DAISY was a PHD student at STONY BROOK university at the time of this interview.

1. Please describe an experience that helped cultivate your interest in cognitive science/psychology.

I accidentally took an intro psych class in the first semester of community college. I was interested in the topic overall but not so interested in clinical. There were not many other psychology classes offered at my community college. I did supplemental instruction at community college for a history class at my community college. Part of the training for supplemental instruction included lectures that focused a lot on cognitive science and cognitive psychology. I enjoyed reading the primary sources to understand the original work. Part of my job was helping students figure out how to learn. I learned that preferences and background skills and strategies could differ. This made me particularly interested in cognitive science memory research because I wanted to help my students learn more effectively.

2. What is the focus of your research?

Broadly, my research is cross-cultural memory. Specifically, on exploring Latine memory and how it fits in the narrative of autobiographical memory. I explore the reciprocal relationship between autobiographical memory and culture shape each other. Much of the work has been in this space has focused on WEIRD and East Asian cultures. I have been looking at how the collective/individual binary does not fit when studying Latine individuals. Some research argues for collectivistic, some for individualistic, and some say both. I am focusing on finding more dimensionality in cultural research and finding methods that will better fit Latine individuals. I am shifting from inter and independent characteristics to different values like harmony, uniqueness, and consistency. One prior study compared Latine and East Asian looking at openness to communication. One reason to find evidence for both individualistic and collectivist in Latine cultures is that there is an additional value of simpatía to be vocal and accommodating, so the harmony differs through language use.

3. What aspects of your work do people get really excited about? Recently

For me, I find it exciting to help people within my community understand themselves and their own backgrounds. I am big on science communication and am close to my family and share with them. They want to know more about it as well. It is exciting as underrepresented people to see us being the center of research questions and help to answer questions about cultural pieces that are not fully understood. This adds to understanding how values and language work together.

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

It would help provide and add to some work in cognition to understand how memory shapes identities and culture. By using the self-construal scale, I will be able to look at more precise measures of identity and assess how biculturalism relates to this. The self-construal level gives us continuous measures to understand their collectivistic and individualistic values at the individual not just group level.

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

I am very split right now. I have always seen myself in an academic role after teaching/tutoring for the last 6 years. I really enjoy teaching and research. However, I am also concerned with taking care of my family including my brother with a severe disability. As much as I love academia, the high demand with the reduced wage may not make this possible. I think this is a question for the whole field. What are we doing to accommodate people’s intellectual and familial needs? This is especially important for some members of historically excluded groups.

6. What's it like being a person of color in cognitive science?

It was not as hard my first two years because of covid. I connected with other scholars of color and created a social circle with them for support so these were the people I mostly interacted with for those two years. Going to Psychonomics for the first time this year, I felt out of place. It is weird because I am white passing in a very white space. I saw the shifts in behavior when I would share my name and would hear comments I would not have heard if I were white passing. Sometimes I was having a great time and learning great things but other times I would suddenly realize I was the only person of color in the room. It is not something I try to think about consciously, but it is uncomfortable at times. At my undergrad institution, it was a gender imbalance with majority male and very few professors of color. I only had a PhD student who was Latina at my undergrad but no professors. When I switched to an institution that was more gender balanced it was a breath of fresh air.

7. How do you protect your time and energy?

I read a lot of self-help books. My recommendation for anyone starting graduate school is to read the Bullet Journal Method. It helped me reframe my mind about how to think about my goals. Making a pretty layout and organizing addresses my work in a pleasant way that makes me happy. When I do not want to think about school, I make a layout for something to take my mind off work. I do it all digitally. Adding an artistic element makes the items on the list more important to complete. I try not to work weekends and focus during weekdays. A lot of it, something I am still learning, is establishing boundaries and being comfortable with saying no or I can’t at this time. This is hard because as a first-year student you feel a need to please everyone but saying yes to everything can make you overwhelmed. Also, being friends with the other graduate students makes working fun. This encourages me to keep going as well.

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

Just from my first few years in cognitive psychology more people are speaking up and agreeing that issues around diversity matter. They are seeing it as an issue. This gives me some hope. People are open and willing to change their opinion and to hearing other people. I have seen that more in the past three years. Just since my time as an undergrad, there is more effort to address inequality, racism, sexism, ableism, and other marginalized identities. This is an important first step.

9. Do you see spaces where diversity will change how/what questions cognitive psychology/cog Science is asking?

Yes. My work is hopefully going to encourage more conversations in this space. I hope to encourage people to look and see what strengths we are exhibiting in our differences and how can we lift weaknesses from other work. Paying attention to cross-cultural work will matter and will help us have a deeper understanding and empathy for individuals from different backgrounds. Making our cognitive journals open to this work would make a difference.

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

Do not be afraid to take up space. Do not conceal your identity or who you are in professional settings. I have learned to me more unapologetically Mexican and Chicana in these spaces. I used to try to avoid being a distraction by not listening to my music or dressing traditionally, or bringing up issues of my own identity, but I realized that I should not have to hide myself, my interests, or what I like when it comes to my identity as a Mexican woman. This has made me more confident and happier. If you do not make connections with colleagues of color at your own institution, reach out to those in other places. This has made my grad school experience rich and wonderful through this network where I can effortlessly communicate. This has made grad school so much healthier for me.