Buzz
The stereotypical view of a psychological experiment often features a bearded figure showing inkblots to a person lounging on a couch or contemplating the journey of rats through a maze. But dig a little deeper, and you'll uncover much darker studies, such as the Milgram or Stanford Prison experiments. Psychology, in fact, can become even stranger.
Here are 10 psychological experiments that might be new to you...
10. Brain Hacking
Almost every bank and website warns users not to write down their passwords, advising that they should instead keep them securely stored in their minds. However, this advice might not be as safe as it seems. By using an EEG (electroencephalogram) cap, researchers can identify a P300 response—a significant surge of brain activity triggered when we recognize something. It may appear harmless at first, but imagine recognizing your phone number, credit card details, address, passwords, and more. By correlating these brain spikes with what you're viewing, a malicious individual could easily uncover sensitive information you'd prefer to keep private.
To make matters worse, other scientists have developed a prototype glucose fuel cell that could be placed in your cerebrospinal fluid, drawing power from it to run a small computer or sensor. If someone were implanted with both a P300 sensor and a fuel cell, personal data could be extracted without the person ever realizing they were under surveillance.
9. Animal Mind Control
At Harvard, researchers have created a brain-to-brain interface that detects specific brainwaves when a person views a particular pattern. These brainwaves can then be transferred to a rat through targeted ultrasound. By directing the ultrasound at a specific area of the rat's brain, the human can cause the rat's tail to twitch. It may not be a grand display of ‘mind control,’ but it showcases the potential of this technology. There's even speculation about performing the procedure in reverse, though being controlled by a rat doesn’t sound particularly enticing.
A more invasive technique has been tested on sharks, specifically dogfish, a small species of shark. By manipulating their sense of smell, researchers can guide the shark. Since sharks rely on scent to locate food and mates, activating the brain area responsible for scent detection can steer the shark toward the source. By attaching a camera to a remote-controlled shark, it could serve as a biological drone, potentially useful for naval espionage.
8. Remote Killing
The rise of drone warfare has prompted ethical debates about the morality of remote-controlled missile strikes and their psychological impact on operators. Researchers from California State University, Northridge, studied people's willingness to (allegedly) kill ladybugs using a remote-controlled machine. Participants were told the device was used to produce dyes or biological samples and were asked to operate it. The device, a conveyor belt, fed boxes of 'ladybugs' into a grinder. In one scenario, participants were in the same room as the machine, while in another, they controlled it remotely through a Skype call.
Those who believed they were operating the machine from a greater distance were more inclined to 'kill' more of the harmless creatures and reported experiencing fewer negative emotions, such as guilt, after the experiment. To clarify, the machine didn’t actually harm any insects, but it provided valuable insight into how distance from the subject can influence a person's emotional connection to a moral dilemma.
7. Split Brain
A radical treatment for epilepsy involves severing the corpus callosum, the bridge between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Psychologist Roger Sperry conducted a series of experiments on eleven individuals who had undergone this procedure.
Human brains are cross-wired, meaning objects seen in the right field of vision or held in the right hand are processed by the left hemisphere. Sperry used a tachistoscope (a wooden frame with a focal point suspended in the middle) for his participants to focus on. He then presented various objects or symbols to either the left or right visual field. When shown again, either in the same or opposite field, participants would only recognize the objects if they appeared in their original visual field.
In a follow-up experiment, participants' vision was completely blocked, forcing them to use their hands to explore an object. It was found that participants could describe objects held in their right hand (processed by their left brain) through speech or writing. However, when the same objects were held in the left hand, participants could only guess or deny holding anything. Even more remarkable, Sperry had each participant hold an object in each hand before burying both hands in a pile of other items. Despite this, each hand was able to locate the object it had held, recognizing it by touch. It was as if two distinct people were sharing one body.
6. Animal Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy is a condition that causes extreme drowsiness and the sudden onset of muscle atonia—the paralysis of skeletal muscles during REM sleep—triggered by emotional experiences. As a result, individuals with this disorder may collapse and become temporarily paralyzed, even from meeting someone they like.
