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Middle School, Experiment in Psychology Science Projects (31 results)

Explore the psychology of human behavior, why people act the way they do, or cognition, how people learn. Observe volunteers in experiments, collect data about your own senses, or conduct a survey.

Simple Lie Detector Test
Science Fair Project Idea
Scientific Method
Have you ever watched a great sports player and imitated his or her moves over and over again? Or have you ever felt really bad when someone got hurt or things just weren't going his or her way? If so, you might be surprised to learn that you have been practicing skills closely tied to lying! In this science fair project, you'll discover how your brain gets a workout when it moves from truth-telling to lying, and how you can detect the shift. That's no lie! Read more
Warped Words and the Stroop Effect
Science Fair Project Idea
Scientific Method
The Stroop effect describes an experiment about the time it takes to name the color of printed words. When you try to name the color in which color words are printed, it takes longer when the color word differs from the ink color than when the color word is the same as the ink color. This project is an interesting variation: what happens if you 'warp' the words into a curved shape that is harder to recognize as a word? Will the Stroop effect still happen? How 'warped' do the words have to be in… Read more
Do You Hear What You See?
Science Fair Project Idea
Scientific Method
Have you ever wondered how virtual reality works? With virtual reality, people feel like they are in one place while knowing they are somewhere else. In this project, you will show the same phenomenon on a smaller scale. You will use the McGurk effect to show how you can hear one sound, while knowing a different sound is physically there. First, you will produce such an experience using audio and video, and then measure the strength of the phenomenon. Read more
What Conflicting Mental Tasks Reveal About Thinking: The Stroop Effect
Science Fair Project Idea
Scientific Method
Can you pat your head with one hand while you rub your stomach with the other? This science project idea is kind of like doing that, but this project can actually give you some insight into how your mind works. The task is to name colors. It sounds simple enough, but see what happens when color words get in the way. Read more
Exploring the Uncanny Valley
Science Fair Project Idea
Scientific Method
What do you consider creepy? Clowns? Zombies? Video game characters with jerky movement? In 1970, a roboticist by the name of Masahiro Mori suggested that people are "creeped out" by robots that are almost, but not exactly, humanlike. He called this phenomena the uncanny valley. But researchers are still exploring and defining the uncanny valley. In this science project, you can do your own exploration—just try not to creep your friends out too badly! Read more
Are Composite Faces More Attractive than Real Faces?
Science Fair Project Idea
Scientific Method
Psychologists have long studied why people find certain faces more attractive than others. One interesting method used in this area of research is mixing several faces together to make a composite face. The composite face averages the input faces, so that small, non-symmetric features tend to get lost. In this human behavior science project, you will use an online tool to make composite faces, and determine how they compare to real faces in perceived attractiveness. Read more
Piaget's Theory of Conservation: When One Cup of Water is Less Than One Cup of Water
Science Fair Project Idea
Scientific Method
Having a younger brother or sister can be a real chore. They can get into your things and mess up all your stuff. But have you ever thought that when younger siblings do this kind of thing, they are actually learning about the world around them and how to interact with their environment? Every day, a young child's brain is getting new information about his or her environment and developing ways to organize that information. Learning about and understanding this conduct is the study of human… Read more
Testing the Accuracy of Eyewitness Testimony
Science Fair Project Idea
Scientific Method
Think back to the last time you went to the grocery store. How well can you describe the person who was ahead of you in the check-out line? How many details do you remember about the person? How accurate do you think your memory is? Here is a project to investigate the accuracy of people's observations during everyday life. Read more
The Brains Behind 'Where's Waldo?'
Science Fair Project Idea
Scientific Method
What makes you notice someone in a crowd? Why do some things stand out, while others melt into the background? In this science project you can investigate the psychology of how things get noticed, by studying how our brains perform a visual search. Have you ever looked and looked desperately for something? It is so frustrating! The classic example is when I lose my keys. You would think that by now (knowing that I am the kind of person who often loses my keys) I would have a huge, bright red… Read more
Multitasking: Brain Drain or Boost in Efficiency?
Science Fair Project Idea
Scientific Method
Think it's a good idea to plug into iTunes, surf the Web, or watch TV while doing homework or trying to read? Lots of people do it and claim that jumping from one activity to another keeps their attention level up and even gives their brain some time to "relax" between the more challenging tasks. Just how efficient is multitasking? In this project, you'll find out after testing the ability of volunteers to successfully do two or more things at once. Read more
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