91B0FBB4-04A9-D5D7-16F0F3976AA697ED
C9A22247-E776-B892-2D807E7555171534
Does a wandering mind impede your ability to complete a task on the Internet?  Do negative, intrusive thoughts decrease your efficiency while working on the web?  These are questions that a group of Hamilton College professors and students are trying to answer this summer.  Rebekah Grome '05 and Lindsey Schantz '03 are collecting and analyzing data with Hamilton College Associate Professors of Psychology Penny Yee and Greg Pierce in their study of cognitive interference.  Cognitive interference is the types of thoughts people have when completing a task.  

The researchers found that while searching or completing a task on the Internet pessimistic self-evaluative thoughts negatively affect performance more than intrusive thoughts in general.  Grome, Schantz and Yee are finishing a paper, "Self-Evaluative Intrusive Thoughts Impede Successful Searching on the Internet," for publication later this summer.  Grome said that she "Enjoy(s) being such an integral part of the research and projects, and learning what it means to put together a paper from the research, collecting data and writing the manuscript for publication."     

During the first two months of the summer, the trio found evidence of stability in types of coping styles people utilize when under stress.  Schantz, a psychology major from Sharon, Mass., and Grome co-authored a paper with Yee titled "Situational and dispositional aspects of coping with athletic and academic stressors."  The paper addresses various types of coping styles to deal with different types of stresses.  The population studied for the paper was athletes.  "Athletes act similarly in response to stress in athletics and in other situations, like on a test," says Schantz.  The researchers extend this conclusion, asserting that in general individuals are consistent and stable concerning how they deal with stressors.  

This is not Grome's first time conducting research with Prof. Yee.  Grome, a sophomore from Durhamville, NY, who is considering a concentration in psychology, worked with Yee in the summer of 2000 under the Regional Program for Excellence (RPE).  RPE is a mentoring program for rising high school seniors in the region. 

Since July the group has been continuing Pierce and Yee's research on cognitive interference in athletic and academic domains.  They are currently conducting surveys of perspective students after they go through the interview process with an admissions officer.  They are studying the cognitive interference that the students had during the interview.  

After graduation Schantz hopes to continue her study of psychology in graduate school.  Regardless of future plans the students enjoyed the opportunity to experience hands on research in psychology at Hamilton over the summer.

Help us provide an accessible education, offer innovative resources and programs, and foster intellectual exploration.

Site Search