(Part 3) Top products from r/cogsci

Robert Cialdini in his book Influence: Science and Practice (p164f) mentions that food makes people more relaxed and open to others opinions, that is why e.g. in politics votes are being swayed over dinners.
further he goes on:

> [Razran (1938 & 1940)] found that his subjects became fonder of people and things they experienced while they were eating.

So, I guess that makes a clear case: We like what we encounter while eating. And obviously if you add some romance, a bit of alcohol, nice music, pleasant conversation, good perfumes (& pheromones), and that people grow to like things more that they spend longer time with - dinners are a good first date. Maybe the principle of consistency also plays a role - once you commit to spending a dinner with someone you will try to justify to yourself that you did so, by 'inventing' more reasons. Additionally, the spending-dinner-together, especially if the less choosy partner (usually the male) pays might create a certain feeling of indebtedness that could also lead to further dates/actions.

But tbh I think there is too much (socially constructed) pressure and other first dates might be more valuable, e.g. a coffee (caffeine increases the heart rate, which in turn is often interpreted by the one experiencing it as physical arousal as reaction to the other person) with cake (sweet, pleasant + warm coffee = excellent creation of sympathy) that might be a better version.

I'm not sure where that is from, but there was a study indicating that couples that are rated as "not matching" by outsiders often met during emotional events - e.g. rollercoasters, concerts, ... take your date to some exciting place - that gives you endorphins and other fun hormones which create a stronger bonding.

'Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach' (it has machine learning and maybe less, datamining) is all I've used (besides Mitchell's one, that I'm anti-recommending), so I can't positively recommend any new ones. But there are several new titles. I'd try reading around the web to get an overview (or borrow one, even Mitchell's, from a library). Then, when you believe you know better what you're looking for look at books. I mean I could randomly pick one of the newer ones on Amazon but that's what it'd be. Chris Bishop (mentioned in the other reply) is a good writer + smart guy, I've been meaning to get that book of his; he's probably a safe bet but, reading around on the web first can't hurt either. The Weka-using datamining book might be an easy place to start, it's got a complete Java toolkit (which you can download free independently), Chris Bishop's book looks advanced. I might say Wikipedia but it doesn't look that helpful.

I have a couple (although I have read most of your books, and my favorite is "The man who mistook his wife for a hat is my favorite!)

59 seconds to change your life (Dr. .Richard Wiseman) -
https://www.amazon.com/59-Seconds-Change-Under-Minute/dp/0307474860

In this book wiseman pulls together many interesting studies and turns them into a kind of science-based self help book, showing how you can do simple things to make yourself happy, and how the science backs up what you are doing. Its kind of a "science does life hacks" type of book and I found it fascinating


The conscious universe - (Dr. Dean Radin)
https://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Universe-Scientific-Psychic-Phenomena/dp/0061778990/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474111002&sr=1-1&keywords=dean+radin+conscious

I think this one has to rate as controversial - but I personally found it a compelling read and it shifted my world view off kilter for a long time. Basically the author pulls together all of the experiments on telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. He is an experimental statistician and is able to make a strong case for there being some sort of physchic effect that science cannot explain. I have followed the topic through the years since, but I have not found a particularly strong rebuttal to this books contents

Another one I recently read

Peak - The new science of expertise (Anders Ericson and Robert Pool)
https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Secrets-New-Science-Expertise/dp/0544456238/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474111419&sr=1-3&keywords=peak
This book is by the guy who coined the 10,000 hours rule (the one which Gladwell uses in Outliers) - It goes into a lot of scientific studies which have been run investigating how experts become experts - By now we know the soundbyte - 10000 hours - but I thought it was very interesting to see how this applies for different types of expertise, and for the neat experiments which have been run

This is an excellent and well written introductory text on visual perception. Written to be engaging and entertaining without compromising the science.

http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Vision-Introduction-Visual-Perception/dp/0199286701/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291402509&sr=1-1

Other people are reccomending Marr, which is also excellent, although it's highly specific, I reccomend starting with sometime like the above, then moving to marr later.

There is an element of truth to this. Abilities are built upon previously learned abilities. Even thinking abilities are tied to "embodied metaphors" learned at a young age (originally researched by Lakoff & Johnson' "Metaphors We Live By"). The only aspect of this is that no form of knowledge has perfectly symmetric learnability with any other. If you can squeeze the concept into a metaphor you know you can learn it more easily but sometimes the metaphor will take you to wrong conclusions.

In terms of "intrinsically physiologically easy" things that can be learned, in the extreme we are constrained by our mesoscopic existence to learn only embodied metaphors that resemble the mesoscopic world we live in. This is why Newtonian physics is easier than quantum physics (microscopic) or relativistic physics (macroscopic). This is what Dawkings is talking about in this Ted video.

