My projects boring... help!!
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My projects boring... help!!
I'm doing a science fair project on the Bouba-Kiki Effect. Right now all i have for my project is a plan to have twenty cards with the two different shapes and then get people to name which shape each one is. I got help from another part of this site on how to put down all my information and stuff but my project still seems just a little bit boring. How could i make it more interesting?
~melzer93~
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EmilyDolson
- Former Expert
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Hi Melzer,
While the Bouba-Kiki effect has some fascinating implications, I can see how merely demonstrating its existance could be a bit of a bland experiment, depending on your age, and the level at which you are conducting this experiment (school project? Science fair?). Did you choose this project because you are really interested in the concept? If so, you may be able to spice it up by trying to get closer to the heart of the matter and examining some of the more fundamental questions. Trying to figure out whether we automatically link certain sounds with certain shapes, regardless of predeveloped language would be an incredibly advanced and difficult project. A somewhat more doable project could involve trying to figure out some properties of a sound that make it remind people of a certain shape (do certain letters sound "pointier," for instance). You could also find a new and interesting group of people to perform the original experiment on, such as people with dyslexia or another language-related syndrome. If you were to do a project like that, it would be a good idea to also perform the same experiment on a group of people who aren't part of the group that you are studying (for instance, people who don't have dyslexia, if you were studing those who do).
If you don't have a particular interest in this subject, you may also want to consider looking for one that has more appeal to you personally. There are a lot more in the same place that this one was. The most important thing in any science project is that you are personally invested and interested in it.
I hope that helped! Feel free to ask if you have anymore questions.
- Emily
While the Bouba-Kiki effect has some fascinating implications, I can see how merely demonstrating its existance could be a bit of a bland experiment, depending on your age, and the level at which you are conducting this experiment (school project? Science fair?). Did you choose this project because you are really interested in the concept? If so, you may be able to spice it up by trying to get closer to the heart of the matter and examining some of the more fundamental questions. Trying to figure out whether we automatically link certain sounds with certain shapes, regardless of predeveloped language would be an incredibly advanced and difficult project. A somewhat more doable project could involve trying to figure out some properties of a sound that make it remind people of a certain shape (do certain letters sound "pointier," for instance). You could also find a new and interesting group of people to perform the original experiment on, such as people with dyslexia or another language-related syndrome. If you were to do a project like that, it would be a good idea to also perform the same experiment on a group of people who aren't part of the group that you are studying (for instance, people who don't have dyslexia, if you were studing those who do).
If you don't have a particular interest in this subject, you may also want to consider looking for one that has more appeal to you personally. There are a lot more in the same place that this one was. The most important thing in any science project is that you are personally invested and interested in it.
I hope that helped! Feel free to ask if you have anymore questions.
- Emily
Reach for the stars and, if you miss, grab the moon!