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Guest Speaker Holly Westfall - RECAP! UP NEXT: Choosing Courses in CogSci!

Kiana Lai Ching Gee - Tuesday, April 27, 2021
 General 

Hi everyone! 

Thank you to those of you who were able to join us for our guest speaker presentation with Holly Westfall where she discussed her journey from undergrad to graduate school and her current research. In case you missed it, here are some of the things she discussed:

Holly's Journey:

  • Holly got her bachelor's and master's degree in psychology in Florida. 
  • She later dropped out of her first graduate school, moved across the country, and worked as a statistician at UCI before applying to UCI's Cognitive Sciences PhD program.
Current Research: 
  • Holly's current research involves using cognitive models to try to understand how episodic memory and semantic memory change in response to healthy cognitive aging and cognitive impairment.
Holly's Favorite Research Project - Modeling Triadic Comparison of Animal Names:
  • Three Hypotheses (and their findings):
    • Representational Restructuring Hypothesis - Comparison of adjacent FAST stages shows that people use about 45 of 200 features regardless of impairment, and features are relatively identical. 
    • Change in Attention Hypothesis - Features are classified into categories, feature weights are not drawn from a distribution that depends on both category and FAST stage. 
    • Noisy Access Hypothesis - Allows for response determinism and recency bias in the choice rule. As people become more impaired, they become less predictable in odd one-out choices, and changes in choice behavior can be explained by impaired use of animal similarities. 
  • Conclusion: Evidence for the Noisy Access Hypothesis - access to representations becomes noisier with impairment. 
Holly's Advice:
  • Read as much as you can and ask questions. 
  • Learn a programming language (R, Python, Matlab, etc.)
  • Statistics/advanced mathematics classes (calculus, linear algebra, etc.) are a plus.
  • On your application, focus on skills you have developed (not just in academia) with evidence. 
  • There is no "right way" to approach grad school; do what works best for you!
  • Don't stay with something that makes you miserable. There is always something else you can do. 
Again, thank you to everyone who was able to listen in on Holly's amazing presentation, and a big thank you to Holly Westfall for taking the time to share about her journey and career this evening!

Cross Campus Event - THIS SATURDAY (5/1)!

The CSA Cross Campus Event is happening THIS SATURDAY at 5:00pm. You’ll have the opportunity to learn from the “Demystifying Graduate School” panel, with speakers from different campuses including UCI’s very own Dr. Grossman, and you’ll also get the chance to interact with students from schools like UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, and Stanford! After the panel, you'll also get to interact with students from different campuses by participating in a fun escape room and Kahoot game. Don’t miss out on this awesome event. Register today!

UP NEXT: Choosing Courses in CogSci!

Join us next Tuesday (5/4) at 7:00 pm for a guide through next quarter's courses and times! During this meeting, we’ll provide some loose guidelines for what courses to choose depending on your specific interests, as well as the times those courses will be so you can start creating your own schedule. This is also a perfect opportunity to come with any questions about courses next quarter. RSVP today!

Important Links

** If you're not already a member on campusgroups, please follow this link and click "join"

CSA Linktree - A link that will take you to the different CSA media sites, including the CSA Discord channel, CSA Facebook page, CSA Instagram page, and the CSA website. It will also take you to the CSA padlet website where you have access to a special goody bag. 

Interest Form - Required all members fill this out. We use these responses to create specific meeting topics and activities, as well as recruit guest speakers according to your interests.

CSA Campusgroups Page - Here you can see upcoming events and RSVP. We will also post meeting topics and links here.

UCI Cognitive Science Colloquium - This is a student-run speaker series on various hot topics in cognitive science. This series is more aimed toward graduate students so don't worry if some words/concepts sound like Latin

Cognitive Science Research Labs - A list of all the research/labs being done in the cognitive science program. A great place to find labs that you'd be interested in partaking in! 

Psych Research List - A website with a compiled list of internship opportunities and grad school information for psych and cog sci students. 

CSA Resume-Builder Resources - A document of resources compiled by CSA’s Opportunities Committee. This doc contains links to videos and courses to help you build up skills that are useful in the many areas of cognitive science, and will look great on your resume!


CSA Stickers!

Help support the CSA by purchasing some real cool CSA stickers! The current designs are the "I lobe you" sticker (2'X1") and the CSA Logo sticker (2"X1.25"), both of which can be previewed in the order form. Your generosity will allow us to host amazing events in the future. Order your stickers HERE

Job Opportunity - Behavior Technician

Building Block Resolutions, a rapidly growing ABA company that provides innovative
individualized approaches to assist children and adolescents diagnosed with autism, is currently searching for enthusiastic and motivated individuals for a paid part-time behavior technician position. For the flyer containing more information about the requirements, responsibilities, and benefits of the position, please email us OR contact support@buildingblockresolutions.com.

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