High School, Human Behavior Science Projects (23 results)
If you're interested in learning more about how people think, what motivates them, how well their memories work, or any other of the fascinating things that make us human, then you're in the right place!
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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.
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.
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…
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.
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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.
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…
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.
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The Science Buddies project Design Your Own 3D Printed Optical Illusion shows you how to make your own 3D printed "anomalous mirror symmetry" illusions (Figure 1). The illusions are based on the work of Dr. Kokichi Sugihara. You can read his original paper about the illusions in the Bibliography.
Figure 1. Two versions of the "impossible arrow" shape that appears to point to the right while its reflection in the mirror appears to point to the left. Which…
How do you feel when a friend comes too close to you? How far away or close do you think is necessary to have a conversation with someone? The answers to these questions are dependent upon the size of your personal space. Some people like to be within a foot of each other when having a conversation and others feel that being 3 feet apart is still just a little too close for comfort.
Personal space is defined as the protective area surrounding a person's body (not necessarily spherical in…
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This is an interesting experiment that explores certain aspects of how your brain pays attention. In this project, you'll have to recruit a bunch of volunteers to take a simple test: naming a list of printed shapes. What makes the test tricky is that words will be printed on top of the shapes. The word/shape combination creates the potential for the brain to get conflicting information. Which information is more likely to grab your attention: the shape you are supposed to name or the word just…
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