We have introduced us to many of our 2020 61st Annual Meeting’s Twitternomes, including our last interview with Michelle Rivers. As you know, Twitternomes take over the Psychonomic Society Twitter account, @Psychonomic_Soc, during the meeting to fill us in on all the happenings (use the hashtag #psynom20). Up to this point, all of the interviewed Twitternomes have been studying in the United States. We’re moving far away and down under to interview Twitternome and Ph.D. student, Louisa Talipski, shown below (you can follow her on Twitter @LouisaTalipski). This year’s meeting will be Louisa’s second time serving as a Twitternome.
Louisa is in the final year of her Ph.D. studies under the supervision of Mark Edwards, ANU’s Visual Cognition Lab (@lab_anu) at the Australian National University. Louisa’s research focuses on how attention shifts through space and how we attend to where other people are looking (aka “gaze cueing”). We wish Louisa the best of luck in the upcoming months finishing your dissertation/thesis!
We look forward to reading Louisa’s middle of the night tweets, which may cover much of the latest research on attention. Louisa.
Without further ado, we present our interview with Louisa Talipski.
How has your work life changed as a result of the pandemic?
I’ve spent a lot more time working from home, partially due to data collection being put on hold (at least in the earlier part of the year). But working from home doesn’t mean that things have let up—there’s always so much to read and write, especially in the latter stages of the Ph.D.!
Has the pandemic caused you to rethink your career path?
The pandemic hasn’t at all curbed my desire to be a researcher. However, I’ve found that it has given me a chance to reflect on my career path and perhaps be a little more strategic and thoughtful in navigating that path.
Has anything beneficial come out of the pandemic for you? Either for your research or personal life, or both?
Zoom meetings have been a blessing in disguise—I feel like teleconferencing has saved me a lot of time, but there was a bit of a teething period in navigating the technology!
I’ve also had a chance to reflect on some of the studies that I have in the pipeline, and think deeply about the theoretical underpinnings of my work. I’m not sure I would have had the time to do this if I spent as many hours in the lab.
What inspired you to get involved with the Psychonomic Society and serve as a Twitternome?
I think it’s essential to spread the word about some of the incredible research we do as cognitive scientists, and I feel like Twitternomes play an important part in that process!
What about the Annual Meeting are you most looking forward to?
As an attention researcher, I’m looking forward to some of the talks in the attention streams. Since I’m in Australia, I might have to be up in the middle of the night to watch them, but I have no doubt it will be worth it!
Are you presenting at the Annual Meeting? If so, what’s the topic? What day and time?
I’m not presenting this year, but I’m very much looking forward to learning about all of the interesting research in our field.