Written by Rebecca Perrott In the ever-evolving world of neuroscience, one term stands out as a beacon of hope and fascination: neuroplasticity. It represents the extraordinary ability of our nervous system to adapt and optimize its limited resources in response to external signals. Picture this: our brains, the epicentre of our thoughts and actions, have the power to rewire themselves, forging new connections and generating fresh neurons. Isn't that mind-blowing? Neuroplasticity, in essence, refers to the remarkable capability of the nervous system to alter its activity in response to both i ..read more

Written by Mélissa Amrioui Humour is a powerful tool that can influence memory, mental health and even the way we perceive the world around us. The phenomenon referred to as the humour effect is a cognitive bias that causes people to remember information better when it is funny or humorous. In addition to improving memory, humour has numerous positive effects on our physical and emotional well-being, such as heart rate, task persistence and mood. The Humour Effect and Mental Health For centuries, philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle have been trying to understand the nature of humour. Tod ..read more

Written by Rebecca Perrott As a new year comes around one can’t help but place an array of declarations upon themselves to eat healthier, exercise more frequently, or work harder than ever before. The mantra of ‘new year, new me’ echoes from all four corners of the world. This global phenomenon occurs as we realize that our previously set goals were dismally reached. Yet come January first, our aspirations get reworded and a new – yet familiar – sense of momentum crescendos. New Year’s Resolutions New Year’s resolutions have been around for centuries, dating all the way back to Ancient Babylo ..read more

Written By: Isabella McKay Years of blinded consumerism have resulted in major damage to our Earth, resulting in many bleak events, such as melting glaciers, deforestation, and the ozone layer, to name a few. Specialists continue to urgently research new strategies to combat this catastrophic situation. While consumers are going to continue to consume, encouraging the consumption of products that do a little less damage to the environment is one solution worth exploring. This strategy is known as ‘green marketing What we already know about climate change Mayday, mayday! We are going into pani ..read more

Written By: Rebecca Perrott From a young age we are taught to be confident, helping us get out of our comfort zones and experience new things. “Fake it till you make it”, they said. The key to success is rooted in confidence. Which is true to a certain extent, but our confidence can also be deceiving. Confidence is the feeling or belief that instils faith or reliability in someone or something. It is a quality we use to assign certainty to our abilities, self-awareness as well as trust. Thus, confidence is an important factor in decision making and risk assessment as well as a measure of succ ..read more

Written By: Christina Colledani In today's day and age consumers are exposed to more advertisements than ever before. Given this widespread reality, it is now ever more challenging for companies and agencies to develop commercials that generate genuine connections with their target audiences. Therefore, coming up with methods to measure the efficacy of an advertising campaign is an important concern for companies and advertising experts. More than half a century ago, a conceptual model referred to as the ‘Hierarchy of Effects’ (Lavidge and Steiner, 1961) was originally introduced to interpret ..read more

Written By: Beth Poultney Are you, YOU, when you’re hungry? Probably not. A tummy rumble can inspire fury, I’m sure you’re familiar with the term ‘hangry’. Hunger has the ability to turn a spriteful sunny morning into an angry hulk kind of afternoon. We’ve all got a sibling with the audacity to devour our leftover chicken nuggets, right? No human can suppress that overwhelming anger fueled by an empty stomach. Hunger can lead to a variety of uncontrollable emotions. Such as sadness, frustration, and even anxiety. As much as we don’t like to admit it, at the end of the day humans are just anima ..read more

Written By: Archana Ravi Imagine you are at the movie theater. You just bought your ticket and now decide to get some food for the movie. You want to buy popcorn and there are two options to choose from: a small popcorn for R30 or a large popcorn for R90. Which one would you choose? The small size or the large size? We have all been here before. We love popcorn, but the large option is so expensive, that we stick to the smaller option at a more reasonable price. Now consider this scenario. Imagine that there are three popcorn options instead of two: A small for R30, a medium for R80, and a l ..read more

As much as we wish it were the case, our brains can not store every piece of information that we encounter. In fact, the brain has to be selective about exactly which memories are worth keeping and which can be discarded. While this saves time and energy, it may be particularly frustrating to us when we cannot remember where we left our keys that we had in our hands minutes ago,but the “Bathroom Bizarre” jingle seems to be playing on a loop in our heads for days on end. How the brain decides which memories to store and, further, which of those memories are easier to recall, is critical knowle ..read more

What did you have for lunch last week Tuesday? Okay, maybe that’s a tough question. Let’s try: what did you eat at your most recent meal with a good friend? Chances are, you had an easier time answering the latter question than you did the former. This is because the meal you had with a good friend was most likely a positive, strong emotional experience for you. It’s possible you walked away with a better sense of well-being, or you were relieved to have vented about something weighing on you. Maybe you can even remember the taste of the dessert you ate while you reminisced about a fond memor ..read more