Less commonly known is that narcolepsy also affects animals. At Stanford University, researchers studied a colony of narcoleptic dogs, with the animals collapsing when they encountered each other or were presented with a treat. Though it might appear to be a setup for viral videos, the dog colony had a scientific purpose. These dogs were instrumental in modeling the disorder and were even used to help explain and demonstrate narcolepsy to young sufferers.
5. False Witness
Psychologists Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer were fascinated by the accuracy of human memory. Their study was grounded in Bartlett’s schema theory, which suggests that a person's pre-existing knowledge can influence their memory. To test this theory, they showed participants videos of traffic accidents and then asked them how fast they thought the cars were moving. The key difference in their method was altering the verb used in the question for each participant. For example, they asked, 'When the car 'smashed'...' versus 'When the car 'contacted'...'
The results revealed that the verb used in the question influenced participants’ speed estimates. More intense verbs, such as 'smashed,' led to higher speed estimates. In a follow-up experiment, 150 participants watched another traffic accident video and were then asked one of three questions: 1. 'How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?' 2. 'How fast were the cars going when they smashed each other?' 3. No question was asked.
A week later, the participants were asked several follow-up questions, including 'Did you see any broken glass?' It was found that those who had been asked the 'smashed' question were significantly more likely to report seeing broken glass, despite watching the same video as others.
4. LSD
With the support of the Beckley Foundation, psychologists administered LSD to 20 participants on one day and a placebo—such as plain table salt—on another to compare the effects. Brain scans were taken to observe how LSD affected brain activity.
It turns out the classic 'open your mind' phrase may have more truth to it than we thought. The findings from the study revealed that LSD seemed to enhance the 'connectedness' of the brain, allowing normally independent areas to interact with each other. The visual cortex, in particular, appeared to become hyperactive, possibly explaining some of the vivid hallucinations reported by LSD users.
Interestingly, this, along with a review of other LSD studies, suggests that the drug might have therapeutic potential for treating certain mental health conditions.
3. Primate Junkies
In this peculiar study conducted in the 2000s, researchers put a monkey in a stressful environment to observe whether it would choose food or cocaine. The monkey was placed in a cage surrounded by other unfamiliar monkeys, meaning it was physically secure but surrounded by aggression as the other monkeys fought for dominance.
The monkey was then given the choice between two levers: one dispensing food, the other cocaine. Monkeys with lower social status in their own groups were more inclined to choose cocaine, while the more dominant monkeys, who were less stressed, typically opted for food.
Other studies have shown that monkeys can become addicted to substances like morphine, caffeine, and more. In fact, this monkey cocaine habit may not be as unusual as it seems—wild animals have been known to engage in substance abuse as well. Many animals, given the opportunity, seem to enjoy consuming fermenting fruits.
2. Sleep Deprivation
Numerous psychological studies have examined the effects of sleep deprivation. A review of these studies found that sleep deprivation significantly harms both working memory and attention. Additionally, it appears that younger individuals are less resilient to the effects of sleep loss.
It's often claimed that sleep deprivation can be fatal, but it turns out humans have a built-in defense mechanism called a 'microsleep.' These brief moments of sleep, typically unnoticed by the sleeper, help mitigate some of the negative effects of sleep loss. Unfortunately, other animals don't have this safety net—numerous studies have shown that dogs and puppies subjected to forced wakefulness develop brain lesions and can die within weeks.
1. Foster Monkey
Psychologist Harry Harlow set out to explore the effects of social isolation on monkeys. He provided infant rhesus monkeys (who had been separated from their mothers at birth) with a choice of two surrogate mothers—one made of metal mesh with a milk bottle attached and the other made of soft, warm terry cloth. The monkeys spent significantly more time with the cloth mother, even though it didn't provide milk. They only visited the wire mother when they were hungry.
In subsequent experiments, Harlow found that infant monkeys raised with the wire surrogate rather than a comforting figure would develop socially impaired behaviors as they grew. This, along with his other research, has led to his studies being widely regarded as ethically controversial.
