Karen L. Campbell, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, has received an Early Career Award from the Psychonomic Society, the leading organization in the experimental study of cognition.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a significant achievement on its own, as only four scholars are recognized each year among the organization\u2019s 4300 members worldwide. But for Campbell, the award has special meaning, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cPsychonomics was the first conference I ever went to as a new grad student,\u201d says Campbell, adding that as a first generation university student, she had no idea what to expect from the event. \u201cI was totally amazed by all the science and loved the experience.\u00a0That\u2019s when I knew I was hooked \u2014 that this is what I wanted to do with my life, if possible.”<\/p>\n
She plans to help others discover the possibilities of studying science, as well, by donating half of the financial portion of her Early Career Award to Actua Canada<\/a>, a charity that does youth outreach to increase diversity in STEM.<\/p>\n Campbell, who holds a Tier II Canada Research Chair in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging and was named a Fellow of the Psychonomic Society in 2018, says she was quite surprised by the award announcement.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to think that it reflects the creativity of the work,\u201d she says. \u201cI try not to take the standard approach of \u2018everything gets worse with age,’ because how can that be, when most of the older people in our lives are still vibrant, interesting contributors to society?\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, Campbell studies how \u201cthe way we test cognition might be giving the impression that certain abilities decline with age.\u201d<\/p>\n