Tracking eye movements in the Binder Lab
Rising Mount Holyoke College senior Phoebe Baskin ’26 is spending her summer working in the lab of William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Psychology Katherine Binder, studying reading comprehension.
Phoebe Baskin ’26 from Hampstead, New Hampshire, is spending her summer working in the laboratory of Katherine Binder, William R. Kenan, Jr. professor of psychology at Mount Holyoke College. The lab is focused on studying the reading comprehension and cognition of adults and children, using a variety of means, including eye-tracking.
Baskin’s current work analyzes the reading cognition of students with learning disabilities in elementary school.
“We are working to understand how [the kids] read and how they answer questions from a series of passages,” Baskin said.
The goal of the research is to gain a better understanding of how elementary school students read and understand different materials; future research can use the findings to create better reading strategies and support for neurodivergent students.
Throughout this summer, Baskin’s main task has been to interpret and code the data that other students had collected during the spring semester.
“A lot of my days are spent looking at dots and coding what they mean,” Baskin said. “Right now we’re in the process of putting everything together. We’ve run analyses to see certain correlations to try to understand the next direction of the research.”
Baskin has previously worked with young children in a variety of capacities, including as a summer camp counselor. She appreciates how this work has allowed her to see some of the research behind the strategies used to support kids.
“It is really cool to understand the other side … and to understand childhood cognition in a more technical way,” Baskin said.
Additionally, Baskin feels this research is distinctive as a large portion of eye-tracking research has been focused on readers in general, rather than specifically working with people with specific learning disabilities.
“The findings can’t necessarily be applied to all children because neurodiverse minds may work differently,” Baskin said. “Hopefully the research could contribute to helping teach students with learning disabilities how to more effectively read and comprehend information.”
This research could also help to highlight possible deficiencies in current support strategies targeted towards kids with disabilities.
In planning her summer, Baskin knew she wanted to get more involved with research, especially research focused around children. She felt that it was the “missing piece” to her education at MHC.
As she was looking at the different lab positions offered by Mount Holyoke College psychology professors, Binder’s lab stood out to her immediately. She knew she was interested in doing education-related research and the lab was a perfect fit.
Thus far, Baskin feels she has grown a lot through engaging in this research work. She has gotten to improve her understanding of how laboratory research works and she feels she has gotten more detail oriented.
“I think that it has really improved my confidence as a student, doing this part of the psychology major that I thought I would have the hardest time with,” Baskin said.
As the summer comes to an end, Baskin plans to meet with Binder to go over the results they have collected so far so that Baskin can do a presentation at the annual LEAP symposium in the fall.
