Web cookies (also called HTTP cookies, browser cookies, or simply cookies) are small pieces of data that websites store on your device (computer, phone, etc.) through your web browser. They are used to remember information about you and your interactions with the site.
Purpose of Cookies:
Session Management:
Keeping you logged in
Remembering items in a shopping cart
Saving language or theme preferences
Personalization:
Tailoring content or ads based on your previous activity
Tracking & Analytics:
Monitoring browsing behavior for analytics or marketing purposes
Types of Cookies:
Session Cookies:
Temporary; deleted when you close your browser
Used for things like keeping you logged in during a single session
Persistent Cookies:
Stored on your device until they expire or are manually deleted
Used for remembering login credentials, settings, etc.
First-Party Cookies:
Set by the website you're visiting directly
Third-Party Cookies:
Set by other domains (usually advertisers) embedded in the website
Commonly used for tracking across multiple sites
Authentication cookies are a special type of web cookie used to identify and verify a user after they log in to a website or web application.
What They Do:
Once you log in to a site, the server creates an authentication cookie and sends it to your browser. This cookie:
Proves to the website that you're logged in
Prevents you from having to log in again on every page you visit
Can persist across sessions if you select "Remember me"
What's Inside an Authentication Cookie?
Typically, it contains:
A unique session ID (not your actual password)
Optional metadata (e.g., expiration time, security flags)
Analytics cookies are cookies used to collect data about how visitors interact with a website. Their primary purpose is to help website owners understand and improve user experience by analyzing things like:
How users navigate the site
Which pages are most/least visited
How long users stay on each page
What device, browser, or location the user is from
What They Track:
Some examples of data analytics cookies may collect:
Page views and time spent on pages
Click paths (how users move from page to page)
Bounce rate (users who leave without interacting)
User demographics (location, language, device)
Referring websites (how users arrived at the site)
Here’s how you can disable cookies in common browsers:
1. Google Chrome
Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
Choose your preferred option:
Block all cookies (not recommended, can break most websites).
Block third-party cookies (can block ads and tracking cookies).
2. Mozilla Firefox
Open Firefox and click the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
Under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, choose Strict to block most cookies or Custom to manually choose which cookies to block.
3. Safari
Open Safari and click Safari in the top-left corner of the screen.
Go to Preferences > Privacy.
Check Block all cookies to stop all cookies, or select options to block third-party cookies.
4. Microsoft Edge
Open Edge and click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions.
Select your cookie settings from there, including blocking all cookies or blocking third-party cookies.
5. On Mobile (iOS/Android)
For Safari on iOS: Go to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security > Block All Cookies.
For Chrome on Android: Open the app, tap the three dots, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies.
Be Aware:
Disabling cookies can make your online experience more difficult. Some websites may not load properly, or you may be logged out frequently. Also, certain features may not work as expected.
Dr. Emily Myers & Matt Phillips star on LingQuery! LingQuery is run by UConn students and is a show that asks – and attempts to answer – questions related to the language and communication sciences. LAB Lab PI Dr. Emily Myers dives into the many distinctions of speech perception on Episode 2: Speech Perception. Check […]
Our latest LAB Lab Digest is published! This special issue is brought to you by our fabulous high school Scholars sponsored by UConn’s Young Scholars Senior Summit. Alina Vo and Laelim Jung joined us for 3 weeks, in which they learned about what it means to be a speech scientist. The Digest features the interviews […]
Congrats to lab RA, Xinming Zhou, on getting her undergrad IBACS research award funded! She will be looking at how lifetime experience with accented speech affects people’s ability to perceive accented speech in noise. For more information regarding the IBACS undergraduate research grant program visit their website here!
After a semester break in the Fall, our lab’s digest is out! Check out what our newest edition covers: Bilingual Aphasia: What if a patient speaks multiple languages? A Temporary Normal: An inside look at aphasia support and therapy groups in a pandemic Language Learning: The importance of sleep and training when learning non-native speech […]
LAB Lab alumna Dr. Pam Fuhrmeister and PI Dr. Emily Myers have a new article in Brain and Language: “Structural neural correlates of individual differences in categorical perception”. Check it out here!
LAB Lab member Sahil Luthra, PI Dr. Emily Myers, and collaborators Dr. João M. Correia (University of Algarve, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language), Dr. Dave F. Kleinschmidt (Rutgers University), and Laura Mesite (MGH Institute of Health Professions, Harvard Graduate School of Education) have a new publication in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience titled “Lexical Information Guides […]
The lab welcomes three new members! -Phoebe Gaston joins us as a post-doctoral fellow in Psychology. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Maryland, College Park . Her dissertation was about the ways in which syntactic context impacts auditory word recognition, and at UConn she will begin research on how reliance on contextual […]
Please join us in congratulating LAB Lab member Hannah Mechtenberg, who will be pursuing her PhD in the Department of Psychological Sciences. Hannah will be starting her PhD journey this August 2020 where she will be focusing on the intersection of language processing and analogical reasoning.
Former LAB Lab PhD student, now doing their postdoc at the University of Potsdam, Pamela Fuhrmesiter, Brianna Schlemmer (LAB Lab affiliate), and PI Dr. Emily Myers have a new publication in Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research “Adults Show Initial Advantages Over Children in Learning Difficult Nonnative Speech Sounds.” Check it out here!