So, it's been about a month since the last time I blogged. If anyone (i.e. Mom) thinks to check this, she'll be delighted to know that I finally decided to update my blog.
I've been busy, and tired. By the time my day ends, I usually just want to crawl into my bed. This whole blogging thing? Not as exciting when I'm not in Europe. But it's not like I don't have plenty to talk about!
Last week was fall break, and I loved it. I got to spend time with my family, and watch my brother play football. I got some homework done, and worked on grad school applications. In fact, I'm just finishing them up, and will be sending them out tomorrow. From this point on, I just need to remind my recommenders to send out their letters! It's actually a little bit MORE stressful now. I mean, I'm proud that my parts are done...but now I feel like I have to herd small children. It'd probably be overkill if I sent a reminder every day...but if my letters of recommendation don't get completed, I WON'T be accepted into grad school. My application would be considered incomplete, so they wouldn't look at it :/ Let's avoid that scenario.
Another part I loved about fall break was sleeping. I got plenty of sleep every night. I spoiled myself. Now I feel exhausted every morning, wishing I could get more sleep. Except I didn't ACTUALLY get that much sleep at home...my body wouldn't let me sleep past 8:30. I should not feel so tired.
Now that I'm back at school, it's time to buckle down. Soon all the "big" assignments will be assigned, and I'll have virtually no free time. I'm working on sem; we get to start running participants next week. A few weeks of collecting data, then we have to compile results, run tests, and find conclusions! I'm also working on my independent study in the Infant Cognition lab. I've been working with the scene memory study, in which infant view pictures on a screen, and then have their visual recognition tested via preferential looking. They are shown a series of pictures, usually the same picture side by side. But every so often, they see one picture they've already seen next to a picture they have never seen. If they recognize that they have seen one picture before, they look at that picture LESS because it's boring to them. Infants prefer novelties. However, sometimes infants do not look at the novel picture longer, especially if there is a large gap between the test trial, and the trial in which they originally saw the picture. This suggests that they do NOT remember that particular picture.
As adults, we have an infinite capacity to recognize pictures. Numerous studies have shown the nearly perfect recognition abilities of adults. Prof Kovack-Lesh has would like to determine at what age this capacity is fully available. So far, we've seen very promising results with ten month olds. We are currently testing ten month olds, as well as six month olds. We are going to be analyzing the data, and then, for my independent study, I will be proposing future research that could be derived from Prof KL's work. I'm very excited :)
Other than working on stuff, I'm also trying to be a little more social. I'd like to see my friends more...perhaps not work on homework EVERY night. Except this week, I don't think I've done homework once. Instead, I've been hanging out with friends. Tonight, I went to my sister's apartment and we carved pumpkins! They're pretty fantastic. I don't really enjoy cleaning out the pumpkins, but it wasn't as bad as I remembered. I'm also not very good at carving pumpkins. I did pick the "hardest" design in the book to do...it was a spider in a spider web! It looked pretty much awesome (and still somewhat awesome after I carved it).
Tomorrow is Friday, and it's Blind Bash! It's a sorority event where we get to bring a date...except we don't know who we are going with. We get to write three options on a piece of paper, and then trade with other sisters. Only it never really works out that way. I happen to know who my date is, and that's ok. We'll have lots of fun. We are going to a haunted woods nearby, which should be quite the adventure!
Also, this weekend is Halloween, which is always crazy. People really love dressing up. It's not my favorite, but I'll do it once a year. It's pretty fun to see everyone else's costumes--and I'll admit, I'll do a lot of judging. Many girls use Halloween as a chance to dress scandalously, since it's a chance to be something that you aren't. However, many girls really are that scandalous. They're just more open about it on Halloween. Ridiculous.
Ok, I've done my duty. It's off to bed for me...I work at 8 tomorrow, as I do most days. Thursdays I work at 9, so I kind of get to sleep in. Bah. Nights need to be longer!
