The Human Mind - Season 1

First aired: 10/1/2003 3 episodes

In this three-part documentary, Robert Winston explores all aspects of the human mind – from how we learn, to how we’re able to recognise faces and what makes one person ‘click’ with another.

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Episodes

1. Get Smart

Aired: 10/1/2003

The first programme in the series uncovers what happens in our minds when we learn, remember and have original ideas. It explores what we can do to improve our ability to acquire and manipulate knowledge and shows how eating fish oils can boost our brain power. Professor Robert Winston looks at how memory can be improved and how physical tasks can be learnt more easily. Robert discovers what happens when we have those eureka moments of original thought - and how to have more of them. The programme meets the fire chief who tapped into his intuitive powers and saved the lives of his fire crew and we follow a trainee midwife in the run-up to her exams. Will she be able to remember the huge amount of information needed to pass? More importantly, can she apply it to a real childbirth?

2. Personality

Aired: 10/8/2003

Personality explores what it is that makes us who we are and uncovers the universal battle to master our emotions and control our behaviour. Professor Winston explores how our minds shape our personalities throughout our lives and reveals how personality traits like extroversion and introversion, aggression and kindness are developed. The programme looks at how parents can affect the personalities of their children, why teenagers are so emotionally sensitive and what lies at the heart of characteristics like anger and mood–swings in adulthood.

3. Making Friends

Aired: 10/15/2003

Why is a party one of the most demanding and complex situations the human mind ever has to deal with? Making Friends investigates the extraordinary way our mind works that allows us to communicate with other people. Professor Winston discovers how our mind recognises other people and reads their faces and bodies before reading their minds. We reveal how to tell whether a smile is genuine and what happens when people 'click' with one another and how to spot the give-away clues that tell you when someone's lying. The programme follows a young woman as she travels halfway across the world to confront her very own social obstacle course. Can she win over her New Zealand fiance's friends and family in the week before she gets married?