When dr. Nina Hansen travelled to Ethiopia last spring to conduct field research, students Marloes Huis, Josefine Geiger, and Aline Voss had the opportunity to accompany her. In this blog Nina, Marloes, and Josefine briefly describe the elaborate process of conducting field research in a very different culture and the challenges that were encountered.
Searching for the brain parts for specific cognitive capacities is a hot topic. But how much will this tell us about cognition? The key to cognition lies in the interaction between various processes rather than in a specific component for each function.
Imagine you are having lunch with legal experts. You don’t understand a word of what they are talking about. Are you afraid to make a fool of yourself? Or do you dare to ask a stupid question and see what happens? Be surprised!
Is chewing gum a cognitive enhancer or should it be banned from schools? Research indeed provided evidence that chewing gum improves aspects of cognitive functioning, however, the detrimental effects on cognition are often neglected.
Habits are hard to change, as illustrated in Plato’s quote that “The first and best victory is to conquer self”. Mindfulness meditation has begun to be studied as a way to counteract detrimental mental habits. We examined whether mindfulness would delink the relation between alcohol impulses and alcohol use.