Quotes About Cognition

he was led to put in formal terms what most people had always taken for granted: People vary in their intellectual abilities and the differences matter, to them personally and to society.

a curious result kept turning up: If the same group of people took two different mental tests, anyone who did well (or poorly) on one test tended to do similarly well (or poorly) on the other. In statistical terms, the scores on the two tests were positively correlated.

By 1908, the concept of mental level (later called mental age) had been developed, followed in a few years by a slightly more sophisticated concept, the intelligence quotient.

The village barber shaves those and only those men who live in the village and do not shave themselves. The village barber is a man and he lives in the village. Consider the question "Who shaves the barber?

Fortunately, I'm good at ignoring a lot of what my brain does.

Most scientists who study human perception no longer assume that we have five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing. The current number ranges from a conservative ten senses to as many as thirty, including blood-sugar levels, empty stomach, thirst, joint position, and more. The list is growing.

Pleasure and desire are altogether different things in the brain.

Some like the acronym ANTS for automatic negative thoughts, because like ants they seem to creep in from nowhere to spoil the picnic.

I believe the ability to think is blessed. If you can think about a situation, you can deal with it. The big struggle is to keep your head clear enough to think.

In 1995 Leslie Aiello and Peter Wheeler proposed that the reason some animals have evolved big brains is that they have small guts, and small guts are made possible by a high-quality diet. Aiello and Wheeler's head-spinning idea came from the realization that brains are exceptionally greedy for glucose—in other words, for energy. For an inactive person, every fifth meal is eaten solely to power the brain.

Animal behavior is not purely emotional. Nor is human decision-making purely rational.

He took each fact as it came and let it slip painlessly into the back of his mind, thinking, Okay, okay, I'll think about that one later; and that one; and that one; so that the alert, front part of his mind could remain free enough to keep him in command of the situation.

I see,' she said. And when would she ever learn to stop saying 'I see' about things she didn't see at all?

If your eyes weren't open, you wouldn't know the difference between dreaming and waking.

60 percent of your brain is made from fat, specifically DHA.

Humans are fundamentally irrational. They use what precious rationality they have justifying their irrational behavior. A

Good strong hair,' he was fond of saying, 'means there's a good strong brain underneath.' 'Like Shakespeare,' Matilda had once said to him. 'Like who?' 'Shakespeare, Daddy.' 'Was he brainy?' 'Very, Daddy.' 'He had masses of hair, did he?' 'He was bald, Daddy.

He could follow someone's mind around, and get where it was going before the other fellow knew where it was going.

Thinking doesn't pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you.

Remember though, your best weapon is between your ears and under your scalp -provided it's loaded.

the human mind's ability to rationalize its own shortcomings into virtues is unlimited

Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well. The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion, in the long run these are the only people who count.

Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well.

poetry is a special way of imagining the world or, to put this in more cognitive terms, a special mode of thinking with its own momentum and its own peculiar advantages.