Are You Paying Attention? Grinnellians Investigate Attention and Memory

Back in May, four psychology students launched a Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) led by visiting associate professor of psychology Chris Conway. Their project, which wrapped last week, investigated implicit learning — learning without awareness — and tests exactly how much attention is required to soak up new information. One classic example, says Conway, is infants learning how to speak a new language.

“An infant isn’t trying to figure out what verbs are and what nouns are. It happens through exposure. So, one of the questions we’re asking is how much attention is required to learn.”

Conway points out that implicit learning occurs more often than you might think, happening unconsciously in all types of situations, “such as when picking up a new language through immersion and interaction with a language, learning a new skill or sport, or learning and adapting to new social expectations or cultural norms.”

Nichole Henning ’26, one of the student researchers of the project, has always been interested in memory and learning within the field of cognitive science. Because of Grinnell’s liberal arts curriculum, statistical learning (a form of implicit learning) showed up in her linguistics class, too, which further intrigued her. Before she knew it, she was reviewing Professor Conway’s research outline in preparation for the summer.

“One of the things on his outline [for the project] was the issue of individual differences, and how gender and socioeconomic class can also affect your ability to statistically learn. The social side of it made me even more interested.”

And so began her collaboration with fellow student researchers Saniya Kelkar ’25, Elizabeth Clarkson ’25, and Nikki Ware ’25. “I love coming up with the ideas [for studies],” says Conway. “How do we design a study to answer our questions? I love working on that process with students.”

Eventually, the research team decided on a computerized experiment that would capture participants’ implicit learning in the face of a seemingly simple task. Among some of their research questions included how higher stress levels, specific personality traits, and levels of musical experience could affect how participants perform on their experiment.

The Grand Experiment

The experiment had two phases: the familiarization phase and the testing phase. Before the familiarization phase, the participants were given two “target” shapes to track, meaning that once they see the shape, they must click a button on a Chronos button box, which logs reaction time and accuracy.

“This is to make sure they are attending to those two shapes,” says Henning. “And to make sure they are staying engaged throughout the familiarization phase.” In the familiarization phase, the participants are unknowingly exposed to different patterns of complex shapes and colors — which they would hopefully remember after watching four sequences of these patterns.

Henning describes the shapes as being in sequences of four, where they follow a pattern of A-X-Y-B. Though there might be intervening shapes in between, A will always predict B. Meanwhile, X and Y are adjacent dependencies, which Henning describes as a pattern that has no intervening elements, in which X perfectly predicts Y.

So, although the participants are paying attention to only the target shapes in each sequence, Henning and her fellow researchers are examining whether or not their participants would pick up on the undercover A-B and X-Y patterns, as well.

Then the testing phase begins, where the subjects have a chance to show if they picked up on these patterns. They were given 12 correct sequences, as well as 12 incorrect ones with pattern violations. Subjects were asked to identify which sequences were violations and which ones were correct.

To analyze the data in relation to other variables, the research team collected a wide array of information — demographics, learning disabilities, attention disorders, perceived stress levels, personality styles, and levels of language and music experience — all of which Conway suggests could influence learning ability.

“Our preliminary findings suggest that people who score high on certain personality traits — specifically, ‘openness to experience’ (which includes things like being adventurous and intellectually curious) — have better implicit learning abilities,” Conway shares. “Likewise, our initial data suggests that people who dwell on past stressful events also show better implicit learning abilities.” For now, these findings are only correlational, but Conway indicates this could be a great starting point for future research.

Conway says he is most excited to analyze his experiment’s data with his students, who he says have grown close during the summer. “They are awesome. They’ve gotten along great and work well together,” he remarks. Outside of research, Conway and his students have played friendly games of tennis as a bonding experience.

The visiting professor, who is teaching at a liberal arts college for the first time, says his students are constantly engaged, which will serve them well if they decide to attend graduate school in the future.

Reflecting on this first experience conducting out-of-class research, Henning says that she and her peers have collected a large range of skills. “I’ve learned that I really enjoy technical writing and editing,” says Henning. “To be able to experience research is an incredibly valuable experience for me. I really liked working with my peers and the topic is so interesting.”

All MAPs, including Conway’s, were celebrated on Thursday, July 25, to mark the culmination of the “Summer MAPs @ Burling” series. While there, students provided highlights of their research, answered questions, and received constructive feedback about their research and presentation.