We form embodied metaphors based on how we physically interact with our world as children. This is also the basis of the GOMS model for user interfaces to machines and computers (the basis of mouse-window operating systems - first at Xerox Alto, then Apple Lisa & Macintosh, then Microsoft, et al.).

You learn time arrows by experiencing them. You learn basic math by filling containers and seeing the addition and subtraction. You do not see quantum or relativistic effects so you never have a proper intuition for how them work. You only learn about them abstractly and if very lucky you develop an "alternate universe" intuition for them through abstraction. It never becomes "purely intuitive" though. It will always surprise.

Could and does! Have you heard of dynamic systems theory? Here's a book by Anthony Chemero that uses dynamical systems theory to answer some problems embodied mind theorists have.

And of course there's always machine learning, which has some great applications for Bayesian statistics, map theory, and linear algebra, and there's game theory, and there's statistical decision theory, which is great for modeling simple organisms/intelligences.

Personally, I was a cognitive science major at my undergrad institution and I took a bunch of math classes (mostly statistics). I'm going on to an interdisciplinary PhD program in perceptual science next year. While the university I'm going into doesn't have a cogsci department, they have a program that can "certify" you in cogsci, and I plan to do that as well.

Go for cogsci! We need more mathematicians. :o)

> So is the neural rewiring from the pain what causes them to become doctors and lawyers later in life? Or is it just what makes them hilarious?

I'm assuming you're referring to Jews.

According to the WHO: Of all men who have been genitally mutilated by what is called 'circumcision':

• 0.8% are Jews
  
• 12.8% are Americans non-{Jews,Muslims}
  
• 68.8% are Muslims
  
  Nevertheless, the Jewish influence in the medical fields and entertainment industries in the U.S. are part of the reason genital mutilation is so rampant there[0][1][2][3]. Of course, the Victorian Christians got the ball rolling on genital mutilation, because they wanted to curb masturbation.
  
  In any case, genital mutilation is not a laughing matter, and I don't really appreciate you making light of it. When performed on a healthy child, "circumcision" is a slight against human rights, dignity, respect, and personal liberty.

Read Pim van Lommel's "Consciousness Beyond Life" It's a fascinating book, and arguably the most credible of a topic where there's not a lot of credibility to go around. He tries to refute the kinds of arguments made in articles like the one referenced here.

To be fair, his book and approach is an example of a very intelligent MD trying to do original research, and thus has limits, and he speculates in ways that few PhDs would, but on the other hand, I don't think a reasonable person can dismiss the book out of hand or disregard many of the experiences he includes.

The unnerving thing for me is that as I have mentioned the book to others, I started getting stories back of people who had NDEs.

Wow that a pretty expensive book right there

btw, I was looking for an AMA on Memory improvement and speed reading, anyone knows if it has been done before, or is someone willing to?

Tomasello's work is very good and these results are interesting. It'll be fun to see how the Chomskian die-hards twist and turn to convince us that we should ignore experimental evidence.

Here are two of Tomasello's recent books:

Constructing a Language

Origins of Human Communication

For a more detailed explanation of price anchoring Predictably Irrational is a fun read.

Recommended reading:

• The Probabilistic Mind: Prospects for Bayesian Cognitive Science
  
• The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology

For the rough history read A Brief History Of The Mind by William H. Calvin.

A more speculative read is Adam's Tongue: How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans by Derek Bickerton.

The latter focuses on how language per se differentiates us from most other species (except some social insects: bees and ants). But it also reviews our history.

Stephen Palmer, Vision Science: From photons to phenomenology

http://www.amazon.com/Vision-Science-Phenomenology-Stephen-Palmer/dp/0262161834

"Biopsychology" by J. Pinel.
https://www.amazon.com/Biopsychology-9th-John-P-J-Pinel/dp/0205915574

i had my neuropsychology classes with one of pinel's proteges, definitely the pinnacle of my academic experience. He also worked with Milner and Goodale. Their work also changed everything about how i viewed workings of the brain.

also, not books but papers by Joseph LeDoux and Alicia Isen. Psychology of emotion is such a cesspool of post-freudian nightmares and they are a shining light in it.

Some links: Language Log; Wikipedia entry; Geoff Pullum's book.

Meh, forgot the links:

http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Decide-Jonah-Lehrer/dp/0547247990/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Neurobiology-Reflections-Political-Philosophy/dp/0231137524

I came here to say this. GTD seems like it would exactly meet your needs. I was a disorganised mess. After reading it I am still a mess, but I am organised.
The general thrust of GTD is:

• your brain can hold one thought at a time
  
  
• you need to manage when things appear in your mind so that they are only there when you can actually do something about them
  
  
• Once you know what you can do right now then do it right now
  
  
  
  There is much more to it than that, seriously though, read the book