NAME: Shelby Thompson
FIELD OF STUDY: Bachelor of Science Honours in Psychology with a Minor in Neuroscience, 3rd year
SUPERVISOR: Professor Deepthi Kamawar (Cognitive Science and Psychology)
1. What have you been doing with your I-CUREUS research?
I have been helping out a PhD student and I am almost done supporting a second big study. My specific role involves coding videos about lying for a study done with children aged four to six. I look for certain cues which indicate pro-social and self-serving lying. Pro-social lying is lying to avoid hurting someone’s feelings and self-serving lying is done to benefit one’s self by avoiding getting the person doing the lying in trouble. I also have done some coding of booklets. One day I got to go watch an interview with a child while it was happening and code it while I watched (instead of looking at a video).
2. How has your research impacted what you are learning in class?
I am fortunate to know that Professor Kamawar will be my thesis supervisor next year and that I will be ahead in terms of completing my thesis. I feel a lot more prepared and relaxed because I know a bit about what it is going to be like and how to code everything. Knowing I am capable of performing at the level needed to complete my thesis has been really important, it lets me trust myself going into next year.
3. What would you tell other students considering this opportunity?
You get awesome experience that you can use in the future either with your thesis or past that. It is an awesome opportunity to learn about the topic you are interested in and the faculty you could work with. The experience has opened my mind to the different publications about my research topic which will make a big contribution to my thesis literature review.
To learn more about I-CUREUS, visit: http://carleton.ca/discoverycentre/undergraduate-research/icureus/