Summer Program on Mind and Brain
Detailed Program Description
Mentored Research Experience. The centerpiece of the program is a research experience under the close mentorship of a faculty member. Participants will be matched with faculty mentors on the basis of their research interests and will conduct research in their mentor’s area of expertise. Research projects will be developed in the context of a research team in which participants receive additional assistance from a graduate student in their mentor’s lab. During the nine-week session, students will collaborate in the development, implementation, and presentation of an entire experiment. Within the context of this research experience, students will: (a) learn how to formulate and test hypotheses; (b) learn how to translate hypotheses into well-controlled, methodologically sound laboratory experiments; (c) learn the specific skills and techniques needed to run an experiment; (d) learn how to analyze data; and (e) learn how to present research in the form of a poster comparable to what you would see at a professional conference. The research problems available to students span a range of topics from the fields of perception, cognition, and cognitive neuroscience, reflecting the various research specializations of faculty mentors.
Research Seminar on Mind and Brain. Participants will also participate in research seminar on mind and brain, comparable in format and content to what is offered in a graduate-level seminar. The seminar will be team taught by participating faculty, with each faculty member assigning readings, reviewing key concepts and methodological issues, and leading discussion in their own area of expertise.
Professional Development Seminar. A weekly seminar will also be held with a focus on the research process as well as career and professional development. Planned topics include:
Workshops. An important goal of the program is to provide participants with knowledge and experience in the use of state-of-the-art technology for conducting research and give them access to equipment that is not available at their home institutions. Toward this goal, several half-day workshops are planned. Although the schedule of workshops has not yet been finalized, we currently plan to run workshops on the following topics:
Practical elements in conducting research
Use of special tools and technologies for research
Ethics in psychological research
Oral and poster presentation skills
Graduate study
Resume/vitae construction
Site Visit. In partnership with collaborators at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, we are also planning a site visit in which experts will run mini-workshops on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) in their facility down in Denver (about one hour from our location).
Use of EEG equipment for the study of the electrophysiology of perception and cognition
Use of an eyetracking device for the study of visual perception and attention
Use of a research-grade driving simulator for the study of the perception and cognition of driving
Use of E-prime software for experiment construction
Use of SPSS for statistical analysis
Optional Course on Mind, Brain, and Behavior. Students will also be given the option of completing one of our regular course offerings, a course entitled Mind, Brain, and Behavior. This is a sophomore-level survey course that covers the literatures on perception and cognition using behavioral and physiological approaches. Those REU students wishing to take the course will not be charged any tuition or fees, and may complete the course as a guest or for course credit. This option is primarily for students who do not have such a course available to them at their home institution, have not yet taken such a course, or otherwise feel they would benefit from taking the course from our faculty.
Social Activities. Although research and education form the basis of the program, we will include two social activities during the first week of the program. The first social activity is planned for the Sunday before students begin the program. One of the participating faculty members will host an informal barbeque at their residence so that participating students and mentors can meet for the first time in a relaxed setting. The second social activity will occur at the end of the first week of the program and will entail whitewater rafting on the Poudre River, just west of campus. Social interaction will also be facilitated by housing students together in a block of rooms in the same residence hall on campus.
Symposium. The capstone experience of the Summer Program will be a research symposium held at the end of the nine-week session. All students in the program will present a poster during a poster session attended by faculty mentors and graduate students. The symposium will also feature a keynote address delivered by a prominent scientist who studies the mind and brain. The session will conclude with a banquet in which students receive awards and certificates of completion.