Waking consciousness, altered states of consciousness, sleep deprivation and hypnosis. This PowerPoint addresses these issues and more in an investigation of consciousness.

This resource addresses how to establish a valid experiment that is methodical and repeatable. And it comes with a workbook that takes the stress out of preparation.

An appreciation of classical and operant conditioning is offered in this package along with a workbook that can be photocopied.

Neurons form neural pathways that communicate messages through the central nervous system. This multi-modal tool allows for an examination of the brain and its functions. It also comes with a workbook.

This PowerPoint presentation provides an introduction to psychology and six empirical research activities. Informative links to internet sites enable students to reaffirm or extend their learning by following up on information. The associated activity sheets assist students in consolidating their understanding of the information presented. This is an exciting and new way of learning allowing teachers the flexibility to teach in a classroom with a data show or in a laboratory where the notes keep students on task.

All work and no play leave Jack and Jill as dumb kids - it is also likely to make them socially inadequate, creating serious relationship problems in adolescence and later life. This programme identifies the major different types of play - solitary, parallel, associative and co-operative; provides illustrations of each type and outlines the benefits of a balanced and integrated programme of work and play.

Of all our senses, vision is the one that we depend on the most. This video explains and distinguishes the roles of sensation and perception in the process of vision, whilst emphasising continuity in the process. The three main groups of visual perception principles - constancies, Gestalt principles of perceptual organisation and depth or distance cues are identified and explained with reference to common examples. Our application of these principles in the work environment is explained and illustrated.

Finally, the concepts of 'perceptual set' and 'illusion' are addressed with explanations and illustrations.

Society is driven by our responses to the advertisements that assault us from every media source available. Probably the most effective, certainly the most brazen, are the campaigns of television advertisements.

The effectiveness of a persuasive message depends on its ability to influence peoples' attitudes. The likelihood of such influence depends on factors within the source of the message, and the medium of the message, and characteristics of the receiver. This video explains the psychological theory of the concept of 'attitude'. It demonstrates the way in which source, medium and receiver characteristics can influence the persuasiveness of a message, and it provides, for classroom use, practical exercises in analysis of some well-known television commercials.

There are two video tapes in this series. Both begin by outlining the basic approaches to research through naturalistic observation, controlled observation, controlled experiment, and questionnaire or interview. Each tape contains three examples of controlled experiments that are formally undertaken and presented by students.

An outline of how to correctly present a formal write up of an experiment concludes the tapes, along with a brief look at the issue of ethics when conducting experiments.

Measuring Individual Differences This activity provides students with an understanding of individual differences within a particular age group. An important aspect of this activity is that it provides students with an opportunity to practice organisation of data and the use of graphs in data presentation.

Conservation Skills in Children The second activity tests one aspect of the development of children's thinking - that is the skill of conservation. It is a very common experiment that illustrates one aspect of Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

Imaging and memorizing One aspect of cognitive functioning is the ability to learn new information. In the third activity, the ability to retain information learned under different conditions is addressed.

Measuring Auditory Thresholds The first activity concerns sensory perception. The basic function of any sensory system is to ascertain the changes in the external environment. Finding parameters at which a stimulus can be consciously perceived tests the limits of perception. For example, when does an individual first perceive sound, which is, in effect, the movement of air molecules?

The Muller Lyer Effect The second activity is the Muller-Lyer illusion. Experience has conditioned our senses to predict certain outcomes from particular stimuli. Sometimes, however, we are deceived and our perceptual systems will lead us to draw incorrect conclusions. When this occurs, we call this an illusion resulting from the inappropriate application of perceptual principles. The Muller-Lyer effect is the best known of these.

The Zeigarnik Effect In the third activity we study an aspect of memory, in particular, the ability to recall tasks or problems that have been interrupted as opposed to those that have been completed without interruption.