Psychology

Panelist: Graduate Student Panel Meet ‘n’ Greet

Psychology, UC San Diego

Yesterday, San Diego Mesa College hosted a UCSD Psychology graduate student meet-and-greet for LatinX Heritage Month. I thought it was a massive success! I think it’s important to continue outreach opportunities with budding/curious/future researchers, especially when they come from groups that are underrepresented in academia.

The students were highly engaged, which made me happy. I think we could have gone an extra hour! The topics we covered were:

  • financing graduate school
  • what skills should be developed before applying
  • classes to take before applying
  • navigating adviser-student dynamics
  • narrowing research interests
  • pursuing research opportunities as an undergrad
  • the pressures of graduate classes
  • the impact of COVID-19 on research productivity and running human participants
  • the common myths surrounding the graduate school experience
  • separating self-worth from productivity and a study’s success
  • mental health

If you are considering graduate programs in psychology, feel free to reach out to me via email (find my info here: contact). People helped me get to where I am. I’m happy to be that person for you too.

-A.Y.

UC Psychology Teaching & Learning Conference

Psychology, Resources, UC San Diego

This week was the UC Psychology Teaching & Learning conference, hosted by faculty at UC San Diego, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis and UCLA. From the conference webpage, “[The conference] is designed for psychology instructors at all levels who are interested in developing teaching strategies and learning about pedagogy research.”

This was an informative event and gave attendees numerous tools on how to improve the classroom experience (especially in a virtual setting). Listed below are some of the helpful things I learned over the course of these two days:

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Presenting: Psychonomic Society 61st Annual Meeting

Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

I will be presenting two posters at the Psychonomic Society 61st Annual Conference. The two presentations will be:

  1. Enhancing Evidence of Innocence from Police Lineups
  2. The Effect of Rate-Them-All Lineup on Diagnostic Accuracy

The presentations will occur from 4-6pm CT on November 20, 2020. This post will be updated with a link to my meeting room for a live Q&A session.

Master of Art

Personal Blog, Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

For those of you who aren’t aware, I’m a first-generation college student and I recently completed the requirements for my master’s degree! The degree is a Master of Art in Experimental Psychology.

In our Ph.D program, getting a master’s degree isn’t typically celebrated. It’s seen as something you “pick up along the way” on the journey of earning a doctorate and entering a research career. (Also, a good proportion of our graduate students enter with a master’s degree already, so this isn’t a new milestone for them.)

I, however, have not experienced this milestone before, meaning I’m mentally celebrating! I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: I’m in my dream program, at my dream institution, with an amazing adviser, and residing in my favorite city in the world. I am incredibly grateful and do not take any of this for granted.

For now, I have three years left (minimum) in this program—and I’m looking forward to every single one of them. There is a lot of hard work ahead, but that’s the fun.

Thank you,

-A.Y.

Qualifying Paper

Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

I’m incredibly proud to report that I’ve successfully defended my qualifying paper.

The paper investigated the basic science of confidence. As I’m hoping to turn this qualifying paper into a publication, I will hold off on a detailed explanation of the paper’s topic matter.

I can’t wait to extend this project into something greater!

First-Year Project — Complete!

Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

This year, I was the opener for our department’s year-end “Little APS” event. It went well!

I presented a new type of lineup procedure that some argued could be the new “future” lineup. Our analyses showed that it is *not* a superior lineup. However, we received great feedback from audience members about an alternate model we could fit to the data as well as alternative conditions worth running that may aid in confirming our initial findings.

Graduate School

Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

UC San Diego

Wixted Lab

I’ve officially committed to the University of California, San Diego in the fall for a doctoral program in experimental cognitive psychology.

Excited, grateful and incredibly inspired are only a few of the many emotions I’m feeling at this moment in time. Thank you SO much to Dr. John Wixted who offered me a position in his memory laboratory. Every time I step on the UCSD campus, I feel like I’m at home. I know this is the place I am meant to be and that I will produce excellent work in this program. Even though I didn’t verbalize this during my interviews: I have been eyeing this program at UCSD since 2013.

Furthermore, thank you so much to UC Santa Cruz and UC Riverside for extending admission offers as well. As a first-generation college student, the privilege of being offered the opportunity to earn a Ph.D at such prestigious research programs is not lost on me.

Once again, thank you. I’m humbled, but ready to put in the work.

Joining the Wixted Lab at UCSD

Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

I am immensely happy to report that this month I will be joining the Wixted Lab as a post-baccalaureate research assistant! Even though this is a volunteer position, I am thrilled to continue studying eyewitness memory. My undergraduate thesis only scratched the surface; now it’s time to reexamine the same material through the lens of basic recognition memory science and the theories popularized within that field. 

Thank you, Dr. John Wixted for this opportunity!

Eyewitness Memory: How Stress and Situational Factors Affect Eyewitness Recall

Psychology, University of Oregon, UO Psychology

I successfully defended my undergraduate thesis!

The thesis was presented to the Department of Psychology and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Science, Fall 2016.

Defended with Honors.

Adviser: Dr. Robert Mauro.

 

Abstract: As eyewitness memory and its current admissibility as evidence in courts have come under scrutiny, numerous studies have examined variables that affect eyewitness memory. These variables are divided into system and estimator variables. System variables are factors that can be controlled by the criminal justice system; estimator variables are those which cannot be controlled by the justice system. Considerable research has demonstrated that stress can either inhibit or enhance memory depending on the level of arousal. This literature review will examine the role and effect of stress in general and in regard to other estimator variables (e.g., seriousness, weapons focus, and victim vs. bystander). Both field and laboratory studies will be examined. General trends, important caveats, and limitations will be reported. Despite the breadth of research in both eyewitness research and stress and memory, there is no recent comprehensive review of the effect of stress on eyewitness memory. This literature review will serve to bridge that gap and provide resources for those looking to continue research in the area of stress and eyewitness memory.

Link to download the paper (PDF). Link to the UO Scholars’ Bank where it is originally hosted.

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