Sort by Latest Post, Most Popular

View by Condensed, Full

December 16, 2014
07:14 AM
154 views

The scientific community’s Galileo affair (you’re the Pope)

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Science is in crisis. Everyone in the scientific community knows about it but few want to talk about it. The crisis is one of honesty. A junior scientist (like me) asks himself a similar question to Galileo in 1633: how much honesty is desirable in science? Science Wonderland According to nearly all empirical scientific publications […]... Read more »

John, L., Loewenstein, G., & Prelec, D. (2012) Measuring the Prevalence of Questionable Research Practices with Incentives for Truth-Telling. SSRN Electronic Journal. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.1996631

Simmons, J., Nelson, L., & Simonsohn, U. (2011) False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant. Psychological Science, 22(11), 1359-1366. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611417632

November 19, 2014
03:10 PM
255 views

The real reason why new pop music is so incredibly bad

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

You have probably heard that Pink Floyd recently published their new album Endless River. Will this bring back the wonderful world of good music after the endless awfulness of the popular music scene in the last 20 years or so? Is good music, as we know it from the 60s and 70s, back for good? […]... Read more »

Bornstein, R. (1989) Exposure and affect: Overview and meta-analysis of research, 1968-1987. Psychological Bulletin, 106(2), 265-289. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.106.2.265

Johnson MK, Kim JK, & Risse G. (1985) Do alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome patients acquire affective reactions?. Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, 11(1), 22-36. PMID: 3156951

November 6, 2014
04:25 AM
181 views

Memory training boosts IQ

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Is the IQ set in stone once we hit adulthood? ‘Yes it is’ used to be the received wisdom. A new meta-analysis challenges this view and gives hope to all of us who feel that mother nature should have endowed us with more IQ points. But is the training worth it? Intelligence increases in adults […]... Read more »

Au, J., Sheehan, E., Tsai, N., Duncan, G., Buschkuehl, M., & Jaeggi, S. (2014) Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory: a meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin . DOI: 10.3758/s13423-014-0699-x

October 9, 2014
09:43 AM
282 views

Dyslexia: trouble reading ‘four’

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Dyslexia affects about every tenth reader. It shows up when trying to read, especially when reading fast. But it is still not fully clear what words dyslexic readers find particularly hard. So, I did some research to find out, and I published the article today. Imagine seeing a new word ‘bour’. How would you pronounce […]... Read more »

Kunert, R., & Scheepers, C. (2014) Speed and accuracy of dyslexic versus typical word recognition: an eye-movement investigation. Frontiers in Psychology. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01129

October 6, 2014
03:33 AM
267 views

Old people are immune against the cocktail party effect

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Imagine standing at a cocktail party and somewhere your name gets mentioned. Your attention is immediately grabbed by the sound of your name. It is a classic psychological effect with a new twist: old people are immune. The so-called cocktail party effect has fascinated researchers for a long time. Even though you do not consciously […]... Read more »

Naveh-Benjamin M, Kilb A, Maddox GB, Thomas J, Fine HC, Chen T, & Cowan N. (2014) Older adults do not notice their names: A new twist to a classic attention task. Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition. PMID: 24820668

September 17, 2014
05:56 PM
295 views

Why are ethical standards higher in science than in business and media?

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Facebook manipulates user content in the name of science? Scandalous! It manipulates user content in the name of profit? No worries! Want to run a Milgram study these days? Get bashed by your local ethics committee! Want to show it on TV? No worries. Why do projects which seek knowledge have higher ethical standards than […]... Read more »

Kramer AD, Guillory JE, & Hancock JT. (2014) Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(24), 8788-90. PMID: 24889601

Milgram, S. (1963) Behavioral Study of obedience. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371-378. info:/doi: 10.1037/h0040525

September 15, 2014
04:57 AM
280 views

How to increase children’s patience in 5 seconds

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

A single act increases adults’ compliance with researchers. The same act makes students more likely to volunteer to solve math problems in front of others. Moreover, it makes four-year-olds more patient. What sounds like a miracle cure to everyday problems is actually the oldest trick in the book: human touch. How do researchers know this? […]... Read more »

Guéguen N, & Fischer-Lokou J. (2002) An evaluation of touch on a large request: a field setting. Psychological reports, 90(1), 267-9. PMID: 11898995

Guéguen, N. (2004) Nonverbal Encouragement of Participation in a Course: the Effect of Touching. Social Psychology of Education, 7(1), 89-98. DOI: 10.1023/B:SPOE.0000010691.30834.14

