Welcome to the team! Our goal is to better understand incremental language processing strategies by studying humans, building computational models of language processing, and conducting interpretability studies of neural network models. There are a few things you should know right up front:
- Get comfortable with uncertainty
We are scientists. What that really means is that we specialize in confronting our ignorance one incremental question at a time. As a result, we effectively are in the business of continually exposing what we don't know. This can be very uncomfortable, especially at first. I highly recommend reading this wonderful piece for some perspective. - Do research in your classes
Course projects are helpful for learning course material, but you will retain the material better if you can design projects so that they are relevant to your research interests. Plus, then you can do some actual research with them, which could lead to later publications! - Practice communication
An important component of your job as a scientist is to communicate your findings. Effective communication takes practice. Luckily, you will have plenty of chances to practice. Whenever you have a chance to present your work (in class, in a research group, at a conference, or as an invited talk), take it! The more you do it, the better you'll get. - Monitor social media
People differ in their tolerance of and susceptibility to social media. If you can stand it, keep an eye on academic Twitter to get a better sense of what's being discussed. You can also establish a presence on twitter to communicate your findings and make connections. Twitter is invaluable for virtual conferences; Twitter effectively is the networking part of virtual conferences. - Plan productive meetings Your time in graduate school is finite, and although 5 years sounds like a long time, it flies by (see the PhD Timeline), so you want to maximize the impact of meetings with advisors. Dr. Helena Aparicio has put together a nice set of advice for getting the most from each meeting.
- Join the Slack
We have a very active slack workspace where most of the communication in the lab takes place. You should join the workspace and check it regularly. Email me for details.
(Slack access is currently restricted to students and faculty who are regular members of C.Psyd) - Join the mailing list
We have an email list to announce invited talks and other news. All are welcome to join the email list. Just email me to get added. - Ask questions
If you have questions, feel free to ask someone else in the lab or bring it up in the#font-of-wisdomslack channel. - Monitor arXiv
You should monitor the arXiv feed every day (released daily at 8pm EST; C.Psyders can check the#arxivcsclchannel in slack around 9pm EST). Read every title. For relevant titles, read the abstract. For relevant abstracts, read the paper. Getting into this habit will really help you stay on top of the literature. Do the same thing once conference programs are announced.