Photo report: Hacking brains in Psychology

Hallways, a basement and closed doors behind which small rooms hide, each with their own purpose – the laboratory areas in the department of Psychology are easy to see as a basic illustration of our brains. And just like in our brains, in the department of Psychology, more is happening than meets the eye. Everyone knows about the EEG caps full of electrodes to measure brain activity. But over the course of the years, psychologists have developed all sorts of laboratory areas to conduct research into the various functions of our brains. These new areas owe much to the renowned Groningen professor Gerardus Heymans, who put experimental psychology in the Netherlands on the map a century ago.

The experiments and simulations are sometimes deceptive, however. This is evident from the story of the test subject who had to make a call from the driving simulator to test the impact of telephone use on driving behaviour. After the call, she threw her phone on the passenger seat – or so she thought. Because the seat wasn’t actually there, of course...

^{(Photos: Elmer Spaargaren. Many thanks to Mark Span, DataLab Psychology, for his contribution.)}