Daisy Fang, Entry #1, Settling In

               During spring term long weekend, I met with the graduate student I am working for, Jill, and my PI, Dr. Winner. However, upon arriving to the Arts and Mind Lab at Boston College, I had no idea what to expect of a psychology lab knowing that there won’t be fume hoods containing dangerous chemicals or busy researchers dressed in white lab coats. After my first week, I am slowly figuring out how the lab operates. The main lab space is a medium-sized office, acting as the “brain” of the lab where all the testing data and paperwork are stored. Lab members have a lot of flexibility in terms of work space and hours, as they have the option of working in the main office, the library in the basement of the building, or even classrooms when they are not away testing children participants of the studies in residences, museums or schools. It is common for research assistants to take days off during the week, since most of the testing appointments are scheduled at night or during the weekends. As a result, there could be three meetings happening at once in the office, or there could be two people quietly working.

McGuinn Hall, where my lab is located, houses the Graduate School of Social Work.

               Currently, there are three main researches going on: Studio Habits of Mind, Ensemble Habits of Mind, and the one I am focusing on, El Sistema. All the researches are overseen by Jill, and there are 8 undergraduate research assistants and 3 interns (including me) in the lab. Luckily, I am primarily working on the research I wrote my proposal on, exploring the effect of orchestral music training on children’s cognitive and affective development in relation to school attitude. During my first few days, I was trained to administrate the testing, and score test results. I also got to shadow my RA on one of the testing appointments.

View outside the window of the lab office.

               In the next couple of weeks, I will be mostly scoring the over two hundred test results and finishing up with testing appointments while helping out on other projects. I really look forward to conducting a test by myself, and hopefully analyzing the data once data collection ends. I am also very excited to explore parts of the city that I haven’t lived in before and go on food adventures in my free time!