Several weeks ago I was about to quietly enjoy milestone in my career. Dr. Glenna Read was the first doctoral student who I advised from start-to-finish during their time in Bloomington campus. And early in March I was invited to give a talk at her first job as an Assistant Professor at the Grady College of Communications at University of Georgia.
Spring at UGA
This invitation was an honor in itself, of course, but it reminded me of my first year as an Assistant Professor at University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa when I invited my dissertation adviser, Annie Lang, to come and give the Reese Phifer Lecture to my new set of students and colleagues. So, in a nostalgic way this trip back to the south was a way for me to pay it forward.
I was happy to see that Glenna had followed the advice that Paul Bolls and I gave her in our book (and which we had received via Annie in hers), which was to set up a lab at your first job and put a sign on the door announcing it ASAP.
Dr. Read’s Lab Sign!
It is a bit temporary looking because, she is in a temporary space right now. The Grady School has redesigned a new space for her lab, to her specs, which is currently being built.
Trust Me, I was Speaking TO People
But, it was a wonderful brief trip to see my student (who actually became a colleague/collaborator very quickly during her time @ IU) begin to develop her own space, place, and research culture.
This ad was featured as a cover extension on a recent edition of Advertising Age.
It is pretty funny to me, given the type of research I do. It is for a company that I assume does in depth interviews with members of target audiences for advertisers. It’s a jab at the trend of ad researchers toward the use of biometric (psychophysiology) to ‘really know what the consumer is thinking’ about the ad.
Psychophysiological measures are time-intensive. And they are invasive, sometimes leaving the participant uneasy (look at that guy’s face!). The payoff is that they can tell us interesting things that the participant sometimes can’t…or won’t.
But, of course, psychophysiological measures tell us one thing. Sometimes when we askparticipants questions they tell us something different. And sometimes they tell us something that matches the physiological indications dead on.
But, it’s important to remember to use both types of measures.
