Fourteen-twenty

This interesting study tested the hypothesis that giving people a handle on the uncertainty in numerical measures does not affect their trust in the source. The experiment was conducted using a BBC News article on unemployment. The headline finding was that uncertainty communication does not reduce trust. However, I draw attention to this sentence An ANOVA showed a significant main effect of uncertainty communication on perceived uncertainty [ F (2,   1526)  = 4.67,  P  = 0.01;  η 2 = 0.006 ]. So the effect of uncertainty communication on perceived uncertainty was absolutely minuscule (partial-eta 0.006)! The findings on trustworthiness then need to be taken with a large pinch of salt. I would then revise the take-home message of this paper to be - the methods used to communicate uncertainty in this study were pretty ineffective.

In the name of research, participants were willing to have a large subwoofer blasting noise at them while they slept, to see if it would make them feel ill. It didn't .

We see in stereo, we hear in stereo, we also smell in stereo . In this study, participants were given a flowery smell at a high concentration in one nostril, and low in the other. Then they looked at a ' visually presented optic-flow stimuli that simulated self-movement ' - basically a video that looks as if you are flying through star-filled space. When asked to say which side was a stronger smell, they could not say. But when asked to which side they were flying through space, they consistently guessed towards the more smelly side. The authors suggest that we evolved a sense of smell for ' navigating in a chemical world '.

Use your hand to pick something up. In a split-second your brain had to work out where to put your hand, where to position your fingertips, and how tightly to grip. Computers are smart – but it is not easy to teach a computer to do this. Your brain is much smarter than a computer. Your brain used a trick – it ran a simulation about the object. Before you picked it up, your brain thought ‘it’s this size, this shape, weighs so-and-so much…’ and so on. Another way of saying simulation is a practice run, which exists only inside your mind. Your brain is the fastest and most advanced simulation machine that has ever existed. How did your brain make this simulation? Partly from perception, which is what your senses told you. And partly from memory, which is what your past experience and learning told you. If you saw the object before you picked it up, your brain got a visual perception, and made some guesses based on how it looked. Also, your brain compared the image with your memory to work...

As well as the obvious, the following may also be contagious (list in progress): Yawns  (across species) Cold Pupil size Pain and pain relief Emotions Delusions