cognitive science – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness, Experts Declare https://www.quantamagazine.org/insects-and-other-animals-have-consciousness-experts-declare-20240419/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/insects-and-other-animals-have-consciousness-experts-declare-20240419/#respond Fri, 19 Apr 2024 14:00:10 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=137344 The post Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness, Experts Declare first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In 2022, researchers at the Bee Sensory and Behavioral Ecology Lab at Queen Mary University of London observed bumblebees doing something remarkable: The diminutive, fuzzy creatures were engaging in activity that could only be described as play. Given small wooden balls, the bees pushed them around and rotated them. The behavior had no obvious connection to mating or survival, nor was it rewarded...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/insects-and-other-animals-have-consciousness-experts-declare-20240419/feed/ 0 Why the Human Brain Perceives Small Numbers Better https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-the-human-brain-perceives-small-numbers-better-20231109/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-the-human-brain-perceives-small-numbers-better-20231109/#respond Thu, 09 Nov 2023 15:06:58 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=132137 The post Why the Human Brain Perceives Small Numbers Better first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> More than 150 years ago, the economist and philosopher William Stanley Jevons discovered something curious about the number 4. While musing about how the mind conceives of numbers, he tossed a handful of black beans into a cardboard box. Then, after a fleeting glance, he guessed how many there were, before counting them to record the true value. After more than 1,000 trials, he saw a clear pattern.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-the-human-brain-perceives-small-numbers-better-20231109/feed/ 0 Some Neural Networks Learn Language Like Humans https://www.quantamagazine.org/some-neural-networks-learn-language-like-humans-20230522/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/some-neural-networks-learn-language-like-humans-20230522/#respond Mon, 22 May 2023 13:47:32 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=126116 The post Some Neural Networks Learn Language Like Humans first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> How do brains learn? It’s a mystery, one that applies both to the spongy organs in our skulls and to their digital counterparts in our machines. Even though artificial neural networks (ANNs) are built from elaborate webs of artificial neurons, ostensibly mimicking the way our brains process information, we don’t know if they process input in similar ways. “There’s been a long-standing debate as to...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/some-neural-networks-learn-language-like-humans-20230522/feed/ 0 How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-loneliness-reshapes-the-brain-20230228/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-loneliness-reshapes-the-brain-20230228/#respond Tue, 28 Feb 2023 15:59:07 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=123394 The post How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> The Neumayer III polar station sits near the edge of Antarctica’s unforgiving Ekström Ice Shelf. During the winter, when temperatures can plunge below minus 50 degrees Celsius and the winds can climb to more than 100 kilometers per hour, no one can come or go from the station. Its isolation is essential to the meteorological, atmospheric and geophysical science experiments conducted there by the...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-loneliness-reshapes-the-brain-20230228/feed/ 0 Anil Seth Finds Consciousness in Life’s Push Against Entropy https://www.quantamagazine.org/anil-seth-finds-consciousness-in-lifes-push-against-entropy-20210930/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/anil-seth-finds-consciousness-in-lifes-push-against-entropy-20210930/#respond Thu, 30 Sep 2021 15:52:44 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=109006 The post Anil Seth Finds Consciousness in Life’s Push Against Entropy first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Anil Seth wants to understand how minds work. As a neuroscientist at the University of Sussex in England, Seth has seen firsthand how neurons do what they do — but he knows that the puzzle of consciousness spills over from neuroscience into other branches of science, and even into philosophy. As he puts it near the start of his new book, Being You: A New Science of Consciousness (available October...

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