Lace & Hearts / Mind Reading & Barnum

As promised yesterday, here is my new Choies wig and Yes Walker flats together in an outfit! It is super dooper hot weather today (Australia doesn't seem to understand that it is autumn yet), but I really wanted to wear these tights, so I paired it all with this simple, summery lace dress from Koogal. dress - c/o Koogal tights - c/o My Tights shoes - c/o Yes Walker necklace - c/o Oasap wig - c/o Choies Okay, guys. For something different today, I'm going to tell you, yes you, reading right now, some things about yourself. Before you read below, just read this list of qualities, and take tick each one off if it applies to you. And then ask yourself - does Annika know me? Has she read my mind?? (Didn't you guys know that I can read minds now?) So, here goes - Most of the time you are positive and cheerful, but there is a time in the past where you were very upset. At times you feel very sure of yourself, whereas other times you are not as confident. You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. At times you have serious doubts whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing, but generally you have had a positive influence on the people in your life. You have just experienced what is known in psychology as "The Barnum Effect". Popular with astrology sections in magazines and psychics, the Barnum effect shows how easily we can be manipulated into believing that the vaguest statements are actually meaningful insights into our own lives. Think about the above sentences. Did they apply to you? They probably also applied to most of the people reading this post. Okay, so it's likely you thought this test in particular was silly, because it's obvious that I, Annika, am not going to know all about you and your personality through some kind of psychic blogger powers. But this test, when given by some kind of authority figure (or by someone who claims to have 'mysterious powers') works extremely well. In fact, the original "Barnum test" was masked as a "personality test" (just like a self-test you might find in a trashy mag), in which psychology students in the 1940s had to answer some questions on their personality. They were then all given pieces of paper with "feedback", and asked to rate how well it applied to themselves. Most gave it a rating of 4 to 5 out of 5 for accuracy. Only afterwards was it disclosed that all the "feedback" given was entirely identical to everyone elses. (original image source) Our brains are interesting things, and it's good to know how your own one can be fooled ;) I hope you're all super well, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Product Reviews: A New Wig & Cute Shoes

I like to think that with my collection of wigs now at 10+, I have a good idea of what makes a good wig and what makes a bad one. I was sent this wig by Choies. If you saw my last wig review, you would know that I think the quality of the Choies wigs is superior to Ebay-bought ones. This is definitely true with this new Choies wig. At $32 (I think it is permanently "on special"), it is well worth getting this wig over a $10 or $20 one from Ebay. While ebay wigs can be great, the cheaper ones (from around the $10 mark) from Ebay are good for the first day or so... and then the hair starts falling out. EVERYWHERE. All the wigs I have gotten from Choies thus far have been a lot more sturdy, and I've gotten a good few months wear out of one of them, that is only now starting to become quite ratty (and I think that's unavoidable if you're dealing with synthetic hair). If you watched my last wig review video, you'd know that I prefer my wigs to have long bangs. I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to cut this one yet - or if I will keep pinning it up like in the picture below. Obviously, the situation in the picture above is not ideal (if I want to see). While my new short haircut is great, having long swooshy hair occasionally is still really fun. The link to this particular wig is here. These ankle strap flats from Yeswalker are another item that I was asked to review on my blog. I have been after a pair of simple black flats with a cute ankle strap for quite some time now! If I hadn't been asked to review these (and so was sent them for free), I would have bought something very similar, very soon. And these would have been a really good choice. At only $28 (and free shipping!), these shoes are well worth the price. They are elasticated, super comfy, and look adorable. I can't wait to wear them with a pair of thick white tights (unfortunately, I have destroyed all the white tights that I owned). However, they happen to look super cute with basically any socks you can think of pairing them with: both socks from Japan (Thank You Mart & Tutuanna) / heart tights c/o My Tights I am wearing both of these in my next outfit post! So make sure you come back to have a look at them in action tomorrow. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Lady Anachronism / Tetrachromacy

