Sixty seconds on . . . human challenge trials

Five Seconds or Sixty?

The template theory presented in Gobet and Simon (1996a, 1998) is based on the EPAM theory (Feigenbaum & Simon, 1984; Richman et al., 1995), including the numerical parameters that have been estimated in tests of the latter; and it therefore offers precise predictions for the timing of cognitive processes during the presentation and recall of chess positions. This paper describes the behavior o...

Five seconds or sixty? Presentation time in expert memory

For many years, the game of chess has provided an invaluable task environment for research on cognition, in particular on the differences between novices and experts and the learning that removes these differences, and upon the structure of human memory and its paramaters. The template theory presented by Gobet and Simon based on the EPAM theory offers precise predictions on cognitive processes...

Seconds, anyone?

Scientists and journalists don’t always see the world the same way. A “first” often makes news. But in science, the “second” – that is the confirmation – may actually be more important. Journalists are like toddlers, though, when it comes to seconds. They often need coaxing. Consider two recent cases. First, Neanderthal DNA. Back in 1997, reporters made a bit of a fuss when scientists announced...

Gone in 60 Seconds :

The growth of Internet-based piracy has led to a wide-ranging debate over how copyright policy should be enforced in the digital era. In this paper we analyze the impact of the US government’s shutdown of a major piracy site — Megaupload.com — on digital sales and rentals of movies. Exploiting cross-country variation in pre-shutdown usage of Megaupload, we find that the shutdown of Megaupload a...

Pyrexia of unknown origin sixty years on.