Friday, March 10, 2006

Guinea Pig or Lab Rat?

UPDATE: It was fun... kind of! It's an experiment to see if theatrical training improves cognitive functions like memory. I had to listen to and repeat two stories, listen to and repeat and two "grocery lists" (with items like drill, wrench, and pliers) and see figures on a computer screen and then draw them. All of that was fun, but when I got to the part where I had to solve math problems and then say a word, then remember the words in order, I got kind of frustrated because I didn't do so great on that part. My brain hurt.
Also, it's only ten bucks an hour, and Nanna is some kind of Germanic... maybe German, but maybe Polish?
I go back next Monday for phase two!

Later today I am taking part in a psychology experiment at the University of Michigan. I answered a flyer hanging up in the communications builiding at my school that said a study was looking for people with over eight years acting experience... and it pays twenty bucks an hour! So I called, and discovered that the girl heading the study, Nanna Notthoff (I'm expecting her to be German), wanted native English speakers with over eight years acting experience, to take part in a two-hour experiment. That's all I know. I'm excited to see what she asks me, or has me do, and why all the focus on acting experience? Maybe she'll be measuring my emotional response to certain stimuli (oooh, psychology words!), or how well I mask those emotions. Or maybe she'll be a total crackpot and at least I'll get a good laugh out of it. I'll let you know!

psych experiment - updated grade: B+

2 comments:

equippedtofascinate said...

How exciting. Make sure you find out more information before you show up. What if she needs you to act in a porn or something and then asks about what was going through your head during the experience. That would definitly get an A for a grade though.

Anonymous said...

lol about the porn

This sounds interesting!