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1500 questions
11
votes
3 answers
Why do people feel the need to make changes to a solution presented by another person?
There is an interesting phenomenon I have come across several times when working with groups, and that is the need some people have to make changes to a solution that someone else created.
The change is often superficial or doesn't substantively…
Charles Wesley
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11
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What is the bias/thought process that results in distrust of "formal" knowledge in favor of "folk" knowledge?
An interesting effect I've noticed is that certain groups of people seem to accept "folk knowledge" and value it over significantly better founded "formal" or scientific knowledge. In particular this is notable in many discussions of Psychology and…
Ben Brocka
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11
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Why are most people right handed?
How did right handedness win over left handedness in numbers?
Is it only a coincidence that there are more right handed people than left handed ones? Or, has some effect in nature explicitly made right handedness dominant?
hkBattousai
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11
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Why are mind maps recommended for study and recap?
In both my last year of high school and my freshmen year at the university, I got strong recommendations to study using mind maps - especially because this is apparently better to cope with large amounts of new information.
Is mind mapping…
user317
11
votes
1 answer
What is the effect of imagining doing an exercise on muscle growth?
I recently read a study by Yue, G et al. (1992) which I found incredibly interesting. I have no background in physiology and I was hoping that someone who does can clear things up.
If I understood it right, the study had two groups of people who…
Caesar
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11
votes
3 answers
Why does journaling seem to reduce stress?
When searching methods to reduce stress and discussing my problems with people I know, it was suggested to me that I journal thoughts, that is write down what worries me elaborately on paper.
I started doing it and I felt my mind having less 'noise'…
tryst with freedom
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11
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How do animals recognize other animals of their own species?
My motivation for this question is dog-based, but I suppose it would apply equally well to humans. How do animals recognize their own kind, particularly where there is large variation in appearance?
The background is that I am reading…
kmm
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11
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1 answer
Are there any reliable self-tests for autism spectrum disorder?
Are there any reliable tests, on-line or available for download, for auto-diagnosis for autism spectrum disorder (including Asperger syndrome)?
I've found that test: http://rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php and treated the results seriously, but I've…
FolksLord
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11
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3 answers
What neural mechanism explains the tendency to visually attend to the whole scene before attending to details?
I have the intuition that human vision first attends to large-scale objects and then small-scale details. Is there any mechanism in the visual cortex that will explain this phenomenon? Is there a resolution refinement process when we look at scenes?
Strin
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11
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3 answers
Can lucid dreaming detract from the recuperative effect of REM sleep?
Imagine you mastered lucid dreaming, so you have a lucid dream every night.
You might want to use this phase to do creative work or problem solving.
Would this have a negative influence on the recuperative effect of sleep?
draks ...
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Does female attractiveness correlate with age progression?
I'm interested in Evolutionary Psychology and the male perception of female beauty. One of the ideas I'm trying to investigate is the correlation between female fertility and her attractiveness. A figure I heard several times is that at around age…
Alex Stone
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11
votes
1 answer
Why do we become bored of stimuli after multiple exposures to it?
Why do we become bored of songs, films, stories, jokes, food after being exposed to them or experiencing them multiple times?
Why is it when our cortex becomes adequate at predicting the outcomes of a song, film, joke it seems to be less enjoyable,…
Sean Bateman
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11
votes
1 answer
Why people choose "boring" colors for new cars?
I've been interested in this question for a few years, sorry if this is not the right place to ask it.
As I've been driving around the US for the last few years, I noticed that some community parking lots "lack color" - the vehicles can be defined…
Alex Stone
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11
votes
1 answer
Are Sex Offender Treatment Programmes (SOTPs) effective?
Background to my question on SOTPs
NOMS is the UKs National Offender Management Service, which is now called Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service.
If you look at the UKs official website on Offender Behaviour Progammes (OBPs) run by Her…
Chris Rogers
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11
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3 answers
How well defined is ADD/ADHD?
I understand ADHD is a standard term, but I'm still a bit suspicious that it's not a useful one; Psychiatry doesn't seem like the most reliable field.
Are there good reasons for picking out the behaviors associated with ADHD and giving them a…
John Salvatier
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