Joshua Bain ’23 is preparing to present his Senior Thesis Project “The Effect of Aphantasia on Visual Memory Retention” at the Carolina’s Psychology Conference in April.
A Psychology major, Bain experiences aphantasia and describes it as “closing your eyes, imagining an object, and not being able to view the object in your mind.”
He started his project in the in the Spring of 2022 under the supervision of Dr. Eric Laws. Together, they designed a study to explore aphantasia.
Bain said finding an advisor, being self-directed, and having deadlines were paramount to defending his thesis to his faculty committee, which included his advisor, Dr. Laws, and three other psychology faculty members: Dr. Sarai Blincoe, Dr. Max Hennings, and Dr. Stephanie Buchert.
Bain said during this process he was able to “get comfortable collecting and analyzing his own data,” including the use of SPSS, a statistics package often used to conduct data analysis. He even enlisted the help of his dad and created a website for data collection where participants had to study pictures and complete memory tasks.
He said, “Seeing all the pieces come together” and “the increasing number of participants” was an exciting moment for him.
A member of the Cormier Honors College for Citizen Scholars, Bain also has minors in Neuroscience Studies and Outdoor Education.
After graduation, he plans to attend the applied Neuroscience Ph.D. program at the College of William and Mary.
Congratulations to Joshua Bain on his successful research!