Yes, you probably remember it. That dress. That dress that split nations, that turned friend to foe. That dress that triggered the greatest debate of the 21st century. So, I will ask once again… What colour is this dress? For those of you who have been living under a rock and have not yet seen it, debate arose over what colour this dress is, with viewers unable to agree on whether the dress was black…
I wrote this essay as part of my A-Level EPQ. It was accompanied by an artistic portfolio demonstrating some of the principles I write about, and some examples of the art I write about. I have attached the images from the portfolio to accompany the writing. It is quite colloquially written, rather than an academic essay. I have reviewed it and updated where appropriate. Every day, everywhere we look, we see it. We scrutinise it,…
Given the current lock-down situation, many of us now have a lot of time on our hands. So what better time to try out a few little experiments on your co-confined friends or family. We can test the limits of our ethics at a later date… but for now we can try this simple, iconic study with a few household items: Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist with rather questionable ethics, was researching salivation in dogs.…
I am a perfectionist… I am a MASSIVE perfectionist. When you are a perfectionist, everyone tries to help by saying ‘perfection isn’t attainable’, ‘nobody’s perfect’, ‘it’s already perfect’, and other well-meaning but somewhat useless phrases. But here in Human Behaviour for the Mathematically Minded, I am going to try to look at and explain perfection in a different way. So when we think about the pursuit of perfection, we generally think of it as quite…
The American Psychological Association defines Psychology as ‘the scientific study of the mind and behaviour’. Yes, I know exactly how ambiguous that sounds. I may as well have said ‘Psychology is the study of all that is, has and will be’ in a wisened, mystic voice whilst stroking my beard… But in a sense, it is. The word Psychology is derived from the Greek word ‘psyche’ (meaning spirit or soul) and suffix ‘-logia’ (study of).…