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Learn about me & my missionApril 02nd, 2008 | I'm Going to Caltech!
This text was fully written by a human.
- I got into the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) 2008 program at Caltech. Overall, I’m thrilled to embark on this exciting adventure in California!
- My research will focus on autism and perception, specifically comparing how individuals with autism and those without perceive and interact with faces.
- We’ll test the hypothesis that social anxiety drives reduced eye contact in autism. An eyetracker will measure gaze patterns on human and animal eyes.
I’m Going to Caltech!
Guess what? I’ve got fantastic news! I got a place in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) 2008 program at the California Institute of Technology (aka CalTech).
So I’m off to California for an exciting adventure.
What Will I Research at Caltech?
My plan? To dive into scientific research on autism and perception (see: papers/autism). Specifically, this project explores how humans and animals see faces, especially comparing those with autism to those without.
According to Klin, Jones, Schultz, Volkmar, and Cohen (2002), individuals with autism fixate less on other people’s eyes during social scenes. Instead, they attend more to mouths, bodies, and background objects.
Why Might People With Autism Avoid Eye Contact?
The idea is that people with autism might feel stressed during social interactions, leading to less eye contact. According to Corden, Chilvers, and Skuse (2008), reduced eye contact in Asperger’s syndrome links to avoidance of the eye region and heightened social anxiety. In fact, according to Dalton and colleagues (2005), looking at eyes activates the amygdala more strongly in autistic viewers.
How Will We Test It?
Then, we’ll test the social anxiety hypothesis with an eyetracker. In fact, it will measure how long participants look at human and animal eyes. Ultimately, here’s hoping for a successful study!
Please cite as:
Bielczyk, N.
(2008, April 2nd). Why Am I Going to Caltech?. Retrieved from: https://nataliabielczyk.com/going-to-caltech/
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