Leonard JA, Berkowitz T, & Shusterman A. (2014) The effect of friendly touch on delay-of-gratification in preschool children. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 1-11. PMID: 24666195

Psychology

August 18, 2014
05:14 PM
416 views

The 10,000-Hour rule is nonsense

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Have you heard of Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule? The key to success in any field is practice, and not just a little. A new publication in the journal Psychological Science had a good look at all the evidence and concludes that this rule is nonsense. No Einstein in you, I am afraid. The authors of […]... Read more »

Macnamara, B.N., Hambrick, D.Z., & Oswald, F.L. (2014) Deliberate Practice and Performance in Music, Games, Sports, Education, and Professions: A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1037/e633262013-474

August 5, 2014
05:29 AM
373 views

Play music and you’ll see more

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Check out the video. It is a short demonstration of the so-called attentional blink. Whenever you try to spot the two letters in the rapid sequence you’ll miss the second one. This effect is so robust that generations of Psychology undergraduates learned about it. And then came music and changed everything. Test your own […]... Read more »

Jones, M., & Boltz, M. (1989) Dynamic attending and responses to time. Psychological Review, 96(3), 459-491. DOI: 10.1037//0033-295X.96.3.459

Large, E., & Jones, M. (1999) The dynamics of attending: How people track time-varying events. Psychological Review, 106(1), 119-159. DOI: 10.1037//0033-295X.106.1.119

Olivers, C., & Nieuwenhuis, S. (2005) The Beneficial Effect of Concurrent Task-Irrelevant Mental Activity on Temporal Attention. Psychological Science, 16(4), 265-269. DOI: 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01526.x

Psychology

July 16, 2014
06:15 AM
268 views

Everything you always wanted to know about language but were too afraid to ask

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

The Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen has started a great initiative which tries nothing less than answer all your questions about language. How does it work? 1) Go to this website: http://www.mpi.nl/q-a/questions-and-answers 2) See whether your question has already been answered 3) If not, scroll to the bottom and ask a question yourself. The answers […]... Read more »

Thibodeau, P., & Boroditsky, L. (2011) Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning. PLoS ONE, 6(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016782

Asaridou, S., & McQueen, J. (2013) Speech and music shape the listening brain: evidence for shared domain-general mechanisms. Frontiers in Psychology. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00321

Segel, E., & Boroditsky, L. (2011) Grammar in Art. Frontiers in Psychology. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00244

July 29, 2013
04:31 PM
767 views

How blind people see

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Blind people have revolutionised our view on vision. Biology text books still teach us that vision functions roughly as light hitting the eyes where special cells – rods and cones – turn it into neural signals. These travel to the back of the head, the visual cortex, for brain processing leading to something we experience […]... Read more »

Czeisler CA, Shanahan TL, Klerman EB, Martens H, Brotman DJ, Emens JS, Klein T, & Rizzo JF 3rd. (1995) Suppression of melatonin secretion in some blind patients by exposure to bright light. The New England journal of medicine, 332(1), 6-11. PMID: 7990870

Trevethan CT, Sahraie A, & Weiskrantz L. (2007) Can blindsight be superior to 'sighted-sight'?. Cognition, 103(3), 491-501. PMID: 16764848

Vandewalle G, Collignon O, Hull JT, Daneault V, Albouy G, Lepore F, Phillips C, Doyon J, Czeisler CA, Dumont M.... (2013) Blue Light Stimulates Cognitive Brain Activity in Visually Blind Individuals. Journal of cognitive neuroscience. PMID: 23859643

Weiskrantz L, Warrington EK, Sanders MD, & Marshall J. (1974) Visual capacity in the hemianopic field following a restricted occipital ablation. Brain : a journal of neurology, 97(4), 709-28. PMID: 4434190

July 1, 2013
04:22 AM
494 views

Music training boosts IQ

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

There are more and more brain training companies popping up which promise the same deal: improved intelligence. While there are doubts about their results, another sort of brain training has existed since the beginning of humanity: music. The evidence for its effectiveness is surprisingly strong. . . Over the years, researchers have noticed that people […]... Read more »

Bialystok E, & Depape AM. (2009) Musical expertise, bilingualism, and executive functioning. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 35(2), 565-74. PMID: 19331508

Corrigall KA, Schellenberg EG, & Misura NM. (2013) Music training, cognition, and personality. Frontiers in psychology, 222. PMID: 23641225

Corrigall, KA, & Trainor, LJ. (2011) Associations Between Length of Music Training and Reading Skills in Children. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal,, 29(2), 147-155. DOI: 10.1525/mp.2011.29.2.147

