Cognitive Psychology Websites

Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

What is Cognitive Psychology? — overview of the field, including history, current research, and careers in cognitive psychology

Mind Hacks — tips and tools for using your brain; has a daily blog (RSS feed)

Psychology: The Cognitive Movement — looks at important figures in the Cognitive Revolution

Cognitive Science Society — interdisciplinary professional society for cognitive scientists

Thinking Machine 6 — play chess against a transparent “intelligence”

GoCognitive — interactive demos of cognitive phenomena and video interviews with cognitive psychologists

IBM Research: WatsonPaths Demo — video of this cognitive computing project that enables more natural interaction between physicians, data and electronic medical records

 

Cognitive Neuroscience

The Phineas Gage Information Page — has lots of details and pictures of this strange, sad case

Phineas Gage -- unravelling the myth — article on Gage from The Psychologist

What Really Happened to Phineas Gage? — video from SciShow Psych

Neuroscience For Kids — great basic information on neuroscience--not just for kids!

Brain: The World Inside Your Head — touring interactive museum exhibit

The Secret Life of the Brain — website for the PBS series explains the brain from birth to late adulthood

Franz Josef Gall — describes the life and work of the man responsible for phrenology

MEG Scanners Are Mega Powerful — article about magneto-encephalography technology from Wired magazine

What is Aphasia? — describes more about this communication disorder

The split brain: A tale of two halves — on the fascinating cases of split-brain syndrome, and the work of Roger Sperry

 

Neurogenesis/Neuroplasticity/Brain Training

Cognitive Training Data — highlights the scientific perspectives and studies on cognitive training

How The Brain Rewires Itself — Time article on experience-dependent neural plasticity

SharpBrains — info on brain fitness and cognitive health; doesn’t sell anything

Brain Games: Do They Really Work? — online article from Scientific American

6 Ways to Boost Brainpower — Scientific American Mind magazine offers ways to fine-tune your brain

Neuroplasticity: Why You Should Care About Your BDNF — explains how you can cognitively benefit from exercise, sleep, good nutrition, and less stress

Brain Games Aim to Make Kids Smarter — Scientific American Mind article on mental fitness regimens for children (requires UAlberta credentials)

BrainPort Balance Plus — brain-training tool used to treat balance disorders

NovaVision — this vision restoration therapy applies brain plasticity

Cogmed Working Memory Training — computer-based training for attention problems caused by poor working memory

EndeavorRx — doctor-prescribed video game treatment for children with ADHD

Arrowsmith Program and Fast ForWord — apply brain plasticity to help those with learning difficulties

Creyos — sells interactive online tests to exercise your cognitive functioning

BrainHQ — PositScience’s brain fitness program online

Brain Game Center — online study of 30,000 people examining whether brain training works

 

Perception

What is Gestalt Psychology? — provides a definition, describes principles, shows examples, and more

What is MICR? — Magnetic Ink Character Recognition codes are printed at the bottom of cheques

Perception in Visualization — discusses theories related to visual search

PSYCH 367: Perception websites — many links to perception topics

 

Attention

DualTask.org — online demos/experiments on multi-task performance and attention limits

The Multitasking Generation — Time magazine article on “Generation M” and multitasking

Multitasking: Switching costs — a Research in Action briefing from the APA

Anne Treisman — online encyclopedia article

YouTube video demos: Dichotic Listening, ok science (requires headphones)

Airport Scanner — play this baggage screening app to test your attention for rare targets (for iOS and Android)

Confusing Colors (Stroop Effect) — try this interactive demo

Simons Lab — online videos of inattention phenomena

Inattentional Blindness and Change Blindness demos — from the UBC Visual Cognition Lab

Fleeting Memories — more online demos of inattention phenomena (archived)

Short term picture comprehension and memory — has RSVP examples of attentional blink with different stimuli

Change Blindness — from the Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (with demos)

Movie mistakes — you have to overcome change blindness to notice these

 

Memory

The Human Memory — comprehensive resource, covering types and processes of memory, memory and the brain, and disorders

World Memory Championships — check out memory world records

There Are Better Ways to Study That Will Last You a Lifetime — Daniel Willingham describes the research on studying

Gone But Not Forgotten? — explores the mystery behind infant memories and “infantile amnesia”

The Day His World Stood Still — article on the strange story of H.M.

