Human Behavior Science Projects (Page 3)

AI Hyperrealism: Do AI Faces Look More Real Than Human Faces?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Artificial intelligence (AI) programs can now generate photorealistic pictures of people who do not exist in the real world. How can you tell if a picture is of a real person or a fake, AI-generated person? What features of the picture do people use to decide whether the face is real or AI-generated? In this project, you will explore these questions as you ask volunteers to look at both real and AI-generated pictures of human faces. 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

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

Candy Confusion: Can Small Children Mistake Medicine for Candy?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Many medicines come in bottles with special child-proof caps so that small children can't accidentally open the bottle and eat the pills. To a small child who can't read the label, the pills might look just like candy. What cues do we use to tell the difference between medicine and candy? At what age can we tell them apart? This project can show you how to find out. 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

The Bouba-Kiki Effect

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever wondered if some shapes have certain "sounds" to people, even if they have different native languages? For example, does everyone match certain physical characteristics, like sharpness or roundness, with certain sounds? Are there certain human sounds with meanings that can cross the language barrier? In this science project you will investigate this by testing the Bouba-Kiki Effect—will it turn out that abstract visual properties can be linked to sound? Read more

Does a Cell Phone Conversation Affect Reaction Time?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Does talking on a cell phone make one a more dangerous driver? Here is an experiment you can do to investigate whether reaction time is adversely affected by a simultaneous phone conversation. Read more

Improving Focus for People with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever wondered how you could help yourself or your classmates focus or perform better in class? Many students do! Some kids diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental disorder learn better in different ways, and easy changes while performing a task can make a huge difference to them. In this science project, you'll test if standing can significantly improve your performance and if this further improves performance for those who have neurodevelopmental disorders. Read more

Racial and Gender Bias in AI-Generated Images

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

If someone asks you to draw a picture of a doctor, lawyer, or engineer, what first pops into your mind? The race and gender of the person you imagine might be shaped by your personal life experiences, such as whether you have family members in those professions, or what representations of them you have seen on TV or online. What do you think will happen if you ask an artificial intelligence (AI) program to generate the picture instead? Will pictures generated by AI reflect the true real-world… Read more

It's Written All Over Your Face: The Science of Facial Expressions

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Okay, now you've done it. You goofed off, didn't study for your math test, and didn't do well. Mom and Dad are not going to be happy. In fact, they might even be angry. They don't say anything when they see your test, but you can tell from their faces that they are angry. But how can you tell? How can you tell if someone is angry, or happy, or sad? The answer is that you have learned how to tell someone's emotional state from his or her facial expressions. Are facial expressions of happiness or… Read more

Human Behavior Science Projects (54 results)

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