All in the Mind Folgen

Claudia Hammond explores how children think with two psychologists; Dr Victoria Simms from Ulster University who researches how children’s understanding of maths develops and Professor Teresa McCormack from Queens University Belfast who researches how children understand time. The discussion was recorded in front of an audience at the Northern Ireland Science Festival in February 2020. Producer: Caroline Steel

The Touch Test. When did someone last touch you? Maybe they kissed you goodbye this morning or someone touched you on the arm on the bus because you’d dropped something. The Touch Test explores touch in its many forms and launches a major piece of research in which we want as many people as possible to take part.Commissioned by Wellcome Collection to conduct The Touch Test in collaboration with BBC Radio 4 is Michael Banissy Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths University of London. Also in the studio are Deborah Bowman, Professor of Medical Ethics at St Georges University, and Laura Bates from the Everyday Sexism campaign. Exploring the future of touch is Hannah Limerick from Ultraleap, demonstrating how touch sensations will be used in the near future.Professor Roger Kneebone and lace maker Fleur Oakes explain how medical students can learn to touch, and Claudia visits Dr Sarah Wilkes at the Institute of Making and encounters some extraordinary tactile materials including the lightest material ever made. We hear a preliminary taster from the drama company 20 Stories High from their show Touchy, and paper engineer Helen Friel creates an artwork in the studio with a revealing message.

Are bucket lists always a good thing? Many people choose to write a bucket list to fill their life with exciting and new experiences. Blogger Annette White tells Claudia Hammond about how her bucket list has helped her overcome anxiety. But clinical psychologist Linda Blair is not convinced that they really help people’s well-being.A new paper found that people tend to worry more about the actions of significant others in their lives than their own actions or the actions of people they are not that close to. Surprisingly, people also worry more about moderate friends than they do about themselves. Annie Hickox is a consultant clinical neuropsychologist with 35 years experience of helping clients with their mental health. One day she got a call from her daughter Jane and discovered that her own daughter had depression. Jane and Annie share their story of navigating depression.A new paper shows that people who engage in altruistic behaviours may experience an instantaneous buffer to physical pain. Producer: Caroline Steel