This blouse is entirely incredible. For the last few days, I've been pairing it with high-waisted shorts, skirts and polka dot dresses! It works with everything, and I can either tie it up at the waist or do up the buttons all the way down, which makes it a very versatile item!   blouse - c/o Choies dress - Vintage hat - c/o Wholesale necklace - Claire's (Japan) shoes - Vintage socks - Cotton On After I talked about colour vision in my last post, Emily alerted me to something called tetrachromacy, which I'm going to talk about here today! First off, most humans are "trichromats", meaning we have three different types of cells  (called cones) in our eyes that can detect three different wavelengths, or colour ranges. One type of cone detects red colours, one detects green and the last, blue. However, quite a few humans who have "colour-blindness", and many mammals (like dogs) are only "dichromats". This means they only have two types of cones in their eyes and so see a smaller range of colours than trichromats. Then there are some animals that experience more than the colours that we can see. Many birds and insects are what are called "tetrachromats", because they have four types of cones in their eyes. This means they are able to see all the colours we see (red, green and blue), plus a whole range of ultra-violet colours as well. And just as it would be impossible to describe 'red' to someone who is red/green colourblind, it would be impossible to imagine what the world would look like with so many additional colours. Theoretically, tetrachromats would be able to see millions more colours than we could see. They could distinguish between two shades of blue, for example, that would look identical to a trichromat. Although tetrachromacy has been said to exist (rarely) in humans, this has been hard to confirm experimentally (and there are claims that tests on so-called tetrachromats have been flawed due to insufficient blinding leading to the Clever Hans effect - something I'll talk about in a science post real soon). However, science may be able to turn people into tetrachromats. Scientists have been able to, via gene therapy, transform rats and monkeys who were only dichromats ("blind" to red and green colours) into trichromats. The method still needs some confirming, however if it does work, this technique could be adapted to allow colourblind people to see, and possibly even allow normal "trichromats" the chance to see in tetrachromatic vision! Which would be like having a mildly cool superpower, I think. (Read more about this in a very interesting article in the Scientific American). How are you all doing today? p.s. I have announced the winner of the Koogal giveaway! Thank you so much to all the people who entered and the awesome effort that you all put in! I was inspired by all the outfits people put together with Koogal items. Congratulations Ashley K. (I have sent you your voucher!) Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Icecream / Colours & Theory of Mind

Today I decided that imitating a giant ice cream would be a fine idea, and I have not regretted it one bit. Except that I somewhat melted in the almost-autumn-heat wearing my new op-shop finds: this lilac sweater and mint-green blouse. Aren't they the prettiest things? blouse - vintage sweater - vintage skirt - c/o Faith & Lola hat - c/o Wholesale tights - Yoshida shoes - Chicory clips - DIY Alright, so this is really interesting to me as both a science-minded lady and someone who is into fashion! Again, I have another science post all about perception, to convince you that the "realities" we experience are largely all in our own minds. This thought experiment has always interested me: the colours we experience are less of an absolute physical property of the world, and more something our mind interprets as all the different colours of the rainbow.  Colour is an illusion. Therefore, both you and I could look at an apple, and call it "red", but my "red" could be totally different to your "red", and if I were to hop inside your brain and have a look at your "red", I might think it was actually green. Have a watch of this video from the fantastic V-sauce, who explains this idea a little better then I did just there. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Oh my heart beats in it's cage / Inattentional Blindness

I HAVE SUCH EXCITING NEWS! I'm doing some pretty goofy expressions in these photos, which you'll have to excuse me for - I couldn't stop smiling really ludicrously/crying from happiness, as I'd just found out that I have been asked to be a part of my university's 'talented student program', WHICH MEANS that I might get to do special research projects and maybe even present them to a bunch of proper scientists at proper science conferences, and basically, BE A REAL-LIFE, PROPER SCIENTIST, getting to throw myself into some research instead of just studying what's already been discovered! I am a billion times over the moon about this and just had to share it with you all :D As for my outfit today: I looove this Koogal sweater! I've been wearing it every single day since I got it in the mail. It goes so well with circle skirts and denim shorts. For this outfit though, I paired it with some cute red gumboots, a red skirt and a red backpack so I kind of have a colour-themed thing going on here. I've also got a giveaway running from Koogal at the moment which you can enter (if you haven't already) here! sweater - c/o Koogal skirt - Wholesale socks - c/o Sock Dreams boots - Ebay backpack - Asos I received some feedback on my explanation of the Ames room in my mini-magazine that I posted yesterday, with a reader expressing surprise that human perceptions can be tricked so easily! I'm really interested in the study of human perception, because when you get into it, a large amount of what we perceive (of what we think of as reality) is just totally made up by our brains. Here's one of my favourite demonstrations of how little attention we pay to reality: Inattentional Blindness. This video is from Derren Brown, who demonstrated the phenomenon with his "person swap". Basically, he asks for directions from passerbys, then swaps around with a totally different person during a slight distraction - and gauges whether the passerby notices the change. Many people don't. I particularly love at 2:20 when he swaps with a female, and the woman he was talking to doesn't appear to notice in the slightest. Yeah. Human beings are pretty bad judges of reality.