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What kind of research do you do?
Professor Rouder is the Principal Investigator of the Structure in Perception and Cognition Lab, and one of the topics he is interested in is cognitive control, which is the ability to maintain focus or select elements from your environment, potentially at the expense of other elements. Cognitive control is similar to attention, but tends to be more abstract. For example, the Stroop Task, which involves subjects inhibiting the automatic activation of a word's meaning to report its color, can be used to measure cognitive control. Imagine you are presented the word red, but it is colored green, so you have to say green. In this scenario, reading "red" can be a difficult task. He is interested in whether there are different cognitive control for different tasks, or whether there is one common cognitive control. In addition, he is interested in investigating the significance of cognitive control. For instance, if someone performs well on cognitive control tasks, is that an indication of higher general intelligence, or could this mean that you are good at inhibiting stimuli in your environment and thus less susceptible to illusions?
Is there a project that you conducted and received recognition that you are particularly proud of?
There are 2 papers that Professor Rouder is particularly proud of.
- One is a methods paper concerning a new method for conducting ANOVA. The method is called "Bayes factor," and Professor Rouder and colleagues extended to the common case of ANOVA. This paper took 5 years and was like his second Ph.D.
- One of the coolest papers he wrote was asking if memory is discrete (all or none) or partial. In the context of recognition, he found really strong evidence that there were no partial memories (people either remember or they don't), and this paper gained some well-received recognition.
What advice would you give a student who wants to pursue research in this field or join your lab?
Undergrads who can greet and run participants in an engaging way are always welcome, since they are necessary for collecting high-quality data. However, since experiments have been run online during COVID rather than in-person, it can be difficult for undergraduate RAs to get involved if they plan on just running subjects. Undergrads who come in asking to learn how to program or have experience with Python and R are always welcome too, especially those who can program online experiments and analyze data. Professor Rouder stresses coding as a life skill that can open many doors. It is especially needed in science, because the more you can code, the more tools you have at your disposal to understand nature. If you can't code, then you have one tool, statistical tests, which is hammer. And if you only have a hammer, well, everything is a nail. If you want to listen to nature and hear her secrets you need a lot of tools besides a hammer. So, coding is necessary.
What kinds of industry jobs can you pursue with this background?
According to alumni in Professor Rouder's lab, the skills in data science are very similar to those used in research. For example, a Chief Data Scientist of Carfax collected from dealers maintenance records of cars and wanted to know if they can build models of car value based on how much the owner performed routine maintenance. He had to analyze a lot of data flexibly, much as we would do in the lab. Similarly, in research labs, scientists must investigate what are the covariates that allow us to understand the structure in the data.
What advice would you give a student who wants to remain in contact (or reach out to a Professor who they have never had a class with)?
For students who are interested in helping out by running participants in experiments, Professor Rouder recommends looking for advertisements to join his lab when the lab begins running experiments in-person or potentially online. He is always looking for students who are able to program psychology experiments and know Python, R, and JavaScript because currently, he is working on setting up experiments online.
Any advice for students?
Professor Rouder understands that online learning can be difficult for students and has noticed that since classes have gone remote, some students just watch and learn but never speak up and participate during class and office hours. He encourages students to have the courage to speak up, especially during these times. Don't be afraid to ask what you don't know, you are all exceptional students at a highly selective college, UC Irvine. There is no such thing as a bad question! If you do not understand something, take charge of your education and ask.
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