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Andy Aoki discusses influence of vice presidential picks

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Andy Aoki
Andy Aoki

WCCO TV recently sought counsel from Andy Aoki, professor and department chair of political science at Augsburg College, to answer a question about how much a presidential candidate’s vice president selection influences voters.

“How Much Does The Vice President Pick Matter?” was the focus of the recent Good Question segment.

Aoki provided a straightforward answer.

“It doesn’t usually matter a lot,” he said. “The vice presidents tend to get a lot less attention, so it’s not that easy for people to make their pick based on them because you don’t know much about them.

Read and watch the Good Question segment on the WCCO site.

Andy Aoki helps answer WCCO’s “Good Question”

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WCCO - logoWCCO recently sought counsel from Andy Aoki, professor and department chair of political science at Augsburg College, to answer a viewer’s question about the timing of the New Hampshire Primary and the Iowa Caucus.

“Why do Iowa and New Hampshire vote first?” was the focus of the recent Good Question segment.

Aoki provided a straightforward answer.

“Today, they’re first because they want to be,” he said before explaining the history of the events in more detail. The segment goes on to explain how the advent of television turned the previously ignored New Hampshire primary into a nation-wide media spectacle. This prompted the state to pass a law requiring that they remain the first to select a candidate.

How did Iowa end up voting earlier? “Technically, New Hampshire is the first primary and Iowa is the first caucus, so they’ve worked out a little agreement,” Aoki explained.

Read and watch: Good Question: Why Do Iowa & New Hampshire Vote First? on the WCCO site.

Bridget Robinson-Riegler answers WCCO ‘Good Question’

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Professor Bridget Robinson-Riegler spoke with WCCO-TV about how humans recall their memories for the news station’s Good Question segment. Robinson-Riegler, who teaches in the College’s psychology department, explained to television viewers that its common for individuals to have mismemories. She commented that memories are not like tape recorders in that people replay them exactly as they happened. Instead, memories are reconstructed, so when the brain encodes memories, it encodes different pieces of different events.

“When we go to recall it, we piece together different aspects of events,” Robinson-Riegler said. “It’s not just the event that happened we’re trying to remember but other events similar to it.”

Watch “Good Question: How Do Our Memories Work?” to learn more.