Cognitive Science

Study: People Facing Life-or-Death Choice Put Too Much Trust in AI

September 4, 2024

In simulated life-or-death decisions, about two-thirds of people in a UC Merced study allowed a robot to change their minds when it disagreed with them -- an alarming display of excessive trust in artificial intelligence, researchers said. Human subjects allowed robots to sway their judgment...

Cognitive Science Student Earns IBM Ph.D. Fellowship

UC Merced graduate student David Vinson recently obtained an intensely competitive IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Award, which will provide $30,000 to support his research in computational social science...

Researchers Dispel Child Development Myths at Symposium

When it comes to child development and education, separating fact from fiction is critical for professionals in the field. More than 65 educators and care providers benefited from the expertise of UC...

Study: Moral Decisions Can Be Manipulated by Tracking Eye Gaze

Moral decisions can be influenced by tracking moment-to-moment movements of the eyes during deliberation, according to new research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of...

Symposium to Focus on Child Development Myths

The UC Merced Symposium on the Child and Family will be held on campus from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. March 14. The event’s theme is “Myths About Child Development and Learning.” It will feature research-...

Social Feedback Loop Aids Language Development

Verbal interactions between parents and children create a social feedback loop important for language development, according to research by a professor at the University of California, Merced. That...

Research Shows Connection Between Attitudes, Language

People’s attitudes could affect the amount of information they share, said UC Merced researchers who studied a massive chunk of Yelp business review data. Ph.D. student David Vinson and Professor...

Globe-Trotting Graduate Student Finds a Home, Success at UC Merced

Most students don’t arrive at UC Merced by way of Germany and Hawaii. But graduate student Bodo Winter often takes a unique path. Now in his third year, this Ph.D. candidate in Cognitive and...

Researchers Win Prestigious Grant to Study Similarities in Language, Molecules

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of California, Merced, has begun an ambitious quest to discover common principles that guide evolution of structures at the linguistic and...

Cognitive Scientist Shows How the Brain Can Assemble New Ideas from Old Parts

People routinely encounter familiar components from everyday life in new combinations, such as when a co-worker takes on a new role or a sentence uses a word in a new way. We typically excel at...