• Question: What has been your most interesting find?

    Asked by anon-283688 to Ioana, David, Melissa on 9 Mar 2021. This question was also asked by anon-283777.
    • Photo: David McGonigle

      David McGonigle answered on 9 Mar 2021:

      Hi Abby and Holly! Tough question…because, to be honest, I’m not sure I’ve found out anything particularly ‘interesting’ so far! But I try to live and work in a manner that doesn’t rely on chasing what’s currently cool in science – and hopefully neither of you will, either, if you’re thinking about getting into psychology, neuroscience, or science in general. Advancing the ‘sum of all knowledge’ (I know, it sounds a bit…well…!) is all about putting the little brick of your findings into a wall, and hoping that it helps someone else to build on it, advancing what we know about life, the universe and everything a little further. Even really famous scientists recognise that their work builds on what has gone before: Isaac Newton once famously stated, ‘If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants’. I’m no giant, but hopefully, I can give someone a wee leg-up…

Comments

  • laraquartel commented on :

    Hi all!

    I am still in the early days of my research, but some of my predecessor colleagues found fascinating concept from looking at home videos of very young children who later developed schizophrenia as an adult. They found that you can notice deficits, such as walking, socialising or talking differently compared to their healthy younger counterparts!

  • Photo: Dennis

    Dennis commented on :

    Hi Abby. My research is resilience among adolescents. In particular, I’m drawn to what make an adolescent resilient while others seem to struggle.
    There’s an elegant study done in 1988 entitled ‘The Mathematics of Street Vendors’ which involved poor Brazilian children who didn’t go to school; they’re street vendors. Of couse, one would expect these children to do poorly on maths problems compared to those children who go to school. But researchers found out that when you contextualise maths problems, those children who didn’t go to school can do just as well, or sometimes better. I love this research because its at the core of my mission – if you provide vulnerable adolescents with the opportunity to thrive and flourish, they will.