Undergraduate Research
Undergraduate Research (COGS 199)
A 199 is an independent study course that is for individual, advanced students who wish to complete a one-quarter reading or research project under the mentorship of a faculty member. However, independent studies can often extend to an additional quarter or for the rest of the academic year. Students should contact faculty whose research interests them to discuss possible projects.
To qualify, you need:
- minimum 90.0 cumulative units
- minimum 2.5 cumulative GPA
- Completion of Special Studies Form, signed by sponsoring faculty member, approved by the Department (See Thanh Maxwell in CSB 140), and turned into the Registrar's Office by 4:30pm on Friday of Second Week of the quarter for which you plan on participating in the independent study for departmental approval
Guidelines for 199s:
- Must be taken Pass/No Pass
- Four units of course credit requires 12 hours per week of substantiative, supervised work defined by the faculty mentor
- A term project is required, defined by the mentor and described in the special studies form
Term projects may include, but are not limited to:
- Intensive directed reading project, 8-10 page or 4-5 page research paper, and an oral presentation in front of a laboratory group
- Participation in a local research conference presenting work completed during the 199 (oral/poster presentation)
- Substantive participation in data collection, computer programming, experimental design, design and implementation of significant computation components, data analysis, 2-3 page write up of laboratory activities or summary of data analysis
Current 199s
Language Development and Remediation in Children
Contact: Dr. Teri Lawton
Contact: Dr. Teri Lawton
We are evaluating two interventions for dyslexia that involve training the temporal dynamics of the visual system (magnocellular pathway) and the auditory system, and whether the two interventions together have super-additive effects. As a Research Assistant, you would be traveling to one or two of five participating local elementary schools and administering the interventions to second and third graders, as well as testing them on a battery of standardized cognitive, attentional, and reading measures. Research Assistants need to be available for training when the school year starts, in late august in most schools. Experience with children is essential for this position. This position is perfect for undergraduates who are interested in a job involving kids, a bit of neuroscience, and a lot of psychology. Quarters of Availability: Fall, Winter, Spring (Fall 2012-Spring 2014). Note: this is a CSE 199 and not Cogs 199.
Requirements: 2 quarter minimum commitment; Minimum 3.3 GPA; 6 hours/week available (2 units), 12 hours/week available (4 units); Be available starting the last week of August; Transportation available through carpooling; Means of evaluation: 1 page paper describing methods and concepts learned.
Requirements: 2 quarter minimum commitment; Minimum 3.3 GPA; 6 hours/week available (2 units), 12 hours/week available (4 units); Be available starting the last week of August; Transportation available through carpooling; Means of evaluation: 1 page paper describing methods and concepts learned.
Brain Activity Underlying Access to Sensory and World Knowledge During Sentence Comprehension
Lab: Cognitive Electrophysiology Lab
Contact: Ben Amsel
We study how the human brain processes language, including at the single word level and sentence level. Our primary methodology in this pursuit is to record event-related potentials (ERP) from the scalp. These brain potentials can provide a real-time window into the neural processes underlying language comprehension.
One of our current projects assesses how different kinds of information are used in real time during sentence comprehension. Specifically, we would like to know if sensory information (e.g., how something looks, feels, smells, etc) and world knowledge (e.g., what types of things are likely to be found at a party, beach, restaurant, or concert) are used in the same way and at the same time when we understand a sentence.
Duties will include creating sentence stimuli, running participants in online and laboratory-based experiments, scheduling, and data entry.
Requirements: 3.0+ GPA, 3.3+ GPA preferred; junior or senior standing; interest in language / psycholinguistics; interest in cognitive electrophysiology. Research Assistants should be motivated, independent, and responsible. Minimum 2 quarter commitment.