The Science of Human Behavior, Measured.
Every summer, thousands of Georgian school-leavers sit the Unified National Examinations, rank the university programs they want, and are placed according to their scores. The results are a goldmine of data about what students want, what they can access, and how a whole academic field is structured. This year I pulled together the numbers for … Read more
Think about what happens when someone tells you they went to a restaurant. You don’t need them to explain that they were seated, looked at a menu, ordered from a waiter, ate, paid, and left. You already know all of that. You have a mental template, a script for how a restaurant visit unfolds, and … Read more
Imagine a test where the questions you see depend on how well you’re doing. Get an item right, and the next item gets harder. Get it wrong, and the next one gets easier. The test calibrates itself to you, in real time, item by item, narrowing in on your true ability with each response. This … Read more
Imagine you’re a researcher in Tbilisi. You’ve designed a study, collected your data, run your analyses, and you’re ready to write up your findings. You go to read the latest literature on your topic – and you can’t. The paper you need is paywalled. Your university doesn’t have a subscription to that journal. The article … Read more