The Nature & Nurture Podcast

Dr. Sami Yousif is a cognitive psychologist and MindCORE postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode we dive deep into two topics among Sami's wide range of research experiences: spatial cognition and teleological belief.  We discuss spatial cognition, imagistic vs. propositional vs. coordinate representations of space and navigation, the development of spatial reasoning in children, and how spatial cognition differs between humans and animals.    We also discuss teleology, or the explanation for the purpose of things, and how teleological beliefs differ across individuals and across framing of questions. In particular, "why" questions may be broken down into either descriptive "how" questions or teleological "purpose" questions.   Learn more about Sami's work at: https://www.samiyousif.org/

Dr. Adam Green is a cognitive neuroscientist and the Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University, where he directs the Lab for Relational Cognition. He is the Founder and President of the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity, and Editor-In-Chief of the Creativity Research Journal.  In this episode we discuss Adam's expertise in creativity research, the extent to which creativity is innate or can be learned, whether creativity is a unidimensional or multidimensional construct, and how creativity manifests in the brain. We additionally discuss some of Adam's recent and ongoing work on the neuroscience of belief, including how religious believers and non-believers create representations of God. Lastly, we touch on the subject of belief in free will, and whether the brain is truly a deterministic system. I hope to continue the conversation on free will and neurophilosophy with Adam sometime soon. In the meantime, learn more about his work at: https://cng.georgetown.edu/home

Dr. Megan Peters is a cognitive neuroscientist and an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, where she directs the Cognitive & Neural Computation Lab.  In this episode we discuss Megan's background in cognitive science, and a research path which allowed her to combine interests in computation with philosophical questions about human subjective experiences. In a wide-ranging conversation we discuss how consciousness and subjective experience might arise from a collection of neurons, the phenomenology of perception, human perception and decision-making under uncertainty, unconscious perceptions, metacognition and confidence about our subjective experiences, and how metacognition differs from error-correction in artificial intelligence.  Learn more about Megan's work at: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/cnclab/

Dr. Bill von Hippel is an evolutionarily social psychologist and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is also the author of The Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy.  In this episode we discuss The Social Leap, a journey through over 6 million years of human evolution: from our moderately intelligent, moderately social chimpanzee-like ancestors, to the hyper-intelligent, hyper-social species we are today. Bill and I discuss a number of revolutions and selection pressures that led to our evolution, including environmental changes, the rise of bipedalism and tool use, long-distance hunting, mastery of fire and cooking, and most importantly, the social intelligence necessary to communicate and cooperate. 

Dr. Nilam Ram is a Professor of Psychology and Communication at Stanford University, and one of the founders of the field of screenomics: the new interdisciplinary field of research based on the time-series analysis of screens and digital behavior.  In this episode, we discuss Nilam's background in finance and quantitative psychology, the use of longitudinal research methods to examine changes in behavior and cognition throughout the lifespan, and the use of experience sampling methods in developmental science. As smartphones became more pervasive, Nilam describes the rise of mobile sensing methods in psychology, eventually leading to the birth of screenomics. We finally discuss the broad goals and potential applications of screenomics research, including interactive media which predict behavior, and the precautions taken to ensure smartphone data is analyzed with ethical and privacy concerns in mind. 

Dr. Abigail Marsh is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Georgetown University, where she directs the Laboratory on Social and Affective Neuroscience. She is also the author of The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-Between. In this episode, we discuss Abby's background in social psychology, and a life-changing experience of hers that motivated inquiry into the nature of costly altruism. In a wide-ranging conversation we discuss the neural correlates of empathy (or lack thereof) in psychopaths and altruistic kidney donors, animal research on care and evolutionary theories of empathy, the role of oxytocin in governing care, how social media hijacks our systems of reward and fear, and how mindfulness and in-person interactions may improve trust and well-being. 

Dr. Glenn Fox is a faculty member at the University of Southern California's Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, in the Marshall School of Business. His current projects focus on neural systems for emotion regulation, high stakes training, and developing entrepreneurial mindset skills in founders and business leaders. Glenn is also the Director and Founder of the USC Found Well Initiative which aims to understand and promote entrepreneurial mindset in founders and business leaders. In this episode we discuss Glenn's background bridging neuroscience and business in understanding human decision-making, and the neuroscience behind several traits important for leadership, including emotional resilience, empathy, and gratitude. Additionally, we discuss personality differences in entrepreneurial thinkers and their relation to neuroscience, including the extent to which leadership ability is biological vs. a learned skill.  Learn more about Glenn's work at:  https://glennrfox.com/ Follow Glenn on social media: https://twitter.com/glennrfox?s=20&t=BULakuBbyXxDtY4h577DiQ https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenn-r-fox-phd-2418bba1

Dr. Aaron Sell is an evolutionary psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychology & Criminology at Heidelberg University with expertise in the evolution of anger, aggression, and hatred. In this episode we discuss how these different emotions are psychologically distinct, their evolutionary adaptiveness, and the "mismatch" between experiencing these emotions in tribal settings and in our modern interconnected world.

Dr. Cedric Boeckx is a biolinguist and Research Professor at the Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Barcelona. In this episode we discuss Cedric's research background, talk about what language is, from a scientific perspective, how it evolved in humans, and how it can be studied through cognitive psychology, computational modeling, and the human fossil record.

Dr. Robert Barton is a Professor of Anthropology at Durham University who studies primate brain evolution and cognition.