Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Are there any science fair project about Optical Illusion?

ritagu,

I am so excited finally a request for a project related to psychology! Your project would relate under the study of perception within psychology. Optical illusions often are representative of a perceptual set, although there are many other forms of illusions as well such as a simple perceptual illusion. I would like to give you an example,in a popular image that contains a man playing a saxophone and a woman's face, is seen in one form initially. If I was to look at an several images prior to of saxophones, that would create a mental predisposition so I would initially view the man with a saxophone.

Here is the link to the image.
http://www.qualitytrading.com/illusions/saxwoman.html

Psychologists know a lot about how people respond to illusions already, but you would still be welcome to complete a project similar to the one I described testing perceptual sets. I could help you take it a step further to find some meaningful applications. If you are interested I can assist you on setting up a research plan and it would be fairly simple and great if your deadline is near.

I would actually encourage you to take this a much bigger step further. You can take fundamental concepts from optical illusions and make an experiment that studies perception in a real-life application. For example, creating a unique experiment that analyzes the effect of common schemas (past experiences) on one's perception.

I am trying to let you know that there are many areas of perception that you can create an experiment in. You might also want to search the American Psychological Associations Journal Database or find a psychology textbook and read more about perception.

Often times students do psychological experiments for science fair projects without any solid background information. If you read about perception generally and read about similar studies that have been done in your subject area; you will be much more successful. You will understand the research methods involved and the variables to control. I have judged a few science fairs and I often see students make incredibly false claims on a specific topic in which so much literature already exists.

Let me know what you are interested in studying or possibly testing. I am make sure you avoid common mistakes so you have an extremely successful and unarguable project.

- Travis Sigafoos

Travis Sigafoos,

i am interested in psychology such as people's influence on each other, i dont want the project to be too hard since im working with my friends and they are not that strong in science. we also have a time limite now because we dont have any time in class, and its hard for us to get together.

Do u have any science fair idea about social influence? if u do, please share with me

thank you so much for ur help


-- Rita Gu

Travis Sigafoos,

i was researching and i found out there is a "Asch conformity experiment"
here is an example - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRh5qy09nNw

i also want to add more to that such as having an other person which also give out the correct answer, or making the volunteer writing on a piece of paper

we will be recording his expressions and ask him some questions about his feeling during the experiment

this experiment will be carried out on different individuals

is there any suggestion u want to make? plz let me know

thank you

-- Rita Gu

ritagu,

I apologize for the delayed response. I think an experiment on conformity would be an excellent choice. It is a really interesting social phenomenon that would be fun to investigate and would peak the interests of many judges.

There are several pieces of information that I would like you to consider. An experiment of this nature has limited data that can be collected. Each subject would either conform or not conform; essentially a collection of data comprising of 'yes' or 'no' responses. I would suggest that you find a way to collect more data. Possibly testing the amount of time it takes for the subject to provide their response. You need to find out how exactly you will analyze your data. Also, it might be interesting to also give the subjects a personality test prior to the experiment.

Social psych experiments are notorious for being unethical as deception is involved in the experiment. You will definitely need some solid assent form from the parent/guardians of your subjects along with assent from your school. Make sure that your research is approved, possibly by a psychology instructor or school psychologist. Equally as important, you need to DEBRIEF your subjects as soon as the experimental testing is complete. They need to be told the ins and outs of the experiment and what exactly you were looking for.

Let me known if you decide on this experiment and organize a basic research plan. I can help you make sure that your human subjects are 'treated' properly and that your experimental procedure is solid. Remember that research plans also contain your plan of attack to analyze your data.

- Travis Sigafoos