ARIEL JAMES - MACALASTER COLLEGE

1. Where are you from? 

   Hazel Crest, IL (south suburb of Chicago)

2. How did you become interested in cognitive science/psychology?

   When I started college, I was kind of all over the place. I thought I'd be an art history major, but that didn't really stick. I really liked words as a kid (I started a dictionary collection...) and learning a foreign language in high school got me thinking about language on a meta level. I didn't take a linguistics class because one of my friends said it was boring! That was probably a mistake, but it all worked out in the end. Taking my undergrad Intro Psych class convinced me I wanted to be a psych major. Once I realized that you can study language as a psychologist, I was all for it. I also felt like I wasn't constraining myself by choosing psych because there is such a huge range of topics in the field. If language ended up not being my thing, there was a lot of other cool stuff to do. Language ended up being my thing, though!

3. What is the focus of your research? 

   I'm interested in measuring individual differences in people's cognitive skills and abilities, and seeing if those differences predict moment-to-moment language processing. It's a blend of experimental psycholinguistics and multivariate, correlational approaches. Basically I watch people process language (typically either reading times or eye movements during listening) and try to connect that behavior to their performance on different kinds of tests. The fun thing is that even when you're looking at literate adults using their native languages, there can be so much variability in their performance in all sorts of tasks.

4. What aspects of your work do people find most exciting? 

   I think people like hearing about the batteries of tests I put together (at least I hope so, because I enjoy talking about them). How does this task work? What is it supposed to measure? How can you tell whether it's really measuring that? What's the wackiest way that a participant misunderstood the directions? Questions like these are fun to talk about. 

5. What contributions do you hope your work will have to the field?

   I hope it'll help experimentalists figure out how to measure individual differences in the way that they want to (that's what I'm trying to figure out for myself!). I also hope to add nuance to how we think "good" language processing works, and what kind of language experience "counts" for shaping adult language comprehension (reading books, reading text messages, listening to yourself talk?). 

6. Do you see yourself in industry or academics moving forward?

   Academics all the way! I'm living the dream until someone kicks me out! 

7. What has been your experience being a person of color in cognitive science? 

   It's hard to say since I've been a person of color all my life! I think a common issue for BIPOC (and other minoritized folk) is trying to figure out how to interpret weird interactions with other people: "Did this person talk down to me/interrupt me/ignore me because I'm Black? Or a woman? Or young(-ish)? Or are they just kind of a jerk to everyone? Or maybe I'm actually just not very smart?" It can be tiring to play that mental game. There are also the more clear-cut moments of race-related awkwardness: hearing how colleagues and students refer to Black neighborhoods, weird comments about my hair, people getting me confused with my Black woman colleague, etc. Finally -- and this one's been weighing on me a lot lately, in light of the most recent uprising for racial justice -- a challenge is feeling like I'm not doing enough to uplift my community. I've been privileged with opportunities throughout my life that other people in my community don't tend to get, and here I am in the "Ivory Tower" researching stuff that I think is cool but that does not have a direct, immediate, observable impact on improving Black lives. What am I doing?  I think the impulse to try and make an impact on your community is good, but it needs to be carefully managed so it's not overwhelming or paralyzing, especially before tenure: don't agree to be on every diversity panel, don't spend too many hours doing unofficial mentoring and advising for students of color, etc. I have a hard time balancing this, but at the end of the day, I need to get my own work done if I want to keep my job!

8. How do you protect your time? 

   As I am writing right now it's summer, so this is easier for me to answer. I get up, do my crossword puzzle, work for a while, take a break for lunch, take some other breaks here are there, and close the laptop before dinner. Then I do fun things every night (watch TV, play a board game, knit, etc.), and I try not to work at all on the weekends. During the semester it's a lot harder to be finished working before dinner every night, and so far I haven't really managed the 100% work-free weekend during the academic year. Still, I block off time in my schedule that I try to protect: blocks for working on my projects, blocks for my gym class, a block for my weekly knitting circle, etc. I also have made a continuing commitment to my mental health by regularly attending therapy, even though it's a real pain to schedule things around! 

9. What changes have you noticed and found useful or not in your field or the field more generally?

   I haven't been in the game for that long, but I've noticed a lot more openness around mental health. Oh, and more openness in science! Different kinds of openness, but it's all good and important.

10. Do you have any words of advice for aspiring researchers of color?

    Being an academic of color is challenging at times, but it can also be really cool! It's been really great to connect with other faculty of color at my institution and beyond. There's a whole community of us, and we are SO glad to see you!