Photo courtsy of Monica Lucianna
Since October, seven Ramapo students have been working alongside Dr. Joseph Cataliotti, associate professor of neuropsychology, in a psychology research group. One of many psychology research groups on campus, Cataliotti and his students are investigating two lines of perception research, both proprioception and mirror tracing, as well as color perception.
“The goal is to try to just discover the basic processes by which human vision and perception take place...It’s a puzzle and so it’s just a challenge to figure out how humans experience the world - what are the processes? That’s the fun part. I ask my students this - what would you hope to accomplish by landing on the moon?...When students get involved in this, just like a moon landing, there are all these technologies that were invented and all these things were discovered along the way as a part of that process. So when students get involved with that research, they’re learning all sorts of things that are almost incidental. There’s secondary learning that takes place,” Cataliotti said, explaining that the goals of his group are far larger than just conducting research and often involve providing students with experience valuable to their careers.
According to College Board, 16 percent of Ramapo’s students are psychology majors, making psychology one of Ramapo’s most popular subjects. With that level of interest, there are currently 10 other psychology groups conducting similar faculty-led research. Each of these groups is usually comprised of two to eight students, with involvement ranging from just a semester to two years of research. According to Cataliotti, over the last 15 years, research groups on campus similar to his perception group have increased. He himself has been doing this sort of work since 1992, working with at least 100 students, with many of his groups going on to present locally or regionally at conferences.
“We have a lot of psych majors and for them to be able to sit down with a faculty member in a group like this and have these sort of interactions — that’s really important as an experience. They’re not going to get that all the time in a classroom. You really get to know the students, they really get to know a single professor and it also helps them professionally. When they graduate, they have this experience; I write a letter of recommendation for graduate school or a job — it’s really important,” Cataliotti said.
Cataliotti’s group in particular is looking at two lines of research, the first involving proprioception and mirror tracing. The group recently asked volunteers to participate in a series of tasks, one of which involved tracing the outline of a star but not looking at their hand. Instead, participants were asked to look at the reflection of their hand tracing the star in the reflection of a mirror.
“What we’re trying to figure out is how to affect the mirror tracing task — how to facilitate it to make it go quicker, to have the performance go up, or to inhibit it in some way or slow it down … it’s a learning task, so you get better at it from one trial to the next so we’re trying to facilitate that process or inhibit that process,” Cataliotti said.
The group’s second line of research involves color perception. Looking at the simultaneous lightness contrast illusion, the group hopes to find "super seers," or participants who cannot see the illusion, which is widely accepted to be experienced by all.
“We’re trying to figure out what makes a super seer a super seer. Why are they super seers? Why are they not seeing that illusion while most people — say, 95 percent of the population — does see this illusion?” Cataliotti said.
For students involved, many of which have taken Cataliotti’s classes before, the research group allows them to apply what they have learned.
“I’ve gained more knowledge about perception from doing hands on experiments, which is something you don’t always get to do in a class,” Emily Shipley, senior, said.
Monica Lucianna, a junior in the research group, commented further on the professional benefits of the group.
“By discussing ideas with a group, I've learned to work together with others in a professional way and have ideas grow from that,” Lucianna said.
The idea of gaining professional experience seems to be one of Cataliotti’s main goals with the group.
“They have this sort of a professional socialization that takes place that you would not get in a classroom. The conference presentation and the conference attendance is part of that — so they get to see what it’s like to be a graduate student. They actually get to go to a conference and see other students who are graduate students or they have to get together a poster presentation and present it to the rest of the campus. So that’s a process that’s really important to experience and to learn,” Cataliotti said.
The group is planning to present their findings on a poster at Ramapo’s Psychology Research Symposium later this spring.
ssprovie@ramapo.edu