Upon starting my internship at the Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at UGA, I hoped to get hands-on experience with the research process and practice with presenting research findings. Now that this experience is coming to a close I have not only gained an understanding of what being a researcher is like, but also many hard and soft skills like interacting with patients, troubleshooting the tools and methods of an experiment, how to code in R, how to set up, run and clean data of an EEG, and the thought process behind creating research questions and designing studies.
One of the great parts I discovered about research is frequent adaptation and constant learning. Technology is growing rapidly, psychology is a relatively young field so best research practices change, the types of questions asked are constantly adapted to previous findings, and a lot of tasks in data analysis that used to be done primarily by people are transitioning to being done through algorithms. I have known for a long time that I love to learn, but this opportunity has shown me how much I value learning as a way to be engaged in the work I am doing. The goal of research itself, even, is to learn.
The most valuable things I learned relating to my career path came from my assigned research presentations. Most weeks I was given a few readings from my mentor relating to the background of the tools or disorders we were working with, which I followed up with reading a few semi-related articles of my choice. I then presented my findings to my mentor and her other intern. Getting a lot of freedom to choose these areas of research helped me identify areas of research I am excited about, like Autism, Executive Function and Theory of Mind. This will help me not only in knowing what jobs to apply for but also what I might want to focus on in academics or create my own research on.
For anyone wanting an internship in psychology research, I would recommend finding somewhere with other researchers with various levels of experience and particularly a mentor who is excited to teach others. Having people around me who are at different places in their education and research journeys allows me to learn both from people who have a lot of expertise and also from people who can closely relate to the novice experience and provide models for how to improve in the short term. My mentor’s excitement and skill at teaching allowed me to feel comfortable admitting what I didn’t know and asking questions. At this lab and many other psychology research opportunities being adaptable is a very important skill. I was able to find success by noticing where I was needed and filling in the gaps. This was particularly important during data collection where we had a limited amount of time and participants to keep comfortable.
This internship has been a fantastic experience thanks to my fabulous mentor, Beryl Huang, and the number of things I got to learn. When thinking about what I am most proud of I think about what was most difficult or scary for me. Two things, in particular, come to mind. I am proud of my ability to still enjoy myself when troubleshooting was frustrating or particularly long, and my ability to interact naturally with participants. I know these skills will not always come easily to me, but I am proud to find success when it happens.
— Riley Byers
WOW Fellowship Blog 