-
The Difference Between Speaking and Thinking
Language is commonly understood as the instrument of thought. People “talk it out” and “speak their mind,” follow “trains of thought” or “streams of consciousness.” Some of the pinnacles of human creation—music, geometry, computer programming—are framed as metaphorical languages. The underlying assumption is that the brain processes the world and our experience of it through a progression of words. And this supposed link between language and thinking is a large part of what makes ChatGPT and similar programs so uncanny: The ability of AI to answer any prompt with human-sounding language can suggest that the machine has some sort of intent, even sentience.
-
Your Native Tongue Holds a Special Place in Your Brain, Even if You Speak 10 Languages
Most people will learn one or two languages in their lives. But Vaughn Smith, a 47-year-old carpet cleaner from Washington, D.C., speaks 24. Smith is a hyperpolyglot—a rare individual who speaks more than 10 languages. In a new brain imaging study, researchers peered inside the minds of polyglots like Smith to tease out how language-specific regions in their brains respond to hearing different languages. Familiar languages elicited a stronger reaction than unfamiliar ones, they found, with one important exception: native languages, which provoked relatively little brain activity. This, the authors note, suggests there’s something special about the languages we learn early in life.
-
Lonely People’s Divergent Thought Processes May Contribute to Feeling “Alone in a Crowded Room”
Lonely individuals’ neural responses differ from those of other people, suggesting that seeing the world differently may be a risk factor for loneliness regardless of friendships.
-
Lived Experiences Can Be a Strength. So Why the Bias Against “Me-Search”?
Podcast: Questions often emerge when researchers tend to engage in research on topics that are personally relevant for them. How is this type of self-relevant researchperceived? Researcher Andrew Devendorf discusses.
-
A Psychologist Explains How AI and Algorithms Are Changing Our Lives
In an age of ChatGPT, computer algorithms and artificial intelligence are increasingly embedded in our lives, choosing the content we’re shown online, suggesting the music we hear and answering our questions. These algorithms may be changing our world and behavior in ways we don’t fully understand, says psychologist and behavioral scientist Gerd Gigerenzer, the director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the University of Potsdam in Germany.
-
Love and the Brain: Do Partnerships Really Make Us Happy? Here’s What the Science Says
I’m Shayla Love, and you’re listening to Scientific American’s Science, Quickly. We’ve been talking about love this week, and so far we’ve maintained a pretty basic assumption: that love is good, that love makes us happier. But does it? And if so, does it bring the same amount of happiness to everyone? [CLIP: Ending music] ... Harry Reis: I’ve been studying relationships for about 40 years. Love: That’s Harry Reis, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. He told me that decades of work has found that partnered people are just, well, better off than un-partnered people.
