For a long time, economists have assumed that we were cold, self-centred, rational decision makers – so-called Homo economicus; the last few decades have shattered this view. The world we live in and the situations we face are of course rich and complex, revealing puzzling aspects of our behaviour. Optimally Irrational argues that our improved understanding of human behaviour shows that apparent 'biases' are good solutions to practical problems – that many of the 'flaws' identified by behavioural economics are actually adaptive solutions.

Music around the world is incredibly diverse, yet some musical features are widely shared. This raises a question: in what respects does music sound the same or different to people from different cultures? In this talk I will share the results of recent research with the Tsimane’, an indigenous Amazonian society in Bolivia who have limited exposure to Western music. This work suggests that there are several universal features of pitch and harmony perception that may constrain musical behavior around the world.

Mothers speak more clearly when talking to infants and parrots, compared to when they talk to adults or their own cats and dogs. What do parrots and infants have in common? 

Megha Sundara will be invited professor at ENS from June 20 to July 14. She will give the following three talks.

Megha Sundara will be invited professor at ENS from June 20 to July 14. She will give the following three talks.

Megha Sundara will be invited professor at ENS from June 20 to July 14. She will give the following three talks.

The replication crisis affects dyslexia research as much as any other field. This is facilitated by questionable research practices such as p-hacking, HARKING, as well as publication bias. The goal of this project is to quantify the extent of this problem, by meta-analysing one section of dyslexia research, using a method called p-curve or z-curve analysis.

In order to test precise hypotheses about learning mechanisms and the causes of cognitive disorders, it is increasingly useful to have computational models of the cognitive functions concerned.

According to Robert Trivers and Dan Willard's hypothesis, parents in good condition should favour male offspring, while parents in poor condition should favour female offspring. Why? First, parents with more resources can support more offspring. Second, males with more resources are more likely to have many offspring. Natural selection should therefore favour investment in male offspring when parents are in good condition, since their sons will have a chance to have many children in turn.

Les bébés sont de véritables petits détectives du langage qui utilisent les indices cachés de la phrase pour deviner le sens des mots.