Whatever you do, don’t think about oranges.

Don’t think about their round shape, their bright, textured skin, and their aromatic sweet smell. Just don’t.

So you thought of an orange — and that’s ok. We know it’s hard not to precisely because that’s what our brain is built for: rapidly processing and translating stimuli from our five senses into information, thoughts, and impressions of the world around us. In microseconds, we weigh all of this against what we know, what we think we know, what we feel, and what we have experienced.

Given a certain set of variables, the study of psychology then becomes about understanding and predicting what factors might correspond to thoughts and behavior.

From understanding how a certain customer demographic will respond to commercials, to the ways in which children develop a code of ethics, to yes, even why you thought about oranges after you were told not to — the College of Science psychology program works to explore the deepest inner workings of our brains and uncover why we do what we do.