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Cambridge Science Festival (7 - 20 March 2016) asks a series of fundamental questions related to our basic psychology and the choices we make during a packed series of events based on the latest research in neuroscience and psychology.
Events kick off with a talk by Dr Neal Lathia, a data scientist and entrepreneur. In his talk, ‘Happier and healthier with smartphone data’, Dr Lathia discusses how smartphone sensors can be used to track how people behave, and systems designed that use these inferences to help us all become healthier and happier.
Speaking about his event, Dr Lathia stressed that he does not think our smartphones will become our therapists. He commented: “Instead, they will empower us to become better therapists for ourselves. There is also a growing recognition that this data could help our clinicians understand us better and rely less on patients recalling their symptoms when providing care.”
Dr Jason Rentfrow from the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge explores a similar area in his talk on how technology helps us to better understand who we are and how we interact with others. In his talk, Dr Rentfrow highlights how practitioners use modern technology to accrue data, which then aids a greater understanding of our social interaction and behaviour. These methods include online psychological survey completion, which he states is hugely popular; digital footprints, such as people’s likes on social media and musical preferences on sites such as Spotify; and through the use of smartphone sensors, as described in Dr Lathia’s talk above.
Dr Rentfrow believes that this level of unprecedented data has tremendous possibilities for enabling us to learn much more about ourselves as an individual and collectively. He said: “For the user, this is simply helpful for them gaining a deeper insight on themselves. Whilst for the clinicians and practitioners it can help improve the services they provide. It also offers a new platform for them to interact with individuals.”
Understanding who we are provides us with a deeper understanding of how we make decisions, a topic that Dr Benedetto De Martino, from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge examines during his talk ‘What do you think you prefer in life: the secret of decision making’. Dr De Martino presents recent work investigating how our brains compute the values used to guide choice in the face of different sources of uncertainty. He focuses on value-based choices and those decisions that play a key role in our lives; ‘which investment should I make?’, ‘who should I marry?’ and ‘what should I eat?’
Dr De Martino believes, “A deeper understanding of the neural processes that underpin choice might shed light on why human decisions are so often imperfect. This in turn, will help policymakers and economists in designing new interventions and institutions to improve services for everyone.”
The choices we make in our relationships and who we choose to have a relationship with are examined during the second week of the Festival. The author of a new book, Attraction Explained, which was published last month, reveals the science behind how we form relationships.
Speaking about his talk at the Festival and his new book, Professor Viren Swami, Professor of Social Psychology from Anglia Ruskin University, said: “Science has come a long way in the past century in uncovering the factors that are known to facilitate relationship formation. I talk about geographic proximity – the idea that we are more likely to form relationships with people who are geographically and socially nearby. I also talk about the importance of physical appearance, particularly in the early stages of a relationship, but also highlight why being warm, nice, and kind are just as important. And I mention the theory of reciprocity – the simple idea that we like people who like us – and present evidence that the greater the degree of similarity between two people the more likely they are to form a relationship.
“We know from decades of scientific research – including some recent research of my own – about the factors that facilitate attraction. Having a better understanding of these factors can help us make better decisions about our relationships, but could also help to explain why things went wrong with our past relationships.”
Similar to our understanding of love is our grasp of what it means to be conscious – something we all experience but find difficult to explain. Philosophy professor Tim Crane and neuroscientist Dr Srivas Chennu, both from the University of Cambridge, delve into the mysteries of consciousness and awareness during their talk, ‘Brain, body and mind: new directions in the neuroscience and philosophy of consciousness’.
Speaking ahead of the event, Dr Chennu said: “Awareness and the presence of intent, both in everyday life and in the clinic, are inferred primarily through our behaviour. But what if you were aware but unable to express it?
“Modern neuroscience is uncovering rare but remarkable examples of such awareness in the so-called vegetative state, with profound implications. Using visualisations and data, I will highlight what current neuroscience research can tell us about the neural correlates of consciousness in health and disease. This understanding is helping us identify crucial brain networks that could support hidden awareness in some seemingly vegetative patients.”
Professor Crane believes that in order to find the neural correlates of consciousness, ie the events that must occur in the brain for consciousness to become manifest, we have to figure out what it is that we are trying to find the neural correlate of by asking what it means for something to be conscious?
Professor Crane and Dr Chennu will also examine whether robots could become conscious. This idea is examined during another event organised by Professor Barbara Sahakian that brings together speakers from the fields of information technology and robotics, including Dr Hermann Hauser, Dr Mateja Jamnik and Professor Alan Winfield, alongside neuroscientist Professor Trevor Robbins, to discuss the potential for supercomputers and machine learning to become superior to the human brain.
Further events during the Festival include a talk exploring the science behind out-of-body experiences. Dr Jane Aspell, Psychology lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, discusses the latest neuroscientific explanations for out of body experiences. She will explain why the science of this phenomenon can suggest theories of how brains create the everyday experience of inhabiting a body.
In addition, there are several drop in, interactive psychology events, including an event with Anat Arzi, from the Cambridge Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, who demonstrates olfaction experiments and the cognition behind it and busts some popular neuromyths along the way. Dr Will Harrison from the University of Cambridge will demonstrate optical illusions to demonstrate ‘how blind we really are’. Meanwhile, his colleagues from the Department of Experimental Psychology consider what we think when we think of nothing.
Dr David Greenberg from the University of Cambridge Department of Psychology discusses his work on what a person’s musical taste can reveal about their personality and how this can map onto five factors of personality and three different thinking styles.
During the final week of the Festival, Pictures of You, a play inspired by bipolar disorder, showcases and discusses the study and treatment of the disorder.
Since its launch in 1994, the Cambridge Science Festival has inspired thousands of young researchers and visitor numbers continues to rise; last year, the Festival attracted well over 45,000 visitors. The Festival, one of the largest and most respected, brings science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine to an audience of all ages through demonstrations, talks, performances and debates. It draws together a diverse range of independent organisations in addition to many University departments, centres and museums.
Further information can be found at: www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Cambridgesciencefestival
Twitter: @camscience #csf2016
This year’s Festival sponsors and partners are Cambridge University Press, AstraZeneca, MedImmune, Illumina, TTP Group, Science AAAS, BlueBridge Education, Siemens, ARM, Microsoft Research, Redgate, Linguamatics, FameLab, Babraham Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Napp, The Institute of Engineering and Technology, St Mary’s School, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge Junction, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, James Dyson Foundation, Naked Scientists, Hills Road Sixth Form College, UTC Cambridge, British Science Week, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge Science Centre, Cambridge Live, and BBC Cambridgeshire.
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