Alexander R. Toftness is a science communicator and creator of the YouTube channel ARTexplains Science and History. If you agree that Everything is Interesting!—then you've come to the right place!

Science Communication and Academic Publications

Video Showcase

Where Does The Belly Button Go?

Here's a question you probably didn't know you wanted to know the answer to... Where does the belly button go? The scar that makes up your navel used to be a very big deal for your body, supplying you via the umbilical cord with oxygenated blood. But now? What is the belly button even good for? Does the belly button connect to anything on the inside?

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

Common in young people with migraines and seizures, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is an unusual collection of symptoms. People may experience macropsia and micropsia, in which things appear larger or smaller than they are supposed to be. People may have bizarre perceptions of time and their own bodies. Let's explore this strange disorder in this episode of The Ways Your Brain Can Break.

Can people make their own vitamin B12?

If you don't eat animal products, you have to get your vitamin B12 from somewhere else. What's really strange about that is that your body actually makes its own vitamin B12. So why can't you just use that? People make their own vitamin B12, but badly. Allow me to explain!

Shouting At A Severed Ear: The Invention of Recorded Sound

Hey Artizens, when I mention the invention of recording sound, you probably think of Thomas Edison’s phonograph. And while that’s all fine and groovy, I’m here to make sure you hear the truth. Because not only was Edison's phonograph not the first successful attempt to record sound waves, but that honor might more fittingly belong to an unknown dead guy’s severed ear. Allow me to explain.

Abstinence Only Education Doesn't Work

Shouting At A Severed Ear: The Invention of Recorded Sound

Aphasia - Broken Language - The Ways Your Brain Can Break

Imagination Blindness - Aphantasia. The Ways Your Brain Can Break

Willpower - How to stay motivated by structuring your environment

The Caffeine Wyrm

They Named a Human Body Part After Me!?

Amnesia Types: Failures of Memory. The Ways Your Brain Can Break

Can Bringing Nature into Space Protect Astronauts?

Be Thankful if You're One of the Ones Awake

The Overview Effect | Can We Simulate the Overview Effect on Earth?

Anosognosia: Disorder Blindness. When the Paralyzed Think They Walk. The Ways Your Brain Can Break

Radithor | The Killer Radioactive Energy Drink

Sleep Facts That Will Keep You Up At Night

Uncontrolled Limbs - Alien Hand Syndrome. The Ways Your Brain Can Break

Will English be the Language of Space Travel?

The Problem of Knuckle Cracking

Word Blindness - Pure Alexia

Motion Blindness - Akinetopsia

Forgetting Colors - Achromatopsia

Skull Bumps: The History of Phrenology

Reading Your Mind with Disgust - Detecting Political Parties

How To Be A Great White Shark

The Clever Hans Effect: A Mindreading Horse?

Do Heads Briefly Survive Decapitation?

Dr. Cotton's Insanity Cure - Focal Sepsis

Anhedonia: How Depression Tricks your Brain and How to Fight Back

The Hot Hand Fallacy: Is Sports Scoring Random?

The Sickness of Faking Sickness: Munchausen and Malingering

The Ancient Philosophy of Bloodletting

Dueling: A Sensational History - ARTexplains

ARTexplains Animals That Do Drugs

ARTexplains The Lost Empire of Yam: 300 Asses and 1 Dancing Pygmy

Five Deadly Poisons Children Used to Play With!

Lobotomies, Terrors of Psychosurgery! ARTexplains

What is Stockholm Syndrome? ARTexplains!

ARTexplains The Gambler's Fallacy

ARTexplains The Halo Effect

Academic Writing (Journal Publications)

The effect of prequestions on learning from video presentations

Carpenter, S. K., & Toftness, A. R. (2017). The effect of prequestions on learning from video presentations. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 6(1), 104-109.

Published by Elsevier Inc.

Science Direct (PDF)

The limited effects of prequestions on learning from authentic video lectures

Toftness, A. R., Carpenter, S. K., Lauber, S., & Mickes, L. (2018). The limited effects of prequestions on learning from authentic lecture videos. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.

Published by Elsevier Inc.

Instructor fluency leads to higher confidence in learning, but not better learning

Toftness, A. R., Carpenter, S. K., Geller, J., Lauber, S., Johnson, M., & Armstrong, P. I. (2017). Instructor fluency leads to higher confidence in learning, but not better learning. Metacognition and Learning, 1-14.

Published by Springer

Research Gate (PDF)

Effects of lecture fluency and instructor experience on students’ judgments of learning, test scores, and evaluations of instructors.

Carpenter, S. K., Northern, P. E., Tauber, S., & Toftness, A. R. (2019). Effects of lecture fluency and instructor experience on students’ judgments of learning, test scores, and evaluations of instructors. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

Published by American Psychological Association

The Xander ligament? Caution advised when using online encyclopaedias

Ledger, T., & Toftness, A. R. (2020). The Xander ligament? Caution advised when using online encyclopaedias. Journal of Anatomy.

Published by Anatomical Society

Study strategies and beliefs about learning as a function of academic achievement and achievement goals

Geller, J., Toftness, A. R., Armstrong, P. I., Carpenter, S. K., Manz, C. L., Coffman, C. R., & Lamm, M. H. (2017). Study strategies and beliefs about learning as a function of academic achievement and achievement goals. Memory, 1-8.

Published by Taylor & Francis

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