The Nature & Nurture Podcast

Dr. Richard Tremblay is an Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Psychology at the University of Montreal and one of the world's leading experts on childhood aggression. In 2017 he received the Stockholm Prize in Criminology for his work on studying the developmental origins of aggression in children and his intervention studies meant to improve the developmental trajectories of delinquent children. In this episode we discuss Dr. Tremblay's background in psychology and his large-scale longitudinal studies of the development of aggression in children which showed that aggression is most frequent in toddlers, and declines with age. We additionally discuss his use of twin studies to examine what proportion of aggression is due to genetic vs. environmental factors, sex differences in aggression, environmental risk factors for criminality, and interventions which can be made to improve developmental trajectories in high-risk children. 

Dr. Johnna Swartz is an Assistant Professor of Human Development at the University of California, Davis. Learn more about her research at: https://swartzlab.faculty.ucdavis.edu/ In this episode we discuss Johnna's background in psychology and neuroscience, her ongoing research examining the neural correlates of depression in adolescents cross-culturally, and what neuroscience teaches us about mental health. 

Dr. Michael Serra is an Associate Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Texas Tech University. Learn more about his research in the Learning and Metacognition Lab here: http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/mserra/  In this episode we discuss the cognitive and neural basis behind learning and memory, Michael's work researching metacognition in the context of education, and what cognitive psychology teaches us about how to be better learners. 

Dr. Jakub Szymanik is an Associate Professor in the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam.  In this episode we discuss natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and Jakub's research on forms of linguistic cognition such as quantifiers and categorical reasoning. 

Dr. Katie Gordon is a licensed clinical psychologist, co-host of the Psychodrama Podcast, and the author of The Suicidal Thoughts Workbook. Learn more about her work and find her book and podcast at: https://kathrynhgordon.com/  In this episode we discuss Katie's background in clinical psychology, her work as a therapist, suicide prevention, and tips for managing mental health.   Timestamps:  0:00 - Introduction 0:59 - How Katie became interested in clinical psychology 2:37 - Introduction to psychology research 4:35 - Working in a mental hospital before grad school 5:37 - How to manage one's own emotions when working with suffering patients  7:24 - The types of patients Katie works with 9:06 - Nature vs. nurture in mental illness 13:23 - Therapy's role in society 15:39 - Tools from therapy that everyone can use in their relationships  17:40 - What progress looks like in therapy 21:04 - Teaching patients to solve problems rather than solving their problems 22:21 - How it feels to see a patient improve 26:15 - Suicide prevention 28:17 - The Suicidal Thoughts Workbook 29:40 - Suicidal ideation 32:18 - Suicidal thoughts 34:40 - Sex differences in suicidal behavior 36:10 - Suicide attempt survivors  37:25 - Suicide in popular media 39:47 - How being a therapist has influenced Katie's personal relationships 42:27 - The Psychodrama Podcast 43:56 - Comedians and therapists 46:21 - Honesty in therapy 47:17 - Mental health diagnoses and misconceptions 49:31 - Unconditional positive regard

Dr. Nadia Chernyak is an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. In this episode we discuss her research on children's moral development, conceptions of fairness and inequality, and the role numeracy skills play in these conceptions. Learn more about Dr. Chernyak's research at: https://www.dosclab.com/    Video available at: https://youtu.be/MOjgJGU-KW4 Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:35 - How Nadia became interested in studying moral and social development 1:48 - Psychology vs. philosophy  2:48 - Conducting psychological experiments with young children  4:06 - Inequalities perceived by young children and even monkeys  8:55 - When and how children begin to apply moral stances to inequality 10:42 - Nadia's research on children's moral cognition 14:24 - Is the motivation for sharing innate?  15:28 - How temperament influences moral values  16:37 - Why Nadia focuses her research on children  17:45 - Looking at numeracy development in the context of fairness and morals  22:18 - How perceptions of inequality scale 25:26 - Cognitively advanced but selfish children  27:05 - Merit vs. equality  28:30 - Practical implications of Nadia's research 31:01 - The difficulty of comparing unquantifiables   32:18 - Cognitive mechanisms behind the development of high-level reasoning 34:00 - Moral stage theory  34:53 - Moral thought experiment  36:32 - Fairness vs. prosociality  40:09 - Group biases in prosocial behavior 42:20 - Overlap between moral psychology and moral philosophy  46:02 - Creating quantifiable scales of unquantifiables  49:00 - Evaluating ulterior motives 51:18 - Nadia's plans for future research 55:10 - How stereotypes influence cognition

Dr. Felipe De Brigard is a Professor of Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience at Duke University, where he runs the Imagination and Modal Cognition Lab. Learn more about his research at: https://www.imclab.org/    In this episode we discuss Felipe's background in philosophy and neuroscience, his research on imagination and counterfactual thinking, and the role of memory in consciousness.    Timestamps:  0:00 - Introduction 0:29 - Felipe's background in philosophy and neuropsychology 1:58 - Bridging philosophy and cognitive neuroscience in his PhD 3:41 - Neuroscience as an applied medical field vs. a theoretical study of the mind 9:00 - The rise of experimental philosophy  11:12 - Felipe's research interests in memory, imagination, and counterfactual thinking 15:26 - The role of memory in consciousness 22:07 - Is experience discrete or continuous? 24:37 - Phenomenology in neuroscience 30:59 - Does multitasking exist?  33:08 - Different types of cognitive processes involved in imagination 36:09 - Felipe's own research on counterfactual thinking 39:20 - Differences in brain activation when imagining things that do vs. do not involve yourself 43:25 - The evolution of counterfactual thinking  46:35 - How counterfactual thinking influences our memory 47:36 - The most interesting question Felipe would like to see answered in his career

In this episode I interview Dr. Essi Viding, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at University College London and author of Psychopathy: A Very Short Introduction. We discuss her research on the development of antisocial behavior, the degree to which psychopathic traits are influenced by genetic and environmental factors, and early-intervention strategies which may help improve the developmental trajectory of antisocial children.

In this episode I interview Dr. Zlatan Damnjanovic, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. We discuss his research in logic and the philosophy of mathematics, the epistemological of whether the languages of logic and math are universal or man-made, and the historical development of formal systems of logic and mathematics. Additionally, we discuss the paradox logical systems necessarily being either incomplete or inconsistent without the fundamental axiom of truth-preservation (i.e., not contradicting oneself). Video available at: https://youtu.be/pfLqUJvIBLI 

In this episode I interview Dr. Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez, neuroscientist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern California. We discuss his background in cognitive neuroscience, his transition to researching the influence of social and environmental factors on the brain, and his current work in environmental neuroscience. Additionally, we discuss issues in science including the operationalization of variables, identity, (statistical) power, and group stratification.