Michelle Rivers, former Twitternome, is now on the Psychonomic Society’s Digital Content Team as one of the Digital Associate Editors! In a series of interviews leading up to the 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting, Kimele Persaud and I interviewed our 2020 Twitternomes. Including Michelle (pictured below; check out that interview). That makes Michelle our most interviewed Psychonome to date!

Expect Michelle’s first post soon, in the meantime, enjoy learning more about her research interests, how she developed those interests, the impressive start-up of cogbites that supports early career researchers while disseminating cognitive science to the general public, and more.

Without further ado, here’s Michelle’s interview.

What’s your area of research? 

We’re all expected to know how to learn to make it through school (and life!), but most of us are never explicitly taught what learning techniques work the best. Instead, many of us teach ourselves how to learn. Consequently, we can develop incorrect beliefs about what works well and what doesn’t work so well. For example, have you ever completed an exam feeling confident, only to find out you didn’t remember as much as you thought you did? (Or as an instructor, perhaps you’ve witnessed this phenomenon with your students?) Experiences like these can be discouraging. 

I decided to pursue cognitive science to find ways to improve student success, with a particular focus on closing the gap between what students think they know and what they actually know. Thus, three primary aims of my research are to (1) identify, (2) develop, and (3) describe the underlying cognitive mechanisms of techniques that improve self-regulated learning and metacognition.

What’s the most exciting concept in cognitive science?

Metacognition! I was finishing up my undergraduate degree (working in Dr. Ben Storm’s memory lab at UC Santa Cruz) when a review paper came out about all the different ways we can misunderstand, mis-assess, and mismanage our own learning. I’ve been hooked on the topic ever since. I think it’s fascinating (and scary!) that we can be wrong and not know it or even be confident that we are right.

What’s the most critical unsolved challenge or unanswered question for cognitive scientists?

Much research has focused on what strategies are most effective for promoting durable learning (e.g., testing, distributed practice, self-explanation). The next challenge is getting students to use these strategies effectively when learning independently. For many strategies, knowing that the strategy is effective is not enough to get students to use it. 

I am excited to see more research address student motivation, time management, and other factors contributing to students’ strategy use. Researchers at Washington University have recently published reviews that provide great ideas for guiding future research in this area (like this one and this one). I hope to apply some of these ideas to students’ use of practice testing (here’s a shameless plug of my recent review).

Although not my specific research focus, I also look forward to reading about ongoing discoveries on timely issues such as how we can combat misinformation online and overcome our own cognitive biases when making everyday decisions.

What drew you to science communication? 

My interest in science communication started during my gap years between undergrad and grad school. During that time, I worked as a hands-on science instructor for elementary school students at Mad Science of San Diego. I really enjoyed getting young students interested in the scientific method and helping them discover how fun science can be! I try to maintain this same enthusiasm when teaching psychology to undergraduates.

As a graduate student, I became even more interested in science communication after noticing how science is communicated. One issue is that the general public tends to learn about the latest scientific discoveries through popular media, which often over-emphasizes and over-simplifies results. What is sometimes lost from these pieces is the process of scientific discovery – how we come to know what we know, the people behind the findings, and what other questions have been identified. Another issue is that scientists typically do not receive specific training on translating their research to broad audiences. To address these issues, I started a blog, cogbites to make cognitive research more accessible to a general audience and allow early-career academics opportunities to hone their writing and editing skills. I am excited to continue my own science communication journey by serving as a Psychonomic Society’s Digital Associate Editor!

For graduate students interested in developing science communication skills, I highly recommend applying to attend ComSciCon workshops. I attended a chapter workshop in Michigan and a flagship workshop in San Diego (my hometown!).

Through these workshops, I have grown my professional network to include a diverse group of students and professionals who challenge me to think about why my research is important – which has enhanced both my technical writing and conversations with strangers on planes (pre-COVID, obviously.) Another great resource is NPR’s SciComm community – they offer regular mentor chats, engaging Slack channels, and tons of opportunities to gain more science communication experience.

Is there anything else you want us to know about you?

When I’m not doing science, I really enjoy connecting with nature. Lately, I’ve been getting more into birding. Thanks to apps like Merlin Bird ID, there’s a lot of support for making accurate identifications. And with over 10,000 bird species worldwide, it’s a hobby that can keep me busy for a long time.