Gifted dogs can categorize toys by function, not just appearance. In playful at-home tests, they linked labels like “fetch” and “pull” to toys—even ones they’d never seen before. The findings hint that dogs form mental concepts of objects, much like humans, pointing to deeper cognitive abilities.
Read moreVision researchers have disproved a long-standing theory of how the human vision system processes images, using computational models and human experiments. The findings could have implications for the understanding of human vision and diagnosis of vision anomalies.
Read moreAnimal models can serve as gateways for understanding many human communication disorders, but a new study suggests that the established practice of socially isolating mice for such purposes might actually make them poor research models for humans, and a simple shift to a more realistic social environment could greatly improve the utility of the future studies.
Read moreA computer science team has developed an artificial intelligence system that can look at a photo of an outfit and suggest helpful tips to make it more fashionable.
Read moreNeuroscientists say they have identified how people can have a 'crash in visual processing' — a bottleneck of feed-forward and feedback signals that can cause us not to be consciously aware of stimuli that our brain recognized.
Read moreLocal people in the Nepal Himalayas value snow leopards as much for the potential personal benefits they gain from the animals' conservation as they do for the intrinsic value of this charismatic species.
Read moreGame theory has historically studied cooperation and hierarchy, and has sought to explain why individuals cooperate, even though they might be better off not to do so. Researchers now use a specialized graph to map a social network of cooperators and their neighbors; they discovered cooperators can attract more neighbors to follow their behaviors and are more likely to become leaders, indicating different learning patterns exist between cooperators and defectors.
Read moreCandidates at job interviews expect to be evaluated on their experience, conduct, and ideas, but a new study provides evidence that interviewees are judged based on their social status seconds after they start to speak.
Read moreHave you ever found it difficult to focus on a task due to background noise? Scientists are studying just how these sounds impact our brain activity — and what that impact means for designing neurotechnology.
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