psychology

Response bias modulates the confidence-accuracy relationship for both positive identifications and lineup rejections in a simultaneous lineup task

Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

A paper of mine was just published in Applied Cognitive Psychology. This paper investigates why the confidence-accuracy relationship (CAC) for lineup rejections is often flat (while the relationship between confidence and accuracy for postiveIDs is much stronger). Specifically, this paper looks at the role of response bias in terms of restricting the range of memory signal strengths associated with a particular decision. Range restriction for particular decision may lower the ability to detect a possible relationship given a particular level of confidence due to a reduction in sensitivity.

Continue reading →

Advancement to Candidacy

Personal Blog, Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

I’m incredibly proud to report that I recently advanced to candidacy! In our department, that means passing a qualifying paper defense (which I did in July 2020) as well as successfully “defending” a dissertation proposal paper and presentation.

My dissertation, “Evidence of Innocence: The Psychology of Lineup Rejections,” will comprise of three published or to-be-published studies. The first study was published in Law and Human Behavior earlier this year. The second and third studies will be basic-science studies investigating 1) why the confidence-accuracy relationship for lineup rejections ranges from negligible to slightly-positive and 2) the specific decision variable that is used for confidence during a lineup rejection.

Thank you to my committee: Drs. John Wixted (Chair), Tim Brady, Uma Karmarkar, John Serences, and Angela Yu.

 

Presenting: Vision Sciences Society (Virtual)

Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

This June, I’ll be presenting  “A comparison between a rate-them-all simultaneous lineup procedure vs. standard simultaneous and show-up procedures” as a virtual poster at V-VSS.

The conference date is June 1-2nd. The poster will be presented in Poster Session 5 on Thursday, June 2nd at 7-9am (PDT).

ESRC Festival of Social Science (Seminar)

Psychology

Tomorrow, Nov. 16 @ 10am PST, I’ll be attending “Eyewitness Identification from a Different Angle,” a seminar part of the greater ESRC Festival of Social Science hosted by the University of Birmingham in the UK. The seminar hosts an all-star panel of researchers prominent in the fields of facial recognition and memory.

For those interested in eyewitness memory from a basic science perspective, I recommend attending! The event is free and open to the public, and will most certainly contain interesting discourse in the Q&A portion. The Q&A is live, but some prerecorded talks are available for viewing at the link above.

Speakers and Panelists:

Continue reading →

Presenting: Psychonomic Society 62nd Annual Meeting

Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

I will present the poster “The Psychology and Neuroscience of Confidence in Memory and Perception” at Psychonomic Society’s annual convention. This poster (2427) is based on an expansion of my qualifying paper, and will be co-authored between myself and Dr. John T. Wixted.

This year’s meeting will take place on November 4-7. I will be available for live discussion within the meeting platform on November 6th, 12-1pm Central Time. Or, as always, contact me with any questions.

Abstract:

The solution to real-world problems often requires a deep, basic-science understanding of the problem at hand. Confidence and decision time are issues that matter in the real-world and have been intensively investigated in the past 20 years in both psychological science and neuroscience. In cognitive psychology, confidence is usually conceptualized in terms of signal detection theory while speeded decision-making is conceptualized in terms of evidence accumulation modeling. However, no singular model of confidence for a perceptual decision dominates. In mathematical psychology, accounts of speeded decision-making in terms of a balance-of-evidence decision variable has gained currency in recent years. In neuroscience, the field tends to approach evidence accumulation and confidence in relation to lateral intraparietal cortex (the role of which is debated) and reaction time, with some research indicating a balance-of-evidence decision variable. A review of these largely independent lines of research suggests a potentially fruitful way to naturally integrate signal detection theory and evidence accumulation models in a way that comports with the relevant neuroscience evidence.

Update: The abstract number was previously 5117. Renumbering occurred when this year’s annual convention moved from a hybrid format to strictly online. You can view a PDF of the poster here.

Presenting: APS Annual Convention (Virtual)

Psychology, UC San Diego, Wixted Lab

Tomorrow is the first day of APS Virtual! I’ll be presenting the poster, “Enhancing Evidence of Innocence from Police Lineups,” which you can find here. You will need to login to APS in order to access it. 

Additionally, I’ll be leading a Hot Topic Discussion on Memory in Forensics. I’m excited to see what ideas other APS members bring to the 30-minute discussion on the state of the field, where it’s going, and what questions we hope to be answered in the future. On a personal note, it’s super cool seeing my name listed as a speaker and being able to engage with other attendees in a live-session. This is my first time engaging with the APS research community in a manner other than a poster.

Resources: Pathways to Ph.D panel

Psychology, Resources, UC San Diego

During UCSD’s Pathways to Ph.D event, some of the panelists shared resources which helped them navigate the graduate school application process.

  • UCSD’s Psychology Department has an “Applying to Graduate Programs” webpage. This webpage contains information on: how much time to set aside for applications, when to consider applying to graduate school, additional links / resources / downloadable forms, and information about choosing programs / advisers / schools and making one’s application competitive. This webpage is tailored to people interested in research programs in psychology, but much of it can be applied to other disciplines.
  • UCSD’s Career Center has a “Get into Grad School” page. They provide important academic resources as well as questions you should ask yourself before choosing a program.
  • Colors of the Brain is a UCSD-based program promoting diversity within the brain sciences. Their graduate mentors will review academic CVs and applications of undergraduate students looking to enter a graduate STEM field. All of the graduate mentors are first-generation or come from a historically underrepresented background. Also, Colors of the Brain can provide support and resources to students about life in STEM and/or graduate school in general.

Thank you to everyone who attended and to those who made this event possible.

Panelist: “Pathways to Ph.D”

Psychology, UC San Diego

This Wednesday (November 4th, 2020), I’ll be a graduate panelist for the “Pathways to Ph.D” event. This event is for undergraduate students who are hoping to apply to graduate school in Experimental Psychology, Neuroscience, and Clinical Psychology. The panel will discuss life of a graduate student, research, as well as how to approach the application process.

If you would like to attend, here is the form to RSVP!

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:

Continue reading →