gradPSYCH - September 2011 - (Page 16)

RESEARCH ROUNDUP Notice anything unusual? Probably not. Remember the famous study where participants counting the number of times a basketball gets tossed fail to notice a man in a gorilla suit? That experiment was filmed right outside Harvard University perceptual psychology student Michael Cohen’s lab. In addition to being laugh-out-loud funny, the study highlighted a longstanding controversy within visual perception research: Just how much information can you glean from a scene if you aren’t actively paying attention to it? “For many years, the prevailing view of attention was as a spotlight,” Cohen says. “You’d shine it around and attend to individual things and ignore everything outside of that spotlight.” In contrast, however, some researchers have suggested that we process everyday scenes “pre-attentively,” meaning that we don’t have to actively pay attention to familiar environments to notice specific items within them or their physical features. For example, they argue that we don’t notice the gorilla dancing in the hallway because that doesn’t constitute a natural scene — it’s not part of our everyday visual realm. But, they say, we do notice our surroundings and can somewhat accurately describe them, even when we haven’t been actively paying attention to them. Cohen put that theory to the test in an experiment in which he asked people to follow a moving target on a computer among a field of similar-looking targets. In the background was a jumble of colored squares. After watching the targets move around for a short period of time, participants were asked to point out the initial target. Occasionally, the background would switch to an image of an everyday scene, such as mountains or a bedroom. Following these instances, Cohen asked the participants if they noticed anything unusual about the preceding test. Almost 75 percent of the participants failed to notice when the background changed. When specifically asked if they noticed a different background, about 13 percent were able to remember what they’d seen. The results suggest that familiar scene or no, people generally miss what they’re not actively paying attention to. While his study won’t end the controversy, Cohen says it’s a strike against the theory of pre-attentive awareness. Latinos struggle more in caring for stroke victims Perrin found that Latino In America, Latinos and African caregivers experienced greater Americans experience more strokes depression, burden and inability to and are slower to recover from them cope than their counterparts of other than whites. For example, a 2009 races and ethnicities. He also found article in the Journal of Rehabilitation that Latino stroke victims took Research and Development (Vol. 46, longer to recover — perhaps as a No. 2) found that two years after result of their caregivers’ struggles. suffering a stroke, Puerto Ricans These results square with and African-Americans showed less previous research that found that functional improvement than their Latinos feel a very strong sense white counterparts. Compounding the of duty to care for sick or injured problem: Their family members seem family members, which can strain to have more trouble coping with the their personal lives as they become burden of caregiving, according to a engulfed in the caregiver role, Perrin new study in Rehabilitation Psychology says. He suggests that culturally (Vol. 55, No. 4). sensitive programs that help Latinos For the study, University of Florida minimize their stress while providing counseling graduate student Paul care can help both themselves and Perrin and his colleagues identified their charges. 124 caregiver/care recipient pairs “Latinos tend to be very invested dealing with the aftermath of a stroke in caring for their loved ones, often in Florida and Puerto Rico. Perrin Two years after a stroke, Puerto Ricans show less at the expense of their own mental interviewed the caregivers, measuring improvement than their white counterparts. health,” he says. “But they can’t do their levels of depression, feelings of as good a job taking care of their burden and coping. He also interviewed loved ones if they can’t take care of themselves at the same time.” the care recipients, assessing their ability to function and their mental health. 16 • gradPSYCH • September 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of gradPSYCH - September 2011

GradPSYCH - September 2011
Contents
Interns: Be sure to track your hours
Students often notice but only sometimes blow the whistle on peers’ ethical violations
Psychology student spearheads coming-out project
Internship application costs rise
Odd Jobs
Media Picks
Chair’s Corner
Research Roundup
Matters to a Degree
The new academic job market
Applier beware
Does TV accurately portray psychology?
Safer travels
How to handle a tough audience
Free Money for Education
Meet your new advocates
Bulletin Board
Jobs, internships, postdocs and other opportunities
The Back Page

gradPSYCH - September 2011

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