Why is it that we often have an uncontrollable urge to yawn when we see someone else yawning? It happens all the time, but most of us have no idea why we do it – it occurs completely automatically. Interestingly, this phenomenon doesn’t just occur in humans, it has been shown in primates too (Anderson … Read more
This week’s post is inspired by some conversations I had over Halloween which got me thinking. Why are faces everywhere at this time of year (think carved pumpkins and ghost masks), and what makes them scary? Last year I wrote about the science behind horror movies and why we find things creepy. But what is it … Read more
Today’s post is about something I find really interesting, partly because it’s something which affects me – number form synaesthesia. I’ve mentioned this before in my post on types of synaesthesia (to read more click here) but it’s something I’ve wanted to find out more about. To recap, and for those of you who haven’t … Read more
Creativity – why does it come naturally for some, but others struggle to use their imagination? What are the best ways to encourage creativity and how do you be more creative? These are just some of the questions I’ve got about creativity, and I’d love to know how to beat the creative block. Read more … Read more
I realised earlier today that whilst I’ve written several posts about memory, for example this one, about the different types of memory, the link between smell and memory, whether our memory is trustworthy, and about those with perfect memory syndrome, I’ve never actually written a post about the opposite – forgetting. Why is it that … Read more
The Placebo Effect: a psychological effect in which a treatment which contains no active medical substance causes an improvement in symptoms. For example, a participant in a trial takes a sugar pill believing it could be real medication and find their back pain goes away. This effect has been well documented and is relatively well … Read more
Epilepsy is a neurological condition characterised by repeated seizures. Seizures are caused by electrical activity in the brain, although may appear differently from person to person (not all seizures involve convulsions, despite what you might think). As with many conditions there is not a single cause that can be identified as a precursor to epilepsy. … Read more
I’m sure this has happened to you before – you’re walking down the street and you smell something that takes you back to a holiday, or a time when you were younger. It could be the smell of a sweet shop or someone’s perfume, and you are taken straight back to a moment from years … Read more
It has been argued that faces are a special type of stimuli, which we are able to process easier than other items in the environment. For example, young infants prefer to look at features forming a face, rather than scrambled features (e.g., Johnson & Morton, 1991), which suggests that we have this enhanced ability to process … Read more