Upon Reflection
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Nick researches human reasoning, particularly how we reason and how we can reason better. My primary areas are cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science. My research focuses on reasoning styles, reasoning education, wellbeing, and willpower.
Upon Reflection | Cognitive Science and Philosophy
1y ago
In 2002, a chapter from Kahneman and Frederick mentioned “the bat and ball problem”. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total.The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball.How much does the ball cost? By 2005, Frederick’s Cognitive Reflection Test paper added the lesser known Widgets and Lily Pad problems. In the intervening 20-ish ..read more
Upon Reflection | Cognitive Science and Philosophy
1y ago
Oppenheimer “was widely known not just for his scientific success but for his remarkably wide-ranging knowledge of the humanities [,…] an extraordinary combination….” That interdisciplinarity is cited as a reason Oppenheimer was recruited as Director of Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Research after the Manhattan Project (in the 8th post about the man on 3 Quarks ..read more
Upon Reflection | Cognitive Science and Philosophy
1y ago
I have a question for you: “If a bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total and the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?“. Did 10 cents seem right? The authors of questions like this are attempting to lure you to accept this incorrect answer in order to …
Via Nick Byrd, Ph.D. - Using science and technology to understand and improve how we think ..read more
Upon Reflection | Cognitive Science and Philosophy
2y ago
Sometimes philosophers complain that scientists do philosophy badly and that philosophers may thereby be underrated. The idea is that people could have better philosophy if they just turned to academic philosophers rather than the popular scientists that have done philosophy badly. (Perhaps analogous complaints about philosophers circulate among scientists). In this post, I want to …
Via Nick Byrd, Ph.D. - Using science and technology to understand and improve how we think ..read more
Upon Reflection | Cognitive Science and Philosophy
2y ago
In this episode, I read my short paper with Morgan Thompson in WIRES Cognitive Science titled, “Testing for Implicit Bias: Values, Psychometrics, and Science Communication”. You may have heard about implicit bias. It is measured by indirect rather than direct measures of bias. We reconstruct arguments from debates about these measures, reveal some instances of …
Via Nick Byrd - Postdoc. and Asst. Professor studying how to improve reasoning, well-being, and technology ..read more
Upon Reflection | Cognitive Science and Philosophy
2y ago
This time I read my 2022 paper in Review of Philosophy and Psychology titled, “Great Minds Do Not Think Alike: Philosophers’ Views Predicted by Reflection, Education, Personality, and Other Demographic Differences“. As the title suggests, various psychological factors predicted variance in philosophers’ answers to classic philosophical questions. This raises questions about how psychological and demographic …
Via Nick Byrd - Postdoc. and Asst. Professor studying how to improve reasoning, well-being, and technology ..read more
Upon Reflection | Cognitive Science and Philosophy
2y ago
In this episode, I read one of my 2022 articles in Metaphilosophy titled, “Bounded Reflectivism & Epistemic Identity”. Does reflective reasoning help or hinder our judgment? In this paper, I take a middle view between reflectivism and anti-reflectivism that I call bounded reflectivism. The idea is that reflection is a tool that can be used …
Via Nick Byrd - Postdoc. and Asst. Professor studying how to improve reasoning, well-being, and technology ..read more
Upon Reflection | Cognitive Science and Philosophy
2y ago
On this episode, I read one of my articles from 2021 titled, “Reflective Reasoning and Philosophy” in Philosophy Compass. Both philosophers and cognitive scientists seem to think that philosophical thinking could depend on whether we reason intuitively or reflectively. In this paper, I review the claims, scientific methods, evidence, and what we may need to …
Via Nick Byrd - Postdoc. and Asst. Professor studying how to improve reasoning, well-being, and technology ..read more
Upon Reflection | Cognitive Science and Philosophy
2y ago
Every semester I begin courses by asking students to close their eyes and imagine a philosopher doing philosophy. When I ask students to share what they imagined, I get classic stereotypes. “An old guy” says one. “With a beard,” adds another. “Yeah, in a toga!” yells someone in the back. […] byrdnick.com/teaching#teachingstatement This is unsurprising. …
Via Nick Byrd - Postdoc. and Asst. Professor studying how to improve reasoning, well-being, and technology ..read more
Upon Reflection | Cognitive Science and Philosophy
3y ago
Some colleagues and readers have asked about my experience with grant applications. Perhaps the most common questions is just “Where do I find out about grant opportunities?” That one is fairly straightforward. As usual, I recommend the automated or passive method: find websites that will crawl the internet for what you seek and then send …
Via Nick Byrd - Fellow and Assistant Professor (to be) studying cognitive science of philosophy (and philosophy of cognitive science ..read more