Project H.M. — The Brain Observatory’s site about H.M., and the atlas of his brain

H.M.’s Brain and the History of Memory — listen to this NPR program on H.M. online

How Memory Works — summary from Harvard University

K.C. (part 1) — YouTube interview with Kent Cochrane, known as K.C. (see also parts 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6)

Don’t Forget! — archive of the Scientific American Frontiers episode on memory (has complete episode video online)

Spaced Repetition for Efficient Learning — has a review of the literature, and gives tips on how to use spaced repetition

The Memory Doctor — multi-part series on the work of renowed memory researcher Elizabth Loftus

Memories of Childhood Abuse — the APA answers questions on whether recovered memories are real

Remembering Dangerously — Skeptical Inquirer article on “repressed” memories by Elizabeth Loftus

The Misinformation Effect and False Memories — overview of the research on memory, and false memories

False Memory Archive — art project based on people’s false memories

Gary L. Wells — resources on eyewitness testimony from this former UAlberta prof

Eyewitness Memory Is a Lot More Reliable Than You Think — explains important aspects of memory that law enforcement--and the public--needs to know

The Innocence Project/Innocence Canada — these organizations support the exoneration of people who have been convicted of a crime they did not commit

The Innocence Files — Netflix series about The Innocence Project, unravelling missteps and deceit in wrongful convictions, exposing the injustice inflicted on victims and the accused

The Memory Page — includes tips on how to use your memory better

Memento — IMDB entry for the movie about anterograde amnesia

Sleep Boosts Ability To Learn Language — ScienceDaily news item about a paper published in the journal Nature

Copyright Website — many examples of alleged (accidental?) copyright infringement

George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” Copyright Case — listen and compare for yourself

Music Copyright Infringement Resource — list of lawsuits over plagiarism in music, with audio clips; see also Songs Alike

Misinformation resources:
   • How Susceptible Are You to Misinformation? — take this quick test and find out
   • Inoculation Science
   • First Draft News
   • The Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative
   • Mental Immunology Project
   • Vaccine Misinfo Guide
   • Info Interventions YouTube playlist about different prebunks
   • Hit Pause YouTube’s own effort to combat misinformation

Misinformation games:
   • Bad News
   • Go Viral!
   • Harmony Square
   • Cranky Uncle
   • Troll Factory
   • Fake it to Make it

 

Visual Imagery & Propositions

Kosslyn Laboratory — at Harvard University

Zenon Pylyshyn — at Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science

The most common navigational mistakes we all make — Slate article on errors in mental maps

Eidetic Memory: Is It Real? — describes this amazing ability, and lists some famous people thought to have it

Do you have a photographic memory? — try this interactive test of eidetic memory

mnemonic-device.com — has lots of mnemonics, sorted by category

Memory Improvement Techniques — techniques to help your memory, including mnemonics

How to Build a Memory Palace — using the method of loci mnemonic technique

 

Conceptual Knowledge

Understanding Different Fruit Types — learn surprising facts about the classification of fruits (pay attention to the defining features)

Seeds and Fruits — an online chapter on fruits, seeds, and nuts--it’s mind boggling!

Do Chairs Exist? — exploration of a simple question with a complex set of answers

Puppies Or Food? 12 Pics That Will Make You Question Reality — Puppy or bagel? Sheepdog or mop? Chihuahua or muffin? I don't know anymore!

Interactive Activation Application — downloadable app that demonstrates the interactive activation model (Mac and Windows)

Tensorflow Neural Network Playground — tinker with a neural network right in your browser

 

Problem Solving

15 Google Interview Questions That Will Make You Feel Stupid — can you solve these? Or these?

Miller Analogies Test — free MAT practice questions

The Microsoft IQ Test — article about “puzzle interviews” from Wired magazine

Internet Anagram Server — use it to create your own anagrams

Tower of Hanoi — try solving this puzzle in the fewest moves (alternate version)

Missionaries and Cannibals — another version of the Hobbits & Orcs problem

Water Jars — interactive version of Luchin’s problem

Realistic Lateral Thinking Puzzles — try some of these insight questions! (And some tricky ones, too.)

50 Lateral Thinking Puzzles — more lateral thinking puzzles

META Lab — Memory, Emotion, Thought, Awareness lab website for Dr Jonathan Schooler; has info on verbal overshadowing

2001: A Space Odyssey — official and unofficial sites

Planet of the Apes: The Sacred Scrolls — PotA wiki site

 

Expertise and Creativity

Project Zero — to enhance learning, thinking, and creativity, headed by Howard Gardner

Remote Associates Test — interactive items from the RAT

TriBond^® — this board game (and TV show pilot) is like the Remote Associates Test

Wuzzles — word puzzles made of words, letters, figures or symbols positioned to create disguised words, phrases, names, places, sayings etc.

Games World of Puzzles — for creative minds at play

Puzzle Prime — try some brain teasers, including insight, math, lateral thinking, and more

Matchstick Puzzles — many puzzles based on moving matchsticks (matchsticks not included)

Creativity Web — neat stuff on creativity, intelligence, problem solving,...

