AI has a Personality, but it doesn’t mean anything… yet
I just read this preprint[1] in which researchers have adapted a standard personality test (a version of the OCEAN Big 5 model) to assess LLMs’ …
Digital Civics: Threats, Hygiene, Netiquette (Part 2)
We’ll do a visual recap of the first part first. Since we are talking about good behavior, naturally there is bad behavior. These are the …
Digital Civics: Concepts & Human Interaction (Part 1)
We seek people out on a URL instead of IRL pretty much all the time. So we need to know what is considered good behavior, …
Focus is about Emotions, Engagement & Skill (attention is task-dependent, not a limited resource)
A temporary loss of focus is expected when you work a lot. And you don’t have to blame your attention span. Blame emotions, engagement, and …
Are you an Autotelic Person? [Test yourself]
“The motivation to do a task comes from the satisfaction of getting to do the task.” If this is relatable, chances are you have the …
Imitation: The Oldest way of Learning, still valid in Education
Monkey see, monkey do. We aren’t just monkeys, but a learning technique they used – learning by observation – still is one of the most …
11 Quick Science-backed Sleep Improvement Tips
Sleep disturbances are as common as wind in the air. Some studies[1] report over 40% of the population having significant sleep disturbances. Some countries show …
Gamification tricks from Psychology
Gamification is an attempt to make a website or app more fun and motivate users to use it. This is done by employing elements from …
Need for Cognition: A personality trait of hungry brains
“Need for cognition” is a personality tendency describing how much people engage and love to engage in effortful cognitive activities like thinking. If one loves …
Why does Caffeine alter Mood, Focus, & Cognition?
Like a thermostat or air conditioner, coffee is a brain and body regulator. Some people can’t start their day without coffee. And some get so …
What the Flow State feels like, and how to Enter it
What is flow? Flow is an experience where a person is deeply engaged with an activity they enjoy. It occurs when there is an optimal …
Do Violent Games make us Violent? Mostly No, but also Yes!
Forget what media says about how violent gaming causes violence. Sensationalism gives science a bad name. Instead, let’s look at research flooded with nuanced insights …
You can actually use Stress to Improve Memory and Learning
Highlights Temporary stress improves attention, makes us efficient, improves memory for relevant details, and makes us “faster” – in short, better learners. Moderate stress before …
Don’t forget your Prospective Memory, here’s how to build it
When we think of memory, we usually think of “retrospective” memory which is the memory of past events/facts, or “working” memory which is the memory …
Sensation Seeking: What it is + How it affects you
Sensation seeking is the tendency to seek high-intensity experiences and novelty. Sensation seekers typically want bold, complex, varied, and dramatic experiences as opposed to mild, …
Habit Guide: 12 Tricks to Build Good Habits + 6 Ways to Break Bad Ones
Forming new habits can be difficult but ultimately necessary to live easily. Habits are stable patterns of behavior or thought that happen automatically without needing …