LING1770 - Research Practicum in Cognitive Science

Research Practicum is a six-week half-credit course that facilitates students’ entry into research in cognitive science. Students complete a small project of their own devising, from hypothesis generation to report writing, and attend weekly guest lectures from graduate students and post-docs in cognitive science labs that are looking for undergraduate research assistants. Practicum has a ‘flipped’ classroom. Before class each week, students watch video lectures; in-person class is for asking questions about the week’s lecture, and to work on the week’s assignment for the student’s project, with help from the instructor and TA as needed. Each week, we will also have a guest lecturer from the lab of a MindCORE faculty affiliate. (The lecture and the project time could be joined into a single class session (~2.5-3 hours long) but it may be preferable to split these into two separate class sessions in the week.) The main product – pieces of which the student submits every week – is a 4-5 page paper reporting the study they conducted. Each week, students will also write a 150 word summary/reflection on the guest lecture that week.