WagiLabs — What A Great Idea can help kids exercise their creativity

The 6 Myths of Creativity — article on Teresa Amabile’s research, from Fast Company magazine

 

Reasoning and Decision Making

Choiceology — podcast about improving your reasoning, judgment, and decision making

Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies — helps you identify and call out dodgy logic

Illogic Primer — explains conjunction, disjunction, conditional, and biconditional

Logical Reasoning Sample Questions — the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is based on logical reasoning

Logically Fallacious — the ultimate collection of over 300 logical fallacies

The Web’s Most Illogical Arguments — PCWorld.com explains 10 of the most common logical fallacies found on the internet

Decision Research — company helps society understand and cope with complex and risky decisions

Shortcuts — this handy guide explains dozens of cognitive biases and heuristics

You Are Not So Smart — blog about different kinds of cognitive biases

The Wason Selection Task — interactive demos of the Wason task

Cognitive Bias Cheat Sheet — categorization of over 180 cognitive illustions, biases, and heuristics (also see The Cognitive Bias Codex infographic)

Book of Odds — book on the odds of just about everything (also on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube)

The Paradox of Choice - Why More is Less — GoogleTalkArchive video by Professor Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice — TED video about choice and decision making

Who wants to be a millionaire? — free online version (no actual money or prizes are awarded)

The Latte Factor^® — shows how much you can save by cutting out lattes (includes interactive calculator)

 

Human Intelligence

Human Intelligence — traces the history of influences and development

IQ/Intelligence tests: try these intelligence tests:
   • Psychology Today
   • GimmeMore
   • 123test
   • test-guide.com
   • Official IQ Test (not really “official”)

IQ Tests Go to War — try questions from actual army intelligence tests

Mensa Canada Society — think you’re smart? Join Mensa!

Chitling Test — try this interactive version of the Dove Counterbalance General Intelligence Test about Black culture

 

Artificial Intelligence

How to Think about AI — podcast miniseries from Freakonomics discussing the current state of AI

What is AI? — chapter 1 of the free online course Elements of AI

The AI Wars: lessons from the conflict that paralyzed the field — very readable story of the history of AI

Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence — HAI is a comprehensive resource on trends in AI

Turing test — explore this test of AI; annual competition is the The Loebner Prize (or chat online Kuki)

The Trouble with the Turing Test — in-depth article on the test, plus the Chinese Room argument

Cyc^® — the common sense knowledge base

Wikidata — free open-source knowledge base

ConceptNet — this multilingual semantic network can help computers understand what text really means

Read the Web — the Never-Ending Language Learning (NELL) project is teaching computers to read (also on Twitter)

ELIZA — interactive Rogerian “therapist” chatbot

MGonz — transcript of a rude conversation with MGonz (NSFW)

CLAUDE — a shareware clone of RACTER for PCs

Cleverbot — chat with the Cleverbot AI

The Simon Laven Page — great site about chatterbots

Bad Translator — translate a phrase back and forth between languages and see what happens

The First Look at How Google’s Self-Driving Car Handles City Streets — article with videos

The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI — no one really knows how the most advanced algorithms do what they do--that could be a problem

Google Research — describes some machine intelligence projects at Google

Google’s Artificial Brain Learns to Find Cat Videos — Wired report on the abilities of Google Brain

The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence — discusses AI calibre, and the coming superintelligent AI

Microsoft Research shows off advances in artificial intelligence with Project Adam — includes videos on this AI’s abilities

Microsoft Challenges Google’s Artificial Brain With ‘Project Adam’ — Wired report on the abilities of Project Adam

Waymo — Google spinoff self-driving technology company

Siri Rising: The Inside Story Of Siri’s Origins — HuffPo article on the history of Apple’s Siri “personal assistant”

The Age of Intelligent Machines — book by Raymond Kurzweil, who foresaw many of the technical developments of 1990s. Then check out...

The Age of Spiritual Machines — how will our ideas of self and spirituality evolve as we merge with technology and extend our lifespans?

The AI Report — Forbes.com discusses the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence

Will IBM’s Watson Usher in a New Era of Cognitive Computing? — Scientific American article

 

Applied Cognitive Psychology

Your Body Is a Planet — Discover magazine describes how 90% of the cells within us are not ours, but microbes

How Bacteria in Our Bodies Protect Our Health — Scientific American article on the importance of the microbiome (requires UAlberta credentials)

Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria — Frontline episode on resistant bacteria

Be Antibiotics Aware and Antibiotic/Antimicrobial Resistance — from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Challenge of Antibiotic Resistance — feature article from Scientific American magazine

Evolution of antibiotic resistance — describes the “evolutionary arms race” between bacteria and antibiotics

Antibiotic Awareness — Antibiotic Awareness Week is intended to help prevent and control the spread of bacteria that develop resistance to medications

Using Antibiotics Wisely — national campaign that helps clinicians and patients engage in conversations about unnecessary antibiotic use

Do Bugs Need Drugs? — a community project for wise use of antibiotics (see also Bugs&Drugs)

Antimicrobial Stewardship Program — dedicated to slowing the spread of antimicrobial resistance by measuring and promoting the proper use of antimicrobials

National Information Program on Antibiotics — NIPA is a Canadian program to reduce the problem of antibiotic resistance

Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance — CIPARS monitors antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance in human, animal and food sources across Canada

Antimicrobial Resistance--A Shared Responsibility — report from the Public Health Agency of Canada

APUA — Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics

Henry the Hand Foundation — don't touch the T-zone!

Why Don’t We Do It In Our Sleeves? — cough safe!

PSYCH 494: Human Factors and Ergonomics websites — many links to human factors and ergonomics topics