Ho YC, Cheung MC, & Chan AS. (2003) Music training improves verbal but not visual memory: cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations in children. Neuropsychology, 17(3), 439-50. PMID: 12959510

Hughes CM, & Franz EA. (2007) Experience-dependent effects in unimanual and bimanual reaction time tasks in musicians. Journal of motor behavior, 39(1), 3-8. PMID: 17251166

Kaviani H, Mirbaha H, Pournaseh M, & Sagan O. (2013) Can music lessons increase the performance of preschool children in IQ tests?. Cognitive processing. PMID: 23793255

Roden, I, Grube, D, Bongard, S, & Kreutz, G. (2013) Does music training enhance working memory performance? Findings from a quasi-experimental longitudinal study. Psychology of Music. DOI: 10.1177/0305735612471239

Schellenberg EG. (2004) Music lessons enhance IQ. Psychological science, 15(8), 511-4. PMID: 15270994

Schellenberg, EG. (2006) Long-Term Positive Associations Between Music Lessons and IQ. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(2), 457-468. DOI: 10.1037/0022-0663.98.2.457

Schellenberg EG. (2011) Examining the association between music lessons and intelligence. British journal of psychology, 102(3), 283-302. PMID: 21751987

Vaughn, K. (2000) Music and Mathematics: Modest Support for the Oft-Claimed Relationship. Journal of Aesthetic Education,, 34(3/4), 149-166. DOI: 10.2307/3333641

June 6, 2013
07:16 AM
513 views

Did genes shape my mother tongue?

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Intuitively, one is inclined to answer with a resounding ‘no’. Of course not, had I been adopted by Thai parents, I would speak Thai. But I was not. My parents and my mother tongue are German. Still, there is a growing opinion that genes do nonetheless play a role. Before looking at this opinion, it […]... Read more »

Baronchelli A, Chater N, Pastor-Satorras R, & Christiansen MH. (2012) The biological origin of linguistic diversity. PloS one, 7(10). PMID: 23118922

Pagel M, Atkinson QD, & Meade A. (2007) Frequency of word-use predicts rates of lexical evolution throughout Indo-European history. Nature, 449(7163), 717-20. PMID: 17928860

Dediu D. (2011) Are languages really independent from genes? If not, what would a genetic bias affecting language diversity look like?. Human biology, 83(2), 279-96. PMID: 21615290

May 28, 2013
02:53 AM
389 views

Feeling someone else’s sensation of touch – the neural background, the examples, and you

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Touch is the only sensation which we cannot share with another person. The immediacy of touch differentiates it from the distant impressions which sight and audition can give us. However, modern neuroscience is currently revising this picture: you can touch at a distance. One just doesn’t notice it. Can we find people who do? A […]... Read more »

Keysers C, Wicker B, Gazzola V, Anton JL, Fogassi L, & Gallese V. (2004) A touching sight: SII/PV activation during the observation and experience of touch. Neuron, 42(2), 335-46. PMID: 15091347

Ramachandran VS, & Brang D. (2009) Sensations evoked in patients with amputation from watching an individual whose corresponding intact limb is being touched. Archives of neurology, 66(10), 1281-4. PMID: 19822785

Schaefer M, Heinze HJ, & Rotte M. (2012) Close to you: embodied simulation for peripersonal space in primary somatosensory cortex. PloS one, 7(8). PMID: 22912698

April 24, 2013
12:39 PM
447 views

Are some languages easier than others?

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

‘Long time no see’ is something I heard repeatedly in Britain even though it totally violates all the English grammar I learned at school. Clearly, Brits should correct this expression originating from Chinese Pidgin English rather than adopt it. The reason it entered common usage anyway is at the heart of why you might find [...]... Read more »

Bentz C, & Winter B. (2013) Languages with more second language learners tend to lose case. Language Dynamics and Change. info:/

Lupyan G, & Dale R. (2010) Language structure is partly determined by social structure. PloS one, 5(1). PMID: 20098492

March 28, 2013
05:36 PM
544 views

The biological basis of orchestra seating

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Many cultural conventions appear like the result of historical accidents. The QUERTY – keyboard is a typical example: the technical requirements of early typewriters still determine the computer keyboard that I write this text on, even though by now technical advances would allow for a far more efficient design. Some culturally accepted oddities, however, appear [...]... Read more »

Deutsch, D. (1999) Grouping Mechanisms in Music. The Psychology of Music, Second Edition, 299-348. DOI: 10.1016/B978-012213564-4/50010-X

Schneider P, Sluming V, Roberts N, Bleeck S, & Rupp A. (2005) Structural, functional, and perceptual differences in Heschl's gyrus and musical instrument preference. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 387-94. PMID: 16597790

January 22, 2013
02:32 AM
426 views

What lies behind the mystery of being born with a phantom penis?

