Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi, I have a science experiment coming up, me and my friend decided to do an experiment on how our senses link together to work, instead only one on one, and how people can get tricked,for example using the Mcgurk effect. This happens and you cannot control it, just like in virtual reality. We wanted to experiment that, and also an experiment on letting you see a fake hand, stroke both the real one and the fake one, and finally hitting the fake with a hammer and watch to see if people will get tricked, once again, without any control over it,even though you know its not real, like a virtual reality.
overall it seems a little rough and unplanned, or I feel as though they don't really link together well enough. Do you have any suggestions on what we should do to improve it somehow? And also if you think the 'Stroop effect' is related to this topic?
Thank you so much, we really appreciate it

Hello!
Sorry for the late reply, and thank you for your patience!
The Stroop effect is definitely related, though it focuses on visual processing only. This is because it studies how your color recognition makes it hard to read the words for a different color but both have to do with your sight! It sound like the experiment you are planning with the virtual hand and hammer challenges your vision and sense of touch. You want to see if people wince or recoil at the sight of the hammer, yes?

This sounds like a pretty good experiment to me! It's best to keep experiments specific, so adding anything more to it might make it too complicated. Stick with what you've got! But also, I'd recommend doing some research to find alternative reasons why someone might wince at watching a hammer hit a virtual hand. Could it be out of sympathy? How many test subjects wince and recoil without having their hand stroked/watching the virtual hand be stroked before? Having two groups (one with or without the stroking) may help to make sure it's their visual connection that's causing the response, and not something else.

Good luck!