UMW associate professor of psychology Dave Kolar studies first impressions. He says, 'Research supports that those first impressions are very important. When people see you performing a behavior, they assume it's you, not the situation.' PHOTOS BY ROBERT A. MARTIN/THE FREE LANCE-STAR View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

UMW professors have their studies on a string

UMW professors' research ranges from taboo to magical

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Date published: 5/1/2009

By Edie Gross

In our second look at some of the research under way at the University of Mary Washington, we take you from the theater of the stage to the theater of the mind.

--Edie Gross

KEVIN MCCLUSKEY, PUPPETRY

At 14, Kevin McCluskey spied a marionette that he desperately wanted and resolved to earn the $40 it would take to buy it.

So when he found the puppet, nestled in its yellow box with the cellophane front, under the Christmas tree that year, he was ecstatic.

"I have never wanted anything in my life so badly," said McCluskey, who received the puppet from his grandmother.

He'd watched his first puppet show, "Peter and the Wolf," rapt and cross-legged on the floor of his elementary school's lunchroom. Now a teenager, he was pulling the strings.

He steadily added to his collection--a clown that could do tricks, a queen, a girl with braids--and performed for family members, neighbors and parishioners at his church.

"I was mesmerized by how magical it was," said the UMW theater professor. "Puppetry truly was my first love in all things theater."

Many look at puppets as merely dolls, he said, but they go well beyond child's play. Teachers, doctors and therapists have used puppets to reach their students and patients.

And theatrically, they've starred in a number of adult productions, including the Tony Award-winning Broadway musicals "The Lion King" and "Avenue Q." And let's not forget about Audrey II, the giant man-eating plant in the musical "Little Shop of Horrors."

"They can be quite powerful," said McCluskey, who helped students build an enormous puppet in 2005 for a UMW production of "Kindertransport."

"They're both frightening and empowering at the same time," he said. "They're frightening in that they're sort of possessed dolls come to life. They empower because they do things we can't do as humans."

DAVID MACEWEN, MULTITASKING

You may think you can safely drive and chat on the cell phone simultaneously, but you're courting disaster, according to research completed by UMW psychology professor David MacEwen and a team of his students.

"Multitasking as we think about it is impossible," said MacEwen. "Really, what people are doing is switching back and forth. The question becomes how well can you do it?"

Picture a box. What you're doing right this minute--presumably reading this article--is in that box. That's your working memory.

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Date published: 5/1/2009