On Wednesday, May 23, Mr. Skivo’s psychology classes presented the annual CRN Psychology Fair. Students from all grades came to visit the exhibits in the auditorium during periods 3 and 7/8. Teachers and students alike enjoyed the many exhibitions on sensory perceptions, memory, social behavior, and many more psychological concepts.

Many psych students decided to create memory experiments to demonstrate different memory aids and obstacles. Senior Anna Lindvall and partner Andrew Rosse tested the effects of different types of music on memory when played during studying. Subjects tried to memorize a map of the Middle East while listening to classical tunes, post rock, or dubstep, and their effectiveness as memory aids follows in that order.

Aliza Heinicke and Amy Place presented several memory experiments for students to try. Subjects either read a story and tried to recall all correct details or tried to identify the correct penny from more than a dozen pictures of a penny. Surprisingly, few could identify the correct penny, even though the copper coins are seen everywhere. Most students, however, did well with the story test.

Other groups inveigled subjects to memorize words from a list in a limited time. Courtney Titus and Kara Magley even added a twist by introducing 30-seconds of interference time—subjects either performed jumping jacks or chanted the alphabet—before asking subjects to recall words from the list. Some students remembered all despite the half-minute delay, but most suffered due to the memory interference. The activities and subjects ranged far more widely than just memory studies, of course. Devon Bilyk and Rachel Rubin studied the relationship between facial expressions and their effects on emotion. Paige Weissman and Josh Goldberg tested random Wal-Mart shoppers’ tolerance when personal space was invaded. What’s their result? Most people took action within 15 seconds of the "space invasion."

AJ Garboski and Sarah Scheidell tested the phenomenon of sensory adaptation, while Dani Weiner and Taylor Steinberg went as far as to interpret horoscopes. Their intent, however, was to prove that ancient art’s ineffectiveness.

Other psychological concepts such as the Gorilla effect, the locus of control, conformity, and the Stroop effect were all presented and explained to the visiting audience members. Some groups brought candies and stickers to entice younger students to the psych games.

The purpose of the fair was to give younger students a taste of what psychology class is all about, and according to Heinicke, some underclassmen were indeed successfully enticed! Congratulations to all of the students who presented in the psych fair. They all did a wonderful job.