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

Like a magician our mind tricks us into believing what we see and feel. We only notice that something strange is going on when our expectations are betrayed during the prestige – when the white rabbit is drawn out of the empty hat. Psychology sometimes works in much the same way. After the mind has made us believe in the ordinary, it creates strange cases which point to something bigger going on behind the scenes. One of the most extraordinary illusions is the one of our body. At the final pre........ Read more »

Brugger P, Kollias SS, Müri RM, Crelier G, Hepp-Reymond MC, & Regard M. (2000) Beyond re-membering: phantom sensations of congenitally absent limbs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 97(11), 6167-72. PMID: 10801982

Mitchell, W. (1871) Phantom limbs. Lippinscott's Magazine, 563-569. info:/

January 7, 2013
02:19 AM
441 views

delaying dementia without pills

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

‘What’s this? A potato?’ asked my friend’s grandfather during lunch. As always, he used his charming grin and characteristically loud voice. Even though the entire conversation was in Argentine Spanish – which I had learned only a short while before – I understood the oddity of the situation at once. Instead of a potato, the [...]... Read more »

Akbaraly, T., Portet, F., Fustinoni, S., Dartigues, J., Artero, S., Rouaud, O., Touchon, J., Ritchie, K., & Berr, C. (2009) Leisure activities and the risk of dementia in the elderly: Results from the Three-City Study. Neurology, 73(11), 854-861. DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181b7849b

Bickel H, & Kurz A. (2009) Education, occupation, and dementia: the Bavarian school sisters study. Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders, 27(6), 548-56. PMID: 19590201

Hall CB, Derby C, LeValley A, Katz MJ, Verghese J, & Lipton RB. (2007) Education delays accelerated decline on a memory test in persons who develop dementia. Neurology, 69(17), 1657-64. PMID: 17954781

Hall CB, Lipton RB, Sliwinski M, Katz MJ, Derby CA, & Verghese J. (2009) Cognitive activities delay onset of memory decline in persons who develop dementia. Neurology, 73(5), 356-61. PMID: 19652139

Kemppainen NM, Aalto S, Karrasch M, Någren K, Savisto N, Oikonen V, Viitanen M, Parkkola R, & Rinne JO. (2008) Cognitive reserve hypothesis: Pittsburgh Compound B and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in relation to education in mild Alzheimer's disease. Annals of neurology, 63(1), 112-8. PMID: 18023012

Rentz DM, Locascio JJ, Becker JA, Moran EK, Eng E, Buckner RL, Sperling RA, & Johnson KA. (2010) Cognition, reserve, and amyloid deposition in normal aging. Annals of neurology, 67(3), 353-64. PMID: 20373347

Scarmeas, N., Albert, S.M., Manly, J.J., & Stern, Y. (2005) Education and rates of cognitive decline in incident Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery , 77(3), 308-316. DOI: 10.1136/jnnp.2005.072306

Valenzuela MJ, & Sachdev P. (2006) Brain reserve and cognitive decline: a non-parametric systematic review. Psychological medicine, 36(8), 1065-73. PMID: 16650343

December 18, 2012
07:02 AM
553 views

How Long Should a Scientific Publication be?

by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea

In one word: short. In two words: it depends. A neuroscience expert faces the challenge of 100 new neuroscience articles being published on a daily basis. S/he will never be able to read all that. So, what can be done to get your own publication known to the community? . 1) Know the reader and [...]... Read more »

Haslam, N. (2010) Bite-Size Science: Relative Impact of Short Article Formats. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(3), 263-264. DOI: 10.1177/1745691610369466

Ledgerwood, A., & Sherman, J. (2012) Short, Sweet, and Problematic? The Rise of the Short Report in Psychological Science. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(1), 60-66. DOI: 10.1177/1745691611427304

Renear AH, & Palmer CL. (2009) Strategic reading, ontologies, and the future of scientific publishing. Science (New York, N.Y.), 325(5942), 828-32. PMID: 19679805

Krzysztof Zbigniew Stanek. (2008) How long should an astronomical paper be to increase its Impact?. arXiv. arXiv: 0809.0692v1

login

Richard Kunert

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

search

topics

dates

View

Language

Languages to Display

join us!

News