Kiss and Tell

If you've read some of my previous blogs, you've probably seen a few pictures and stories from the psychology conferences I went to this spring, SEPA and APS. In the past I've just gone along with my lab group to these meetings, taking in what I could about the world of research in psychology. I was a second author for a paper, but that basically just meant completing all of the grunt work that goes along with doing a study. Well, this fall it's all going to change, because I am finally starting a study of my very own! In Dr. Bohannon's lab, the majority of studies focus on a phenomenon known as "flashbulb memory". A flashbulb memory is an extremely vivid memory caused by a traumatic familial event. Students in the lab have previously studied memories for topics such as divorce of parents, the September 11th attacks, death of a loved one, and personal injury. For my study, however, I am interested in the differences between memories for events related to negative and positive emotions. To account for this issue, my questionnaires will ask participants about their best and worst romantic kisses. I'm hoping to get some pretty cool results so I can present my own poster at the conferences in the spring! (Did I mention we're going to New Orleans and San Francisco?!) It should be an interesting study, and I'm excited to see how everything turns out!