Bird’s-Eye: How we think, and how we think about thinking, is the basis of philosophy, psychology, and religion. This week we have a trio of pieces that look at intelligence and thought. It appears, obviously in retrospect, that if you base your psychology theories on white western undergraduates, the conclusions may not be universally generalizable. The octopus takes a further stride forward as the most intelligent invertebrate we know of (giant squid being harder to get into labs), and Pema Chödrön has a marvellous two minute Vimeo video piece on how to solve your problems. Two minutes? All your problems? Yes, really.

* Psychology Studies Biased Toward Western Undergrads Scientific American

A group from the University of British Columbia recently published anenormous meta-analysis on the danger of assuming that all of humanity closely matches the behaviors of 20-something college students. They cite evidence that between 2003 and 2007 undergrads made up 80 percent of study subjects in six top psychology journals, and that 96 percent of all psychology samples come from countries that make up only 12 percent of the world’s population. They call this the WEIRD population—Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic—and say that they are the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans.

* Octopus Intelligence – Boston.com

TOOL USE: Octopuses will carry around two halves of an empty coconut shell and then hide inside them to avoid predators, a team of Australian researchers reported in late 2009. (Videos of this trick are easy to find on YouTube.) Tool use is considered a mark of cognitive sophistication; aside from humans, only a few creatures—including some primates, certain birds, and dolphins—have been shown to make and use tools. So far, the octopus is the only invertebrate known to manipulate tools..

* Pema Chödrön Omega Institute 2 minute video