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Cute Cat Photos Are Data-Driven Science Behind Cunning New Language Learning App
An anonymous reader writes "Cats are cute, and cute is good for cognition. Which is why Memrise, a language learning startup, settled on using lolcat-style cat photos as mnemonic aids for a new series of apps aimed at people who normally wouldn't bother learning another language. The first CatAcademy app is 'Cat Spanish' From the article: 'What we found, however we sliced it, was that pictures of cats — cute pictures specifically, of which over 50% were cats — just kept on coming out as the most effective mnemonics... I have to admit we were slightly skeptical to begin with. We're a scientific group, and data driven — but the data did drive us towards cats.'"
Now, just to add cat pictures to Mnemosyne.
I can has espanol?
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
I read it as "cube sat photos"...
"We're a scientific group, and data driven — but the data did drive us towards cats."
I assume they've excluded all other explanations including toxoplasmosis...
Ezekiel 23:20
Page after page of goatse?
Yeah, most of you cannot even edit your posts.
[Edit] changing you're to your
I, for one, am glad that we are not on dotchan.
I was like, enough people hack those they can get some useful data?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Why are so many of the people in Disney cartoons drawn as animals? They have human minds and emotions, and move as humans, but with animal bodies. Clearly this is appealing or disarming for some reason, but I can't quite think of why.
Cats can be trained. You need to let your cat know that waking up the human is not acceptable behavior.
My cat will sit on the bed and wait for me to awaken. It knows that rule #1 is: "Under no circumstances are you to wake up the male human."
I, for one, am glad that we are not on dotchan.
I resemble that comment.
- dotancohen
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Is your cat waking you up to get fed?
My cats used to do that and I got tired of it, so I set my phone to ring a particular ring tone at feeding time. It took them three meals at most to connect the breakfast/dinner bell to breakfast/dinner, and now they never hound me for food at all. They will gather around when the time nears, but they don't start clawing at my legs or batting my face while I sleep. They wait patiently, hear the bell, and run to the kitchen.
Also, one thing that keeps them happy, is to play with them for about 15 or 20 minutes before dinner -- cats are wired to hunt, kill, eat, groom, sleep. This works really good at keeping down fights between cats because they're all so satisfied.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Cat pictures make the best meow-monics?
Mine has a constant supply of food, only gets something extra at dinner time but still insists on waking me up as soon as the sun rises. I think he just likes the attention.
Pretty Pussies Train Cunning Linguist
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.