Phonological Loop is a podcast about Sciency Silliness. Or maybe it is Silly Scienceness.

The inspiration for the name of this podcast comes from Alan Baddaley's (old) model of working memory, and its description of neural resources devoted to engaging audition. In other words, there's a part of your attention that you can devote to either listening or speaking, but not both at the same time. That's just a cool idea, we think.

But we also took inspiration from the fact that Baddeley's work was part of a long process of discovery in cognitive science. As a model, it does a decent job of describing some phenomena, such as the allocation of really specific resources, but it does a crummy job of describing other things, like how working memory gets turned into long-term memory. Science works like that. It's a process of describing things the best you can at any given moment in time, figuring out where you're wrong or where you're knowledge is insufficient, and then pushing forward into new territory. That is a fitting analogy for what we are doing in this podcast. We try to explain things to each other that we only just barely understand in the hopes that we can get a better grip on reality. This is a conversation that we started when we met back in 2000, and it hasn't ended yet. Take a listen, and if you like, contribute your own ideas/feedback.

Adam is a student of music (and life) at Portland State University (and the world at large). He has played in several bands, including Big Orange Splot, Polite Fiction, his own Heroes and Villains, and currently Happy Otherwise. He enjoys science and logic and beer and food. For fun he drives cab.

Dave is a student of human-computer interaction and education research (and life) at Carnegie Mellon University (and the world at large). He used to be a musician until he found his true calling in pursuing the art of ignorance as an academic aspirant. He enjoys research and video games and the sound of his own voice. For fun he naps.

They were once in a band together.