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Career
Profiles - Dawn Blasko
- Describe your career field.
I'm a cognitive psychologist and I study
the way people think, solve problems,
and use language. People have been interested
in how the mind works for thousands
of years, but it's only in the last
50 years or so that cognitive psychologist
have started to figure out ways to do
experiments to answer these questions.
The mind is VERY complicated. We try
to take a complicated problem like how
little kids learn hundreds and hundreds
of words by the time they are three
years old, and break it down into many
smaller questions. For example, we might
ask if their parents provide cues to
the word's meaning by looking at a new
object or changing their voice. We have
lots of tricky ways to find out how
the mind works even when we can't directly
see it happening. We often use computers
to help us show pictures or words and
to measure the time it takes someone
to get the answer. In recent years,
many cognitive psychologists have started
to use new techniques to watch the living
brain as it works. To do this we must
work in teams with people who study
the brain, people who know complicated
math to analyze our results, and people
who program the computers. A whole new
field called cognitive science is emerging
where psychologists work together with
engineers, philosophers, linguists,
and computer scientists to try to understand
how the mind works.
- How did you become interested
in this field?
Like most kids, I was always curious
about the way things worked. I loved
to go riding my horse in the woods and
watch the forest plants and animals.
But I also loved to draw and I enjoyed
singing in the chorus and playing my
flute in the school bands. By high school
I had decided that I wanted to be a
veterinarian. I loved reading James
Harriot's books about the country vet.
But a high school guidance counselor
told me that vet school was too hard
for a girl and that my interest tests
suggested that I should become a music
teacher. I cried all afternoon instead
of going back to class, but then I changed
my schedule to take out all of the math
and science classes and put in lots
more music classes. When I started college
I realized that I didn't want to be
a music teacher but I liked my psychology
courses. For family reasons I
took a little break from school that
turned into a long time. I went back
to school 8 years later as a psychology
major. I just wanted to help people
with their problems but when I did really
well in the toughest classes of the
major, statistics and research methods,
all of my love of science was reawakened.
One of my teachers encouraged me to
apply to grad school and here I am today!
- What education did you have to
obtain- how many years, what
major, degrees?
I have a bachelor's degree in psychology
which would take 4-years if you go full
time, but took me much longer. I have
a master's degree and Ph.D. in experimental
psychology which together took about
5 years.
- What were your favorite subjects
in school?
I liked most of my classes in grade
school and middle school especially
science, literature and the arts. I
wanted to take shop class in high school
but girls weren't allowed. There were
no computer classes so I had to learn
about computers many years later. I
had a hard time in some of my high school
math classes because math just didn't
seem very important after I decided
to be a music major. I still regret
not taking the optional higher math
and science classes. I feel like I've
been trying to catch up ever since.
I honestly can't think of a single class
that turned out not to be important.
In my job I read, write, use math, work
with people, and do science.
- What's every-day life like in
your field?
My job changes a lot from day to day.
This is what keeps it exciting. On some
days I teach courses and on others I
mostly prepare for classes and do research
in the lab. I design experiments, train
student researchers, help to analyze
data, and write papers for publication
in scientific journals. I use
computers all day long. They are an
amazing tool that have made our lives
much easier. Of course sometimes they
crash and make me crazy! I spend a lot
of time meeting with students to help
them with their course work, and advising
them about everything from what courses
to take, to whether they might want
to go to graduate school. I also spend
time on university committees helping
to keep the college humming along. I
coordinate the psychology lab -- this
means that I work with lots of students
to keep our laboratory and its equipment
ready for student and faculty research.
Running a research lab also requires
quite a bit of business skill. You need
to manage work teams, motivate people,
raise money for equipment and salaries
and handle budgets. My job also involves
travel. Several times a year, our research
team takes our results to conferences
all over the world where we share them
with others doing similar work. It's
really very exciting stuff!
- How do you balance a family and
career?
The first thing I want to say is that
if you have the will, there is a way!
Handling the demands of a professional
career and a family is not easy, but
it is also not impossible. Remember
that the more education you have, the
more choices you have, so above all,
get the education. Like many people,
I didn't take a traditional path straight
through school, so when I want back
to college I had a teenager at home
and a newborn. I also had to work full-time
during the nights to make ends meet.
My husband and I took turns with the
kids and it wasn't always easy. We were
tired a lot and for a while didn't see
much of each other, but we both knew
that our family was the first priority.
I had my second daughter while in graduate
school. I only missed one day of class
to have her and everyone at school was
very supportive. The most important
thing was that my family was behind
me. My husband worked at a factory job
that he hated for 10 years until I finished
school. Then he got to go back to school.
This year he's graduating from college
and all of us are very proud. We might
not have done things the easy way, but
we really appreciate the education that
we have now.
- What's the coolest thing about
your career?
I think the coolest thing about cognitive
science and psychology in general is
that you are consistently learning and
discovering new things. I teach one
thing one year and the next year new
research might have shown us more.
It is so exciting to be involved in
the greatest mystery of all time, understanding
the human mind, that it is simply impossible
to be bored. Even our students are changing
all of the time, so no two classes can
ever be alike. The long term impact
we can have is amazing. This is very
scary at times. I'm always wondering
if the class will go well. Will the
students understand? Will they see the
excitement of the field? Will our experiments
work out? Will someone else beat us
to the punch? But that also means that
there is much room for creativity and
personal initiative in both the teaching
and the research! Few fields can say
as much.
- Anything you would like to add?
Take advantage of all of the education
that is offered in and out of the classroom.
Pay attention to your teachers and texts,
but don't take them at face value. Don't
let anything discourage you from your
dreams. Don't listen to people who say
that studying and learning isn't cool.
Remember that knowledge is constantly
evolving so education is not about stuffing
facts into your heads, its about learning
how to learn. It's about learning how
to change the world. Always question
everything. Always consider other possible
answers. Never just sit around being
bored. It is a great waste. Pick up
a challenging book, learn a new language,
observe people, or travel and explore
even if its only your own neighborhood.
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