Cognitive Engineering

Identifying a friend or family member from a baby photo seems like a trivial task. Conversely, showing someone a photo of a child and asking them to determine the corresponding adult can be immensely difficult. Why does matching the faces of friends and family to photos create the illusion that it is a simple and straightforward task?

In this episode, we look at hindsight bias. Why do our brains present versions of the past to suit the present and is there a qualitative difference between image recognition and extrapolation? We discuss hypothesis generation, intractable computational problems, and the limits of probability distribution in analysis. Finally, we see what evolutionary insight can be gleaned from matching photos of babies to their adult selves and put our own biases to the test by interpreting family photos.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• 30 celebrity baby photos
• Unfamiliar face matching with photographs of infants and children
• Unfamiliar faces are not faces: Evidence from a matching task
• When age-progressed images are unreliable: The roles of external features and age range
• Comparative evaluation of automatic age progression methodologies

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

When bad luck befalls us, we often say, “wrong place, wrong time.” Rather than accepting that our daily choices continually expose us to new and ever-changing risks, we tend to view life events in terms of good and bad luck. But to what extent are we in control of our own fortunes and can we find solace in the aphorism, “you make your own luck”?

In this week’s podcast, we discuss the virtues of luck and circumstance by exploring the relationship between risk and good fortune. Is the measure of one’s luck simply moderated by our appetite for risk? Why do we only bemoan our luck once we turn out to be unlucky? And are our perceptions of good and bad luck shaped by our morality and values? We learn where in the world you are most likely to be struck by lightning, ponder the validity of imposing a tax on mountain-climbers and share some of our own experiences of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

What makes an idiot? Sometimes those who are meant to be the best and brightest among us say the most idiotic things. This suggests intelligence and idiocy are not mutually exclusive characteristics. Can we prevent our own stupidity from becoming manifest or are we all just idiots in waiting?

In this podcast, we look at the existence of intelligence and idiocy. We unpick recent examples of utter idiocy and shed light on the biological necessity of intelligence. We attempt to distinguish between intelligence and levels of IQ, and question why people that may say idiotic things often turn out to be brilliant in other areas. Is intelligence merely a product of evolutionary biology and to what extent is it simply confidence in different clothing? Finally, we share some of our own most idiotic moments.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Lunar New Deal: Gohmert suggests altering moon's orbit to combat climate change
• Why smart people are more likely to believe fake news
• Intelligence and socioeconomic success: A meta-analytic review of longitudinal research

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Traditionally newspapers are published daily or weekly, but what if they were only published every ten years or perhaps, even longer? How would you decide what stories to include and which ones should be left on the cutting room floor?

Inspired by a chapter in Tim Harford’s new book, “How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers”, our latest podcast examines the news media. We look at how reporting has evolved over time, whether the constant influx of news is creating “news fatigue” instead of educating society, and attempt to unravel what should make an event significant or newsworthy. We try our hand at putting together our ten-year newspaper and discuss what we would include as special features and why.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Pew Research Center: All News By Topic
• Wikipedia: 2010s
• Wikipedia: 2nd Millennium
• How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Opposites are one of the first things we teach children: big-small, short-long, happy-sad. But how universal is the idea of opposites? What's the opposite of a banana for example?

In our latest podcast, we take an in-depth look at the concept of opposites. We attempt to define opposites, exploring whether they are based on categorical or quantifiable features, or some intuitive interpretation of context. Finally, we examine how they can be used to help us navigate our environment, supporting rapid analysis and decision-making. And if you're interested in knowing what the opposite of a banana is, Nick will reveal the analytical output of his opposite-generator model. You may find the answer surprising or predictable, rigorous or widely speculative.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Concepts and Categories: A cognitive neuropsychological perspective
• Kaggle: Countries of the World Dataset
• U.S. Department of Agriculture: Food and nutrient database for dietary studies
• Overtly prompting people to “think in opposites” supports insight problem solving
• Principal Component Analysis: a review and recent developments

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

The word 'cheugy' has become a key weapon on the battlefield of intergenerational conflict. We might be its user, its target or utterly oblivious to its meaning. Does our relationship with the word tell us anything interesting and is the modern concept of generations a meaningful one?

In this podcast, we look at intergenerational conflict and its causes. We also attempt to determine whether the use of generational categories, such as Gen X or Millennials, represent a coherent and valid framework for understanding culture and history. Finally, we try to place ourselves within the generational continuum and decide the extent to which we are products of our time. How cheugy.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• The Measurement and Evaluation of Social Attitudes in Two British Cohort Studies
• Generational Differences in Work-Related Attitudes: A Meta-analysis
• Generational Differences At Work Are Small. Thinking They’re Big Affects Our Behavior
• A Compendium of Trends in the General Social Survey 1972-2018
• Strauss–Howe Generational Theory
• The Method for Determining Time-Generation Range

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

In the apocryphal story of the Hartlepool monkey, the residents of the town hang a shipwrecked monkey for being a French spy. Why do we search for scapegoats and how can we prevent ourselves from blaming the wrong person?

In this podcast we examine the phenomenon of scapegoating and try to understand the human desire to find someone else to blame for our problems. We tackle the concept of blame, look at how to avoid attributing it erroneously and consider whether the monkey was in fact guilty.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Was a monkey really hanged in Hartlepool??
• Miscarriages of Justice Registry
• Narrative Retribution and Cognitive Processing
• René Girard and the ‘Scapegoat Mechanism’
• Framed: Utilitarianism and Punishment of the Innocent
• Wiki: Sanctions
• Freedom House rights and liberties rankings

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Is the internet becoming unusable? Does it have a life beyond the constant barrage of annoying pop-ups, cookies, self-playing video commercials, captchas, paywalls and requests to turn off your ad blocker?

In this week's podcast, we discuss all the things we think are wrong with the World Wide Web and consider what should be done to rescue the internet, looking at ideas to make it a more informative, quality-assured and user-friendly space.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Spotify Removes Tens of Thousands of Indie Songs For ‘Artificial Streams’
• Where Does the Majority of Internet Traffic Come From?
• Kiss Your Browser Goodbye: The Radical Future of Media Beyond the Web
• The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet
• The Appification Of Everything Will Transform The World's 360 Million Web Sites
• The Appification of Everything and Why it Needs to End
• Mises Institute: The Truth About the "Robber Barons"

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Is administering a Covid-19 test on yourself difficult, or are the instructions just confusing? How should we explain complexity and is there a limit to how much we can simplify things?

In our latest podcast, we discuss different ways of simplifying information, how to judge the right level of detail for a given context, and whether reductionism is always a useful concept. We look at how simplification can help or hinder understanding, examining some of the consequences of oversimplification.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Reddit: Explain Like I’m Five
• Shannon information and Kolmogorov complexity

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations: do the ways people format these file types tell us something about the way they think, analyse or organise information? Or do they tell us more about ourselves, when we get frustrated by others' formatting or lack thereof?

In this week's podcast, we delve into the use of common applications and discuss the importance of formatting and structure, and whether this is linked to the quality of our analysis.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Tidy Desk or Messy Desk? Each Has Its Benefits
• Orderliness/Disorderliness Is Mentally Associated With Construal Level and Psychological Distance

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]