Project: Online Wisdom Lab (OWL)
If you have ever formally studied psychology, one thing probably stood out: the subjects of the studies you read about were nearly always college students. A forthcoming set of apps hopes to change that.
The Online Wisdom Lab at the University of Birmingham is developing a series of surveys and games to learn about changes in thinking skills, decision making, and health behaviour during adulthood.
“We currently have no idea how our thinking changes as we progress through adulthood, the time when we make many of the most important decisions of our lives,” says Lily FitzGibbon, one of the researchers involved in the project. “To tackle this obvious gap in our knowledge, we’ve designed an app full of tests and questionnaires to see how and when changes happen as we get older and wiser.”
The project is being funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK, and the apps are due to be launched in May of this year. If you live in Birmingham, you can check out a number of events taking place ahead of the launch to generate interest. Otherwise, you can check out the Facebook page and Twitter feed for the project to get a notice when the project launches.