Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Jonathan Aaron Goldman

For us, choosing our inaugural Whiz Kid was, as they say, a "no brainer." The nominee, however, has a truly beautiful mind:

Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Jonathan Aaron Goldman

• Nominator's Name: Joe Dowd; Plainview Patch Editor.
• Nominator's E-Mail: joe.dowd@Patch.com
• Whiz Kid's Name: Jonathan Aaron Goldman
• Whiz Kid's Age, School: Senior, Plainview JFK High School
• Whiz Kid's Accomplishment: Jonathan was named a finalist in the prestigious Intel Student Talent Search.
• Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness: Jonathan’s research project, entitled “Evidence for Link between Native Reading Language and Internal/External Search Processes.” Jonathan is excelling in five AP courses, president of the Science Honor Society and a member of the DECA club. He also volunteers at the Old Bethpage Restoration Village.

Jonathan's research project hypothesized people would view images in the same direction in which they learned to read.

He displayed an image to see if subjects recalled features once the image was removed from view. English readers recalled features faster when located on the right side of the image, while Hebrew readers were faster on the left.

In the second task, subjects observed an image and needed to match that image to one of four displayed on a screen. Again, English-readers identified the matching image faster when located towards the right side of the display and vice versa for Hebrew subjects.

The results contradicted his hypothesis and indicated that one’s native language impacts the way one recalls images.  This has applications in business and education.