Erika Wise

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1. Where are you from originally? Where did you grow up?

I was born in Little Rock, AR, and I grew up in Mabelvale, AR. It's a little town outside of Little Rock.

2. Who is your faculty mentor?
I’m doing my honors thesis with Dr. Lampinen.

3. What is the topic of your honors thesis?
I'm working with prospective memory which deals with the ability of people to remember to perform certain actions in the future. This would be like remembering to mail a letter the next time they drive past the post office.

4. What is it like to work on an honors thesis in psychology?
It's always exciting. Right now I'm putting an experiment together and I'm learning how to run a new (new to me) computer program that will save all my data as people run through the experiment. An honors thesis also requires a lot of digging for background information which is always interesting, but does require a lot of time.

5. What kinds of resources for conducting your research are available to you?
Most of the time I am looking up previous studies in peer reviewed journals so I use electronic databases a lot. Then of course I also use the student population for the psychology department participant pool. There are other things like computer programs or even other departments to work with. The psychology department also has grants you can apply for to help pay for the research.  I also rely on the other students in Dr. Lampinen’s lab and the graduate students in the lab.

6. What has been your favorite psychology class so far and why?
I really enjoyed Abnormal Psychology mostly because I like learning about all of the unexplainable and sometimes untreatable conditions. Social Psychology was a favorite of mine too because I learned about a lot of social issues and played around with ways to possibly correct some of these issues using psychological studies and observations as a basis for that change.

7. What attracted you to the University of Arkansas?
I was attracted to the UofA because of the campus. The landscape is beautiful and I like that the buildings are spread out. Proximity was also a factor because I wanted to be far enough but not too far away from my home town.

8. Why did you decide to major in psychology?
I found myself always asking questions, analyzing, and observing and Psychology is a good field for people like me. Now I get to bug my professors with all of my questions instead of my family and friends. Not really, I probably bug them twice as much now.

9. What is it like living in Fayetteville?
Living in Mabelvale I was always far (20 minutes really) away from the city and in Fayetteville I enjoy being around the corner from everything. Plus, Fayetteville is growing and I like being a witness to some of the developments taking place.

10. What kinds of things do you do for fun?
Most of the time I just hang out with friends. It's free fun. But if I get an itch I'll take a road trip to neighboring states for the weekend or I'll enjoy dinner on Dickson.

11. What do you hope to do after graduation?
After graduation I would like to take a break from school for a while. Everyone says this, but I really do want to travel for a while. After a year I'd like to continue my education in a clinical psychology graduate program somewhere.

12. What advice do you have for students thinking of getting involved in research in the psych department?
Go for it. The more creativity and hard work the better.