Psychology Demonstrations

See also: The Brain and Nerves

Psychology shows us that the mind is full of surprises. This category features eye-opening activities that challenge assumptions, reveal hidden biases, and uncover the science behind human choices. These demonstrations spark curiosity because they show that even our own minds can play tricks on us.

Demonstration	Materials	Difficulty	Safety	Summary
Asch Conformity Experiment	★☆☆	★☆☆	★★☆	This experiment explores how individuals may conform to group pressure, even when they know the group’s answer is incorrect. By recreating scenarios similar to Solomon Asch’s famous studies, participants can observe how social influence impacts decision-making.
Change Blindness	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	This demonstration presents two nearly identical images that alternate with one small change between them. Observers often take a long time to notice the difference, highlighting the limits of visual attention and the phenomenon known as change blindness.
False Memories	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	In this activity, participants listen to a list of related words and try to recall them from memory. Many participants will mistakenly recall a word that was not actually on the list, demonstrating how false memories can form through associations.
Inattentional Blindness	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	Inattentional blindness occurs when a person fails to notice something in plain sight because their attention is focused on another task. This demonstrates how limited attentional control can cause us to miss significant details in our environment.
Milgram's Obedience to Authority Experiment	★☆☆	★☆☆	★★☆	Students are given a series of increasingly unusual instructions during a normal class review. By observing who complies and who resists, the demonstration models the principles of Stanley Milgram’s obedience to authority experiment, which showed that people often follow questionable orders when they come from an authority figure.
Pavlov in the Classroom	★☆☆	★☆☆	★★☆	This demonstration shows how a neutral classroom cue (for example, a chime or clap pattern) can become a conditioned stimulus that elicits a predictable student response after repeated pairings with an instruction or routine. It connects Pavlov’s classical conditioning to practical classroom management by highlighting acquisition, extinction, and generalization.
Serial Position Effect	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	This demonstration shows that people recall items at the beginning and end of a sequence better than items in the middle. It illustrates how primacy and recency shape memory when information is presented in order.
Short-Term Memory	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	Participants try to memorize and recall a list of unrelated words within a short time frame, demonstrating the limits of short-term memory capacity. They then attempt a second list organized into categories, showing how chunking strategies can improve recall.
Simple and Choice Reaction Time Tasks	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	This demonstration compares simple reaction time (SRT) tasks, where there is one stimulus and one response, with choice reaction time (CRT) tasks, where multiple stimuli each require different responses. It shows how reaction time increases with task complexity, illustrating Hick’s law and the speed-accuracy trade-off.
Stroop Effect	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	The Stroop Effect is a demonstration of how conflicting information from reading and color recognition interferes with response time. When the name of a color is printed in a different color ink, people take longer to identify the ink color than to read the word itself.
The Bystander Effect	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	Students work in pairs to conduct a real-world field study on helping behavior. One student enacts a simple scenario of needing help, while the other records observer responses. The experiment explores the bystander effect, in which the likelihood of help decreases as the number of bystanders increases.
The McGurk Effect	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	The McGurk effect occurs when conflicting visual and auditory cues lead the brain to misinterpret what sound is being heard. By combining mismatched audio and video of a spoken word, students can observe how visual information influences auditory perception.
The Spacing Effect	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	Students hear words presented twice either back to back (massed) or separated by other items (distributed), then attempt free recall. Class results typically show better recall for distributed items, illustrating the spacing effect and motivating distributed study habits.
Learning New Skills Mirror Maze	★★☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	In this activity, participants trace a star shape while only viewing their hand’s reflection in a mirror. The task is repeated across multiple trials and days, demonstrating motor learning, memory, and adaptation as performance improves over time.
Rubber Hand Illusion	★★☆	★☆☆	★★☆	Students experience how the brain can be tricked into believing that a fake hand is their own. By synchronously stroking a hidden real hand and a visible fake hand, vision overrides touch and creates the illusion that the fake hand belongs to the participant.

Materials
★☆☆ Easy to get from supermarket or hardware store
★★☆ Available in most school laboratories or specialist stores
★★★ Requires materials not commonly found in school laboratories

Difficulty
★☆☆ Can be easily done by most teenagers
★★☆ Available in most school laboratories or specialist stores
★★★ Requires a more experienced teacher

Safety
★☆☆ Minimal safety procedures required
★★☆ Some safety precautions required to perform safely
★★★ Only to be attempted with adequate safety procedures and trained staff