Akira Miyake

@amiyake.bsky.social

4035 Followers 284 Following

Professor @ CU Boulder. 🇯🇵 Self-regulation of thought, behavior, & motivation (e.g., procrastination, self-control, mind-wandering, repetitive negative thinking, habits). Improving student learning. 1st-gen. A proud cat daddy🐱 Go Seattle Mariners 🔱

A graph summarizing the results of the Loftus & Palmer (1974) study, indicating that the estimated speed of the cars varies as a function of the verbs used in the questioning (e.g., contacted, hit, bumped, collided, smashed). The graph is from this site: https://www.earlyyears.tv/loftus-and-palmer-1974-car-crash-experiment/
Visual illustrations of variations in the "jaggedness" of individual profiles across multiple dimensions of a single overarching construct like size (left panel) or intelligence (right panel). These illustrations are from Todd Rose's (2016) book, "The End of Average" (Chapter 4: Talent Is Always Jagged).
A table of the 10 measures Gilbert Daniels collected from 4,063 Air Force pilots about their physical characteristics (e.g., height, chest circumference). He computed the mean/SD for each measure, determined the "average" range for each (in his case, approximately the middle 30%), and tried to see how many of the 4,063 pilots were in the average range for all 10 body measurements. The answer: 0. This table lists the means, SDs, and average ranges for the 10 measures.
A thumbnail illustration for Fight Procrastination Day (September 2025), taken from Holiday Today (https://holidaytoday.org/fight-procrastination-day). This picture features a man lying on a couch in the center, and you see a fist on the right bottom corner representing a need to fight against inaction.
A figure from Simply Psychology illustrating Big Five personality traits: agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. This figure comes from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/big-five-personality.html
A cute tabby cat (= my girl, Tiger) is walking on a narrow wooden fence separating two backyards (mine and my neighbors). The cat is looking at the camera, with her tail up, indicating that she's enjoying an evening late summer cool weather.
A brown fox is heading into a bush from a concrete-paved path. It has a fluffy tail with a white-colored tip.
The course description for PSYC 7215: Exploring Idiographic Approaches to Cognition, which features a cover of the book by Todd Rose (2016), The End of Average.
Two gray tabby cats lying right next to each other in the shade on the balcony and enjoying the fresh air. One of the cats' paw is on the other cat's paw, making it seem like they are holding hands.
The title/abstract page of the PNAS NEXUS article by Linda Hagen & Ed O'Brien, entitled "Lost time undermines return behavior."
The title/abstract page of the European Journal of Personality article by Modersitzki, Phan, McDonald, Wright, & Renner (2025), titled "Personality psychology is getting personal: Advancing the field through personalization."
The title/abstract page of the European Journal of Personality article by Rauthmann, Phan, Kuper, Modersitzki, & Quirin (2025), entitled "Integrating nomothetic and idiographic in personality science and beyond."
Figure 2 of the Drody, Pereira, & Smilek (2025) Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, entitled "Attention in our digital ecosystem: The five interactive components that drive media multitasking." This figure illustrates how the components proposed in this article (cognitive architecture, dispositional, metacognitive, task valuation, & environmental) contribute to not only INTER-individual but also INTRA-individual differences.
A screenshot of the top portion of the abstract submission page for the website for the forthcoming Symposium on Individual Differences in Cognition, to be held on November 20 in Denver, right before the Psychonomic Society meeting.
The title & table of contents for the latest volume of the Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (2025, Volume 72) for the chapter by Michael Inzlicht, Aidan V. Campbell, & Blair Saunders, entitled "Effort paradox redux: Rethinking how effort shapes social behaviors" (pp. 1-55).
A course description for PSYC 7215: Exploring Idiographic Approaches to Cognition (to be taught by Akira Miyake, University of Colorado Boulder, in the Fall 2025 semester). The blurb includes an image of the front cover of the popular press book by Todd Rose, "The End of Average."
A gray tabby cat is still on an opened suitcase, making it difficult for the owner to unpack.
The "Did you know?" entry for the verb "indite" in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary. Taken from: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indite
Ichiro Suzuki is standing near the 3rd base in a baseball park (then called the Safeco Field), looking at the opposing team’s pitcher. His name (Ichiro) and his number (51) are visible on his back. This picture was taken in 2009.
