Student Researcher of Color:
Caleb Jackson

Jackson is a recent graduate of the Department of Psychology at Bowie State University.

Tell us about your research.

My research examines the effect of masks on emotion recognition and empathy. I worked alongside Ometha Lewis-Jack, PhD, in the Department of Psychology. I also communicated across disciplines by seeking advice from Rosemary Shumba, PhD, in the Department of Computer Science as well. During the study, I programmed a randomized face application that briefly showed participants a series of images of facial expressions. Some of the faces had masks, and some did not. Participants were then asked to identify the emotions the expressions portrayed. Both demographic and empathy data were collected; we wanted to examine how those with high empathy levels identified emotions. The results revealed that highly empathetic participants were able to identify emotions quickly and accurately regardless of whether a mask was on. These findings suggest that highly empathetic participants use different mechanisms for identifying emotions on faces obscured by masks.

What inspired your interest in this area of study?

My life mission is to help folks adapt to different circumstances while maintaining fulfilling relationships with one another, which requires emotionally connecting and communicating with others. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted a lot of people’s comfort levels and ability to connect with each other. I personally still find it difficult to comfortably engage with folks in person, so studying how something as simple as masks affected social connections fascinated me! I also wanted a study that challenged me to practice my coding skills, so building a time-capturing and accuracy-scoring application was at the forefront of my mind. Moreover, I am always interested in learning more about things I do not know a lot about. I have already studied attention, so I was ready to explore a new area of cognition.

How do you see your research moving the field of psychology?

This research adds more context to social psychology and health psychology professions, because it expands the understanding of the role of empathy in social interactions. In the field of medicine, for example, masks inhibit health care providers’ ability to connect with patients and establish trust, so this research helps to identify ways of improving those vital relationships. It is well understood that when a health care provider gains a patient’s trust, it leads to better health outcomes, because patients tend to follow the guidance of their health care provider if they trust them. Schools are another location where masks may interfere with emotion recognition. Understanding how masks affect students’ ability to connect with their peers and educators could inform best practices when it comes to making sure individuals are both protected and well connected with one another.

What policy, practice, and public health significance does your research have?

This research is important because emotions play a key role in communicating and connecting with one another. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, masks have been vital in efforts to protect communities by preventing the spread of the virus; however, they also disrupt one’s ability to accurately and quickly identify emotions. Health care providers, for example, play a vital role in helping patients feel safe and comfortable in a hospital setting. When a health care provider enters a patient’s room, they greet and communicate with the patient, but doing so effectively requires emotion identification, and this is affected by the use of masks. This is only one example of the many situations where masks affect emotion recognition and ultimately social interaction.

What is something you wish you knew about the research process before you started?

I wish I had known more about research software engineering and the ways in which software helps support and establish behavioral experiments online. I had assumed software engineering mostly encompassed social media applications and the mechanics of how web browsers work. I never knew there were plenty of software packages that not only help researchers run experiments but also analyze results. Knowing this now allows me to marry my interest in computing with my passion for understanding human behavior. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic led many professional sectors to embrace connecting online, including psychology. In addition to counselors offering therapy online, psychology researchers moved their experiments online as well. Now, more and more experiments incorporate online platforms for collecting data, running experiments, and analyzing and deriving meaningful results.

What’s next for you?

I currently work as a software engineer for a software consulting company, but I plan to move more toward research software engineering. I would love to work in one of the national labs supporting computational neuroscience projects or at a company with products relating to science (e.g., genetic testing apps or mood or sleep tracking apps). Taking a few years to expose myself to different sorts of work would allow me to narrow down my career goals and research interests before pursuing my PhD.

I would love to get connected with a local STEM group to work with and inspire youth (and college students) to continue pursuing science careers, because there is so much left to be discovered! I particularly would love to work with Black and Brown LGBTQ+ folks, because we bring a unique perspective to this work. I remember the impact of having a good mentor along the way, and I would love to fill that role for someone else.