Hello!
I am a senior undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin in the Psychology and Linguistics departments. I began an undergraduate Departmental Honors Thesis in Psychology in January of 2009 and will be graduating in December of 2009. I hope to go on to a doctoral program in the fall of 2010. My research interests combine psychology and language, and reading in particular. I am also finding I have a great passion for cognitive neuroscience, and neuroimaging in particular, and would like to combine all of these interests in graduate school.
This year, for my Honors Thesis, I have been lucky enough to work with Dr. Jennifer Beer and her lab on an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) project, studying the effects of the attention or inhibition of emotion on decision making. This has been an amazing process so far, and I have learned an overwhelming amount about not only fMRI acquisition and analysis, but also about research and academic writing in general.
Our Honors Theses will culminate in an information Poster Session on November 30th, 2009, and to all who like me enough to have read this all the way through: I hope to see you there!
And here's an example of why my research is exciting: I can now make those cool pictures of brains.
I also work for Dr. Zenzi Griffin in her new psycholinguistics lab at UT Austin. More info on projects conducted there coming soon!