Re-reading Lévi-Strauss: "The raw and the cooked" thirty years on

Another way in which a group presence can affect performance is social loafing—the exertion of less effort by a person working together with a group. Social loafing occurs when our individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group. Thus, group performance declines on easy tasks (Karau & Williams, 1993). Essentially individual group members loaf and let other group members pick up the slack. Because each individual’s efforts cannot be evaluated, individuals become less...

The human brain processes information for decision-making using one of two routes: an intuitive system and a rational system (Epstein, 1994; popularized by Kahneman, 2011 as System 1 and System 2, respectively). The intuitive system is quick, impulsive, and operates with minimal effort, relying on emotions or habits to provide cues for what to do next, while the rational system is logical, analytical, deliberate, and methodical. Research in neuropsychology suggests that the brain can only use...

Three-dimensional strain analysis is crucial for understanding how materials deform under stress, particularly in elastic, homogeneous materials. This method employs principal stress axes to simplify complex stress states into more understandable forms. Subjected to stress, a small cubic element within a material either expands or contracts along these axes, transforming into a rectangular parallelepiped. This transformation effectively illustrates the material's deformation. The principal...

The electron of an atom can be abstracted from a compound by a relatively unstable radical to generate a new radical of relatively greater stability. For example, an initiator which forms radicals by homolysis can abstract a suitable species like a hydrogen atom or a halogen atom from a compound to generate a new radical. This ability of radicals to propagate by abstraction is a crucial feature of radical chain reactions.
Even though homolysis produces radicals, it is different from radical...

Structuralism, an early psychological theory developed by Wilhelm Wundt and his student Edward Bradford Titchener, sought to dissect the human mind into its most fundamental components. Wundt's groundbreaking work in his laboratory set the stage for Titchener to define structuralism's goal as cataloging the "atoms" of the mind—sensations, images, and feelings—akin to how chemists identify elements of matter.
Titchener's approach to structuralism was unique. He employed introspection, a method...

Strain quantifies the deformation of a material under force, typically measured as normal strain, which represents the change in length when compared with the original length. Electrical strain gauges are used for enhanced accuracy. These devices consist of a conductive wire mounted on a paper backing that adheres to the material's surface. These gauges operate on the piezoresistive effect, where the wire's electrical resistance changes in response to mechanical deformation. The strain gauge...