We often assume that reality is objective, but as researchers, how do we tackle perceived reality in our subjects? For psychology master’s student Isaac Withers, this is a key question in designing virtual reality (VR) spaces.
Can VR simulate the experience of a psychedelic drug trip in a controlled setting? What is the process of assembling reference material to create such a simulation?
Isaac, being a proponent of multidisciplinary approaches, divides his research time between the psychedelics work and work on understanding categorization. In the latter research, he probes how our brains learn to place things into categories, and how categorization influences our personal biases.
Listen with Kelly Wang and Victor Lau as they discuss with Isaac about building a graduate journey that emphasizes collaborating with others, learning from many different sources, and overall building a well-rounded life to help diversify thinking in the research space.
Links:
https://mindalab.com/
Recorded on Tuesday, October 13th, 2026.
Produced by Garth Casbourn
Theme tune "Feelin Good" provided by FreeBeats.io (produced by WhiteHot)
