Full Reflection - Nathelie

The most valuable part of this exposure was observing how eye-tracking exposes hidden features of human cognition that may not be visible otherwise. What stirred my thought the most was the realization that eye-tracking is able to evade the limitations of self-report methods by understanding the gap between what we think we are attending and what we are looking at. I thought it was fascinating that simply looking in a certain direction can provide such depth of exploration into automatic and controlled cognitive processes. 

Besides, one significant takeaway for me was the amount of precision and control needed to provide trustworthy results. I never thought about how things like lighting, calibration, and participant movements could affect data quality. Even a subtle head movement could render an entire dataset unusable! It made me realize that quality research takes an immense amount of detail and patience, and methodology is where theory goes to live or die. This experience has also had an impact on how I view my own journey as a researcher. I was reminded that research is not just about collecting data but also appreciating the story behind every observation. The real challenge is being able to make sense of thousands of data points in a comprehensible pattern that informs about cognitive processes all participants experience.

Lastly, what was most shocking to me was how the gaze plots demonstrated relatively unconscious shifts in attention. These visualizations showed that attention is not a spotlight we are consciously in control of, but a system of competing inputs we are hardly aware of. If I was able to utilize what I learned, I would study how attention differs when people see emotional vs neutral stimuli and try to look at patterns that emerge with the initial orienting effects, sustained attention effects, individual differences such as anxiety or mood. Overall, this visit deepens my curiosity for technology-based research, and it strengthen my motivation to work in areas of study that combine psychology and innovation.