Jesus lopez is now a staff member at the medical college of wisconsin.

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

   I started thinking about psychology as something I wanted to do in High School when I took a psychology course. My teacher then sparked my interest in psych, but when I first started my undergraduate classes at A&M, I wanted to be a pharmacist. Intro to Chemistry changed that and made me realize I should switch to psychology because I was more interested in that, while my desire to be a pharmacist was more about making money. In my junior year, I met Joe Orr, the person whose lab I have been in since undergrad and am now doing my doctoral work with. He took me under his wing as one of his first RAs. I always knew I wanted to go to grad school, and I didn’t know where I would end up, but it has always seemed like a natural fit with Joe. The work that I do now actually started as an undergraduate research project with him. He’s always supported me, so it just made sense to stick with it.

2. What is the focus of your research?

   I look at media multitasking. I study people’s preferences for it and how it impacts your performance on said tasks.

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

   Everyone is on their laptops and phones right now. There isn’t a lot of research on how that affects us on a day-to-day basis and on our goals and tendency to switch tasks. People think that if you multitask you get more done, but is that really the case? If it is, are you actually performing those tasks well?

4. Where do you see your research going over the next few years?

   Personally, I’m not looking to continue in the academic field because I want to go into industry. Right now, I’m trying to integrate eye tracking into my work and to then hopefully pass it on to an undergraduate RA, or to a future grad student. I think if I were to stay in academia, I would be interested in looking at the longitudinal effects of multitasking, especially for adolescents. It may be worth looking at access to technology and how this impacts task switching.

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

   Industry. I would prefer not to have to write grants all the time. In an industry job, there is no constant pressure to be awarded a grant to fund your research. Instead, you can work with data that already exists This might sound boring to some people in my field, but I would honestly love that. I think my dream job would be a data analyst position at a place like Microsoft or Google.

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

   I think my situation has been different than some of the other interviews on the SPARK site. I haven’t experienced discrimination in my department at all. My advisor is on a diversity committee and even encouraged me to do this interview so I could tell my story. I’ve not felt talked down to but am very aware this happens in other spaces. Up until this year, I was the only Latino in the lab and one of only a few URM in labs that are part of my research bubble. That being said, it was never something that was emphasized or acknowledged in a way that ever seemed malicious or made me feel uncomfortable. I will say that I do experience imposter syndrome though. I was a diversity fellow and that fed into some feelings that I need to publish more or work harder to show that I was worth the investment. I have ended up with a lot of null findings in my work and that feeds into questions of whether I deserve to be here and was it a smart choice for Joe to take me on as a student. It sucks to have to tell your advisor that a project did not work. Even though I know on some level this happens I can still feel like I have been wasting his time and money. I just have to constantly tell myself I’m doing the best I can. There’s nothing else I can do, and I need to remember that.

7. What changes have you noticed in your field or the field more generally?

   There’s a lot more collaborative work not only between other labs but between disciplines. For example, I’m currently on a collaboration project with the department of visualization and the college of architecture. Additionally, it does seem like the field is becoming more and more open to diversity.

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

   Yes. There are avenues that remain unexplored in diversity because of a lack of exposure. The one I can think of in my research is in regards to access to different technology and media devices. For example, some households may have only one phone or no laptop. As a result, there may be differences in the amount of multitasking that someone engages in that may have residual effects on their actual multitasking or task-switching performance. I’ve also toyed with the idea of looking at differences between monolinguals and bilinguals on their task-switching skills. There’s some work done on these topics, but there’s obviously a lot more to be done.

9. Any advice for grad students of color?

   Just do it. If I can get into grad school and get where I have gotten, you can too. If you think you want to study cognitive psych, go for it. You might run into a roadblock but find the people who have your back. Find a good advisor that will look out for you. Similarly, if you want to go for industry do not let the conversations around staying in academia dissuade you.

10. How do you protect your time?

    I think you have to set aside a certain time where you say you are done working for the day or that you are taking a break. I wake up at 6 and set aside time to work out. Then, I get to the lab between 8:30 and 9 in order to leave between 3 and 4. I work for a few more hours at home sometimes, but I make sure I have some set time for myself. It might feel impossible, but if you don’t do this, you will burn out. You need to have things you enjoy when you aren’t working – e.g. gaming or music or some other hobby. It also really helps to have an advisor that is very understanding of the importance of having time to yourself, and I consider myself very lucky to have that.