The opening page of the Annual Review of Psychology article by Traci Mann and Andrew Ward (2025), entitled The Self-Control of Eating. https://tinyurl.com/bdnebw79 (open access)
Caitlin Mahy (left) and I (right) are standing next to each other in front of a tree in a yard at a vegetarian restaurant in Utrecht (a conference dinner site).
A gray tabby cat is sitting inside a suitcase and intently looking at the owner as if to say “please don't go”
The animated video abstract for the Isparta et al. (2025) article published in Current Biology, entitled Lateralized Sleeping Positions in Domestic Cats. No spoken words in this video, and the explanations are provided in text format in the video.
An excerpt from the interview piece published at Nature.com, featuring biologist Tatsuya Amano, entitled Breaking language barriers: 'not being fluent in English is often viewed as being an inferior scientist.' This except says the following: What single thing would you change about the way science is done? Until now, science has viewed non-fluent English speakers through a deficit lens, focusing solely on what is lacking in those individuals. I want to change that perspective, so that these people are viewed through an asset lens instead. Being a non-fluent English speaker means that you have an extra skill: you can bridge different communities, and you also have unique perspectives, ideas and views.
Before/After Pictures of My Cat (a tabby cat), Hunter Left: A picture of Hunter (~4 months old) curling up on a round bed, a few days after being adopted. Right: A picture of Hunter taken on his 4th birthday (today), sitting on the same round bed.
The first page of the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review article on the McGurk effect, entitled "Variability and stability in the McGurk effect: Contributions of participants, stimuli, and response type," by Basu Mallick, Magnotti, & Beauchamp. Some parts of the abstract are highlighted, and here are the highlighted texts: "We observed dramatic differences both in how frequently different individuals perceived the illusion (from 0% to 100%) and in how frequently the illusion was perceived across different stimuli (17% to 58%)." "there is little change in the frequency of the effect between initial testing and a one-year retest ([...]; test-retest correlation, r = 0.91)." "Our results highlight the importance of examining individual differences in McGurk perception instead of relying on summary statistics averaged across a population."
Fig 6 of the Amano et al. (2023) PLOS Biology paper. This figure provides examples of potential solutions to reducing disadvantages for non-native English speakers in each type of scientific activities: (a) supervision/collaborations; (b) universities/institutions; (c) journals; (d) funders; and (e) conferences. For conferences, the recommendations include: (a) publish proceedings in multiple languages; (b) establish a "buddy" system to support non-native English speakers; (c) promote multilingual presentations; (d) develop linguistically inclusive guidelines.
Fig 5 from the PLOS Biology paper Amano et al. (2023) Figure title: Estimated disadvantages for non-native English speakers when conducting different scientific activities. Figure description provided in the Amano et al. paper: The height of hurdles indicates the relative length of time taken to read an English-language paper (Reading), to write a paper in English (Writing), and to prepare an oral presentation in English (Presentation), and the relative frequency of an English-language paper being rejected (Paper rejection) or requested to revise (Paper revision) due to English writing, for non-native English speakers (Non-native), compared to native English speakers (Native). The values are for non-native English speakers who have published only one English-language paper (higher value from moderate and low English proficiency nationalities), compared to the values for native English speakers. This figure is not intended to suggest that science is a race.
Two huge bowls of bingsu (or bingsoo), a frozen dessert that originated from South Korea, made with sweet milk flavored shaved ice. One of the bowls has sliced strawberries as the main topic, and the other features matcha (green tea) power w/ sweet red been paste. Both have some mochi (chewy rice cakes) on top as an additional topping.
A tabby cat (one of my cats, Tiger) is sitting comfortably in a container whose inside is bumpy, uneven, and seems rather uncomfortable.
A screenshot of a news article from Daily Beast, published on June 21, 2025. The headline, printed in bold and in big font, is structurally (syntactically) ambiguous: Trump Lists Reasons He Deserves Nobel Prize in Epic Meltdown
The cover of Maryellen MacDonald's (2025) book, entitled "More Than Words: How Talking Sharpens the Mind and Shapes Our World" (published by Avery).
Some diagrams that I had created as an alternative or supplement to Diagram B but didn't publish in any of my papers. This one (C) has a panda shape.
