Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a famous American TV show that aired from 1997 to 2003 for seven seasons. The show follows the main character Buffy Summers, a high school student who is also a chosen vampire slayer. She has been given the power and responsibility to fight against vampires, demons, and other supernatural beings that threaten the world. Buffy and her friends navigate … [Read more...] about Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 2 Episode 22 Allegory on Queerness and the Coming Out Experience
Afrofuturism
Eyewitness Testimony – Part 2
In the last blog, I elucidated factors in the acquisition and storage of memories that can impact their accuracies. In this blog, I intend to discuss factors in memory retrieval that can lead to false memories. A very well-known incident of mistaken identity is Jennifer Thomson’s identification of Ronald Cotton as her rapist (The Perfect Witness). After giving police a … [Read more...] about Eyewitness Testimony – Part 2
Face Filters: Augmenting or Losing Reality?
After acquiring Looksery, a specialized face-tracking technology from Ukraine, Snapchat introduced the first widely used set of “Lenses”- AR face filters that merged the user’s real world with the digital world inside their phone. They have since been pioneers in the AR filter scene, and even democratized filter creation with the release of their desktop app Lens Studio in … [Read more...] about Face Filters: Augmenting or Losing Reality?
Nature vs. Nurture
One of the biggest questions for psychologists revolves around the idea of innate or learned traits. Are our behaviors and personality traits influenced by our genetics (nature), or do we learn them as we grow (nurture)? How we answer this question will greatly impact the types of treatments we provide for psychological disorders. The answer is still up for debate, but here are … [Read more...] about Nature vs. Nurture
Eyewitness Identification – Part 1
Eyewitnesses are one of the most relied upon pieces of evidence in the trial process. Most jury members do not understand the limitations of eyewitness testimony, and they rely upon it as “fact”. Memory doesn’t function like a video camera: it is malleable and can be influenced by a lot of outside factors. Unlike eyewitness testimony, DNA is conclusive. The Innocence Project … [Read more...] about Eyewitness Identification – Part 1