If given the opportunity, it goes without saying that nearly everyone would elect to improve their cognitive ability. At the same time, most people suffer from the misconception that intelligence is fixed. While this was the commonly accepted view for a long time, modern science has shown that it is entirely possible to get smarter. In fact, millions of people are already doing so. Continue reading
Here at WIP we’ve posted quite a few illusions that highlight how perception can be easily influenced by our past experiences, color, lighting, and other factors. This time we would like our readers to help us to conduct an interesting survey on how perception differs between individuals of different genders and age groups.
Question: What did you “see” when you first viewed the image above?
Please leave your answer in the comment section below, along with your gender and age range (less than 13 years old, 13-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50+ years old). Responses to the survey can also be made via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. The results of the survey will be published in one month!
All of us, at one time or another, have experienced what it means to be afraid. Fear is a normal feature of human existence and serves an adaptive function in that it triggers reactions which allow us to respond to danger or threat. At times, however, fear can become excessive, disturbing and out of proportion with reality. Persons who experience such abnormal fear are described as having a form of anxiety disorder known as a phobia.
The term phobia refers to an intense, irrational fear of a particular object or situation, whether real or imagined. The fear is so severe that it interferes with the individual’s daily functioning, restricting their activities and causing much distress. In many cases, individuals experiencing phobias recognize that their fears are irrational but feel helpless to control them. Continue reading
There have been countless experiments across numerous topics throughout the relatively short history of the science of Psychology. Among the multitude of experiments however, are those select few which have become landmark studies in the field. In the video above, we learn about some of these classic studies which, despite often being controversial and sometimes even unethical by today’s standards, paved the way for deeper insights into human behavior and the human mind.
As we continue to explore the biological basis of human behaviour, the focus shifts to the topic of sensation. In this lecture we examine the roles of stimuli and receptors, define key terms such as absolute threshold, sensory adaptation and just noticeable difference (JND), look at detailed structures of our major sense organs and discuss the different ways in which we experience the world through our senses.
