human perception library

Human Perception deals with the way the mind perceives the stimuli around you. Learn how your senses function and help you recognize your environment.

How to Make and Repair Camping Equipment

Featured Article: How to Make and Repair Camping Equipment

Prepare for your next camping trip by learning how to make and repair camping equipment. This article gives tips for repairing a tent making a tarp and resoling hiking boots. Helpful illustrations are included. See more »

Can a person remember being born?

Can a person remember being born?

You may vaguely remember scratching your chicken pox at the age of 3, but do you remember the moment your body burst into the wide open world? Most likely not.

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Can I take a drug to wipe out one particular memory?

Can I take a drug to wipe out one particular memory?

Researchers at New York University's LeDoux Laboratory have successfully deleted a single, targeted fear memory using drug therapy in rats. Their results show that the removal of one memory from a rat's brain did not affect other memories there.

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Can people feel the pain of others?

Can people feel the pain of others?

Is there any truth behind the idea of sympathy pains? Mirror-touch synesthesia causes people to feel touches and pains that others experience.

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Have scientists found a way to read your mind?

Have scientists found a way to read your mind?

A study published in February 2007 shows that through brain scans and corresponding computer software, researchers are able to read people's intentions with great accuracy. Find out how they did it and what it means for the future of "private thoughts."

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How Colorblindness Works

How Colorblindness Works

Roses are red, violets are blue -- well, bluish. The sky is blue, too. Grass is green. These are things that most of us know for a fact and don't question. But what if you were colorblind? What would you see? Is life one long black-and-white movie?

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How Flavor Tripping Works

How Flavor Tripping Works

It might be called flavor tripping, but there are no drugs involved. People pop a berry known as miracle fruit and marvel as sweet becomes sour and savory becomes sweet. What is this magical berry? How does this "miracle" happen?

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How Food Cravings Work

How Food Cravings Work

As you surf the Web, your mind is distracted by the thought of warm cookies floating in cold milk. Will this craving ever subside, or do you need chocolaty satisfaction ASAP?

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How Smell Works

How Smell Works

Smell is a basic sense, but scientists are still exploring how it works. Why are researchers, developers and even government agencies so curious about smell? What makes a seemingly simple sense so tantalizing?

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How Taste Works

How Taste Works

Taste might seem like the simplest sense. But we know much less about taste than we do about sight and hearing. Why is taste so mysterious? And what on earth is umami?

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Top 10 Myths about the Brain

Top 10 Myths about the Brain

You only use 10 percent of that big gray mass of wrinkles -- unless you listen to Mozart. At least, that's what HowStuffWorks has heard about the brain. But how many commonly held beliefs are just plain wrong? (Answer: 10.)

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Why do loud noises cause your ears to ring?

Why do loud noises cause your ears to ring?

Back away from that speaker, turn down that iPod and put down that power tool unless you want the ringing in your ears to remain permanent. Sound can hurt you, and that ringing may be the first sign.

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How does the sense of smell work? What causes a smell?

What causes smell? When I walk into a bakery, I smell the bread. What actually has happened? Do objects give off pieces of matter? What has entered my nose to cause the sensation of smell?

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How many senses does a human being have?

We've all heard of a "sixth sense" and extra-sensory perception. So how many ways can we actually sense the world around us?

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How to Test Your Memory

Finding out what shape your memory is in should be the first step in trying to improve it. Test your memory to find out if those memory glitches are normal.

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