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Did you know that we can measure the electrical activity of the brain by putting electrodes on our scalp?  I didn’t until I starting studying neuroscience!  Now I take measurements using specialized equipment that can let me see which objects we are paying attention to and which objects we remember.  Even if someone hasn’t moved their eyes to focus on an object, we can see that their brain is paying attention to an object. (Try to look directly at a friend’s ear, but pay attention to their face to see how attention can be separated from where our eyes are pointed.)  We can use these brain recordings to help understand when we can pay attention and remember well, and when we are likely to make mistakes.  Not paying attention to the right information can be dangerous (for instance, if someone doesn’t pay attention to a traffic light when they were driving) so it is very important to understand how we can stay on task!

Science is a community effort, so it’s important to stay connected to what other scientists have discovered in addition to doing your own experiments.  Much of my research time is spent connecting to other researchers through e-mail conversations and by reading what they have written about their own work.  As a university lecturer, part of my job is also to teach university students.  The students are taught the basics of how psychology and neuroscience work, but they also get to hear from me about the process of conducting new research to extend what we know as a scientific community.  One of my favorite things to do is collect new data.  There is always an adjustment to make to be sure the recording is even more clear.  Science is like a game- you win when you have collected the best possible data you can and have drawn solid conclusions that you can clearly communicate to other scientists!