Cognitive PsychologyJan 29, 2025
The benefits of speaking multiple languages
New psychology research indicates that multilingual children may have enhanced executive function and perspective taking skills.
Cognitive Psychology
Updated Sep 16, 2026 8:00 AM PT
Cognitive Psychology Psychologist News
Current reporting, research and professional developments across Cognitive Psychology, curated for psychologists and behavioral-health professionals.
Cognitive PsychologyJan 28, 2025
Towards a new generation of human-inspired language models
Can a computer learn a language the way a child does? A recent study sheds new light on this question. The researchers advocate for a fundamental revision of how artificial intelligence acquires and processes language.
Cognitive PsychologyJan 27, 2025
Rethinking altruistic punishment: New experimental insights
A research team developed a new experimental game to explore whether people avoid witnessing selfish behavior to evade punishing others or simply to avoid confronting unfairness. The study found that avoidance is driven…
Cognitive PsychologyJan 21, 2025
A team with diverse expertise produces novel ideas -- but are they practical?
A first-of-its-kind study shows that while teams with differing skill sets and perspectives bring fresh, unique ideas to the table, they often struggle to create practical, workable solutions -- raising important…
Cognitive PsychologyJan 15, 2025
Memory systems in the brain drive food cravings that could influence body weight
A research team identified the brain's food-specific memory system and its direct role in overeating and diet-induced obesity. They found a specific population of neurons in the mouse brain that encode memories for sugar…
Cognitive PsychologyJan 15, 2025
How one brain circuit encodes memories of both places and events
A computational model explains how place cells in the hippocampus can be recruited to form any kind of episodic memory, even when there's no spatial component.
Cognitive PsychologyJan 2, 2025
Study reveals that sleep prevents unwanted memories from intruding
The link between poor sleep and mental health problems could be related to deficits in brain regions that keep unwanted thoughts out of mind.
Cognitive PsychologyDec 19, 2024
Research shows how music can reduce distress
A new study has demonstrated for the first time how and why music can reduce distress and agitation for people with advanced dementia. The study involved interviews with staff and music therapists on inpatient mental…
Cognitive PsychologyDec 11, 2024
The distinct nerve wiring of human memory
The black box of the human brain is starting to open. Although animal models are instrumental in shaping our understanding of the mammalian brain, scarce human data is uncovering important specificities. Neurosurgeons…
Cognitive PsychologyDec 6, 2024
Why people remember certain things and not others
Exactly why do people remember what they remember? A recently published review paper sheds light on this fundamental question and the relationship between factors that influence human memory.
Cognitive PsychologyDec 5, 2024
New pathways to long-term memory formation
Researchers have discovered a new pathway to forming long-term memories in the brain. Their work suggests that long-term memory can form independently of short-term memory, a finding that opens exciting possibilities for…
Cognitive PsychologyNov 22, 2024
The Psychology of Attention: Lessons from Simone Weil
Simone Weil once told a student, “What I cannot stand is compromise.” This unyielding stance underpinned the French ...
Cognitive PsychologyNov 21, 2024
Design and imagination as essential tools during the climate crisis
Researchers advocate the use of imagination in tackling the climate crisis. They focus specifically on urbanizing river deltas, which are of great social and economic importance and highly vulnerable to climate change.
Cognitive PsychologyNov 19, 2024
Creativity camp improves adolescent mental health, well-being
A research team found that Creativity Camp, a two-week arts intervention delivered as a day camp, had a positive impact on mental health and well-being in adolescents with depression.
Cognitive PsychologyNov 17, 2024
Achieving Optimal Performance With Attention and Awareness
Athletes—and the rest of humankind—can get tangled up in thoughts and emotions that can disrupt and undermine optimal ...
Cognitive PsychologyNov 15, 2024
Stress makes mice's memories less specific
Stress is a double-edged sword when it comes to memory: stressful or otherwise emotional events are usually more memorable, but stress can also make it harder for us to retrieve memories. Now, neuroscientists report that…
Cognitive PsychologyNov 15, 2024
Splitting the Hard Problem of Consciousness in Two
This blog was co-authored by Gregg Henriques, Ph.D., and John Vervaeke, Ph.D. Since the dawn of human consciousness, people have ...
Cognitive PsychologyNov 14, 2024
New study emphasizes the importance of arts and humanities in neurology training
Researchers have found teaching artistic observation to neurology residents contributed to the development of well-rounded physicians with the capacity to be both skilled clinicians and compassionate healers.
Cognitive PsychologyNov 13, 2024
Grabbing pizza with coworkers isn't just fun -- it could boost your teamwork skills
Forming memories around shared experiences, whether something fun like grabbing a pizza or as emotionally straining as an employee strike, has a way of binding people together. But it could also motivate those performing…
Cognitive PsychologyNov 12, 2024
Debunked: Children aren't quicker at picking up new motor skills than adults
Contrary to popular belief, children aren't better at learning new skills than adults. Indeed, young adults seem to learn faster than kids -- but also tend to forget more quickly. Here, better sleep seems to advantage…
Cognitive PsychologyNov 6, 2024
Brain stars hold our memories
A new study changes the way we understand memory. Until now, memories have been explained by the activity of brain cells called neurons that respond to learning events and control memory recall. Neurologists have now…
Cognitive PsychologyNov 6, 2024
Researchers have uncovered the mechanism in the brain that constantly refreshes memory
Researchers have discovered a neural mechanism for memory integration that stretches across both time and personal experience.
Cognitive PsychologyNov 6, 2024
Brain acts like music box playing different behaviors
Neuroscientists have discovered brain cells that form multiple coordinate systems to tell us 'where we are' in a sequence of behaviors. These cells can play out different sequences of actions, just like a music box can…
Cognitive PsychologyNov 5, 2024
Bach, Mozart or jazz
Physicists have investigated to which extent a piece of music can evoke expectations about its progression. They were able to determine differences in how far compositions of different composers can be anticipated. In…
Cognitive PsychologyOct 31, 2024
Meta-learning of motor skills in the dorsal premotor cortex of the brain
Researchers have discovered that the dorsal premotor cortex serves a 'meta-learning' function, overseeing and regulating physical movements. Once believed to be limited to movement planning, this region has now been…
Cognitive PsychologyOct 30, 2024
Britain's brass bands older than we thought and invented by soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars
Military musicians returning from the Napoleonic wars established Britain's first brass bands earlier than previously thought, new research reveals. The study undermines the idea that brass bands were a civilian and…
Cognitive PsychologyOct 25, 2024
Studying Wikipedia browsing habits to learn how people learn
A collaborative team of researchers led by Dale Zhou, who did his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, and Dani Bassett in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science looked at how…
Cognitive PsychologyOct 16, 2024
Fearful memories of others seen in mouse brain
Researchers have revealed that the CA1 and CA2 regions in the brain respectively encode the locations and individuals linked with a threatening experience. The results show that, beyond simply recognizing individuals…
Cognitive PsychologyOct 15, 2024
How do you remember how to ride a bike? Thank your cerebellum
Researchers have shown that, just like declarative memories, short-term and long-term memories for motor skills form in different regions of the brain, with the cerebellum being critical for the formation of long-term…
Cognitive PsychologyOct 11, 2024
Asking a person to talk about their parents in therapy can distort memories of childhood emotions
New research suggests a person's feelings towards a parent can be significantly changed when they are asked to evaluate them during talking therapy, even when the question isn't suggestive.