Prof of Psychology, U of Canterbury; On the origins of mathematics: https://xitter.cf/t.co/guJsGlhFO1 Mathematical and Spatial Cognition Research Lab @MathSpatCog
University of Canterbury
Joined September 2011
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I’m pleased to share that our article on the origins of arithmetic, just published in Psychological Review, has been selected as an @APA’s Editor’s Choice article (open-access link below). Here’s a thread about it (1/17)
@mathematics @mathcogsociety
psycnet.apa.org/psycarticles…
I'm pleased to be giving a talk as part of the University of Canterbury's Raising the Bar series on 15 September 630pm. My title is, 'Why does 2 + 2 = 4? (Hint: The answer may surprise you!)' It's @Botanic on 125 Oxford Terrace
rtbevent.com/randolph-grace
@UCNZ @MarsdenFund
AI should be deployed in universities to reduce the proportion of budget spent on admin and non-academic services - not to make teaching more 'efficient' by cutting positions. The proportion spent on teaching and research should increase. This should be a KPI for management
This is why I don't like Foucault - everything about this is wrong! As human beings, our search for truth, justice, knowledge and beauty is inherent in our nature. Yet Foucault seeks to deny all this - why?
Ludwig van Beethoven
The Arietta of Opus 111 is the closest thing to a mystical experience in classical music
youtube.com/watch?v=a_rcA5cs…
Gödel proved that within mathematics, there is truth beyond the reach of any formal system. Something analogous happens if we try to explain math 'from the outside': Math must result from human cognition, but where does the child’s mind that first conceives of numbers come from?
At age 25, Kurt Gödel proved there can never be a mathematical “theory of everything.” In this week’s Qualia column, @nattyover asks experts how his ideas changed the course of humanity’s unending search for truth. quantamagazine.org/what-do-g…
Has anyone else noticed that strategic plans always need 'pillars' now? According to Google Trends, this is a very recent phenomenon!
It suggests QS maintains a ‘pecking order’ that limits the changes in rankings. What are the implications? Students should do their own research on Unis they are interested in, and ought not to view changes in scores or rankings as necessarily reflecting changes in quality.
(7/x)
The year-on-year changes are highly correlated! Scores for almost all Unis increased from 2023 to 2024 and then again from 2025 to 2026. Overall the % of shared variance is 83.3% - much more than would be expected be if these scores were independent.
(4/x)
Congratulations to @RBodeker58583 who's just published an article in The Conversation on the implications for treatment of methamphetamine addiction of her PhD research with rats. Well done, Rebecca!
theconversation.com/3-in-4-m…
There have been so many tributes to David Lynch, well out of proportion to his commercial success as a director. This is very heartening because it shows that people instinctively value an artist with an authentic vision.
...let me add mine (1/2)
The problem with this decision is that the deepest questions, those most likely to lead to breakthroughs, are interdisciplinary. The humanities are relevant for science because all knowledge is connected.
That's why we have universities (1/2)
Today, I announced that the Marsden Fund would no longer be used for the humanities and social sciences. It is returning to its original purpose to fund science. beehive.govt.nz/release/mars…
