Tania Lombrozo
Tania Lombrozo is a contributor to the NPR blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture. She is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as an affiliate of the Department of Philosophy and a member of the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Lombrozo directs the Concepts and Cognition Lab, where she and her students study aspects of human cognition at the intersection of philosophy and psychology, including the drive to explain and its relationship to understanding, various aspects of causal and moral reasoning and all kinds of learning.
Lombrozo is the recipient of numerous awards, including an NSF CAREER award, a McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award in Understanding Human Cognition and a Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformational Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science. She received bachelors degrees in Philosophy and Symbolic Systems from Stanford University, followed by a PhD in Psychology from Harvard University. Lombrozo also blogs for Psychology Today.
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Tania Lombrozo looks at a new paper arguing that research on the public's understanding of science often conflates knowledge and understanding — and that this conflation has costs.
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People see the causes of mass shootings differently, depending on whether they own guns. Those who don't own guns often blame such incidents on the widespread availability of guns — but owners do not.
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Not all feelings of curiosity are the same. A study finds that one factor affecting the balance of negative and positive when it comes to curiosity is time, says psychologist Tania Lombrozo.
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In the child's world of Twenty Questions, it's pretty easy to evaluate what makes a good question. But producing good questions in the real world can be a more complicated affair, says Tania Lombrozo.
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A new paper delivers a clear verdict on computers in the classroom — but a variety of important questions remain open, like how they interfere with student learning, says psychologist Tania Lombrozo.
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Failures of imagination go both ways — not only to the future, but also to the past — and recognizing our limitations in envisioning the past brings humility and humanity, says Tania Lombrozo.
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Science research on Christmas offers tips for those who celebrate — and some general lessons about family, gift giving, communication and community for all, says psychologist Tania Lombrozo.
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It turns out the science of bicycles is surprisingly complex and only partially understood, falling under the "Illusion of Explanatory Depth" phenomenon, says psychologist Tania Lombrozo.
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Psychologist Tania Lombrozo looks at a new paper that finds an association between cognitive style — intuitive or analytic — and beliefs about evolution.
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A biological trait's heritability can change over time. Commentator Tania Lombrozo explains how genetic influences and environmental variations play together.