A bi-factor model of executive functions that includes a general factor called Common EF (Miyake & Friedman, 2012)
Adele Diamond’s model of executive functions (EF). The model includes three basic EFs: inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. As defined by Diamond, these constructs are much broader than the corresponding concepts we proposed in our work: inhibition, updating, and shifting (e.g., Miyake et al., 2000; Miyake & Friedman, 2012). Despite this important difference (& several others), many researchers (especially, developmental researchers) mix up our view and Diamond’s view. I find this very unfortunate, and we should have something to prevent other researchers from use these terms for the component EFs interchangeably.
The title & abstract of the 1995 Psychological Review article, entitled "Long-Term Working Memory," by K. Anders Ericsson & Walter Kintsch
A world domination map entitled "Ananas versus the world" (created by r/MapPorn & posted on reddit). This map provides a detailed, color coded summary of countries where most people call pineapple "ananas" and those where they don't.
The procedure and the stimuli for the sentence recall demo, based on Potter & Lombardi's (1990) study published in the Journal of Memory and Language. The first slide graphically illustrates the demo procedure, and the second slide provide the stimuli (i.e., the stimulus sentences & five filler words, one of which interferes with students' memory of the original sentence).
A table summarizing how 42 different languages call a fruit known in English as "pineapple." Only English uses that word, and the other 41 languages uses a variation of "ananas."
A picture of a bottle of a cologne sitting on a window sill. The bottle says "fcuk," short for French Connection UK.
A cat (one of my cats Tiger) is intently staring at a thin, white packing strap on a chair, getting ready to pounce. (Not shown in this picture: the other cat, Hunger, who is 2 years younger than Tiger, is patiently waiting for his turn.)
Slides that accompany my in-class dichotic listening demo
Information sheet for the in-class dichotic listening demo I give in my own cognitive psychology class. It provides the passage I use for this demo, along with some instructions & tips.
A "thrival" (survive + thrive) guide I created for my introductory cognitive psychology class, modeled after one created by @reganargurung.bsky.social‬.
TOP: A slide summarizing S.F., an undergrad at Carnegie Mellon University, who learned to memorize a long sequence of digits after extended practice. BOTTOM: The 22-digit sequence S.F. successfully recalled for the first time during the training process. The shared audio file shared in this post documents this successful recall experience.
The instruction page of the task switching demo slides that involves color or shape judgments.
The overview of the slides for the pegword method demo (remembering 10 celebrities in the order presented, using a mnemonic technique known as the pegword method).
A visual illustration of the simple procedure to follow to induce Buddha's ear illusion without using balloons: (1) Pinch the earlobe; (2) Pull down & slide in the midair; (3) feel earlobe stretching! (From Kodaka & Sato, 2024).
The description of the study's significance for the PNAS paper by Fisher et al., entitled "Lack of group-to-individual generalizability is a threat to human subjects research."
The abstract of the Hulleman et al. (2025) article published in Advances in Motivation Science, entitled "From student to system change: The evolution of utility-value intervention." The yellow highlights were added by me for emphasis.
The summary of the blood type/personality association that many Japanese people believe in. This chart is from JapansePod101.com.
The table of contents for the July 2025 issue of the Sage journal, Teaching of Psychology, on artificial intelligence and the teaching of psychology.
A feline participant taking part in a citizen science project on cats' ability to recognize illusory contours (Kanizsa illusion), conducted by Gabriella Smith @explanimals.bsky.social. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105338
The title, author information, & abstract of Kievit et al. paper, entitled "Simpson's paradox in psychological science: A practical guide."
Pictures of "feline scientists" participating in a "citizen science" study testing whether cats would fall for an optical illusion known as the Kanizsa contour illusion.
Figure 1 of the 2023 PNAS paper by Musfeld, Souza, & Oberauer, entitled "Repetition learning is neither a continuous nor an implicit process." Te figure shows that the aggregated data (panel A) and the data from four individual subjects (panel B) tell different stories.
The abstract for the 1998 Child Development article by Adolph, Vereijken, & Denny, entitled "Learning to Crawl"
The abstract for the 2002 Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience article by Miller et al., entitled "Extensive Individual Differences in Brain Activations Associated with Episodic Retrieval Are Reliable Over Time"