Welcome back! Thanks for checking in so I am not talking to myself! As usual, I have put some of my key learnings at the bottom of the entry, so feel free to skip! The last few weeks have continued to be hectic, but maybe this will never change and is the same for all PhDs…. If you read my last entry, you will know I had signed up to a lot of events, both internal and external. For starters, I presented the work of my MSc to the Bangor Psychology group known as SNaC (Social Neuroscience and Cognition). This was a positive experience, but I learnt a lot at the same time. For instance, I often rambled, forgot what I was saying (despite notes) and couldn’t always answer the questions whether because I didn’t have the answer (and said so) or because I couldn’t articulate what I meant to a group of people who are naïve to my topic area. This was a much more challenging experience than I had thought, something that was probably made worse as I made the PowerPoint back in September and relied on my memory for every detail rather than making sure it was refreshed. Still, an internal presentation is something I would definitely reconsider, people seemed to enjoy it, and I was invited back to present more findings later on in the year. I also applied to I’m A Scientist (and would definitely recommend people get involved with this) and was REJECTED. This is something I want to highlight as part of my academic journey. Rejection is a part of everyday life, but also forms a significant part of academia, whether someone else was selected for a role, a paper rejection, or something just wasn’t the right fit. Whatever the reason, its important to acknowledge. Too often people shout their achievements from the rooftop but forget to say about all the failures* that led them to that point. It’s like that amazing article with fantastic results and a great method, but you never hear about the research process, and everything that went wrong to get them there. In line with this, I had to resubmit my one-month review form after being told it may be too ambitious (I like to set myself up to fail!). I learnt an important lesson here; it is better to under promise and overdeliver than it would be too over promise and under deliver. Something to bear in mind for the future. Despite this setback, I am going to give a talk on my research to some A-level students and have been accepted to present a poster at the Experimental Psychology Society meeting in January. I am also presenting at the Bangor Psychology PGR Winter Conference. Granted this is mandatory so I don’t really have a choice, but I am also organising the conference, sorting the programme and collecting abstracts / submissions. This will be my first time organising a conference and will be the first PGR Winter Conference held online (for obvious reasons), so it is quite scary, but an opportunity to be relished. I have collected data for my current experiment, with over 200 sign-ups. This is really fantastic (although some will be excluded because they can’t follow instructions and failed attention checks... very annoying). This is to finish off my work from last year, so it is incredibly exciting. This will hopefully go toward two papers that I am working on as the analyses were so large! I have also drafted another ethics application for an adapted Go/NoGo task. Finally, the Executive Functions Lab has a lot to celebrate after yesterday. Ashleigh Johnstone passed her PhD viva (as we all knew she would). Anyone who knows Ashleigh knows she is at the heart of the lab and even though she is moving on to work at Gorilla, she will always be an integral part of the lab. Congratulations Dr. Johnstone! *Note: I use the term failure for something that wasn’t successful, but this doesn’t mean you failed, it just means it wasn’t the right time. Take Away Messages: 1. Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know something, even if it is related to your own work. 2A. Take every opportunity you are given 2B. Don’t be afraid of being rejected. 3. Acknowledge and talk about your ‘failures’* 4. Never give up 5. Under promise and over deliver, not the other way round. As always everyone, don’t forget you can comment on this blog or alternatively you can use the Contact Page to find ways to connect with me! Take care and stay safe, Harry.
