Daily Internship Duties
The majority of my internship duties consisted of typical office work. This included email correspondence with over 400 participants to obtain follow-up data every 6 months. It also included compiling participant data into individual excel sheets and using said sheets for different purposes. For example, Participant birthdates were compiled into sheets and organized by month. These sheets were then used by me to send out birthday cards to our participants every month.
WASI
The most enriching experience of this internship, however, was the scoring of participant's working memory using WASI.
What is WASI?
WASI stands for the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. This test is used to score various IQ metrics in participants. For the purpose of my internship, however, I focused solely on working memory. Working memory is defined as a subset of memory that specifically contains very-short term memories. Working memories are typically only contained in the brain's working memory stores for around 10-15 seconds. After this period of time, working memory either decays or is sent to the hippocampus and neo-cortex where it is stored as a long-term memory. The figure below highlights the hippocampus and neocortex and the paths that memories take to be stored as long term memories.
Working Memory Tests
The Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, or WASI, contains numerous examinations that test for various IQ metrics. For working memory, specifically, however, only two of these tests are employed. These two tests are the Listening Recall test and the Letter-Number Sequencing test. The Listening recall test involves the examiner saying a phrase and testing the participants ability to recall or answer questions about said phrase. The Letter-Number Sequencing test involves the examiner saying a sequence of letters and numbers and testing the participants ability to repeat the sequence in the correct order.
The two figures below are examples of the Listening Recall and Letter Number Sequencing examinations that are administered to all recruited participants.
Intern Contribution
Upon joining this project as an intern, all of our participants had already completed the Listening Recall and Letter Number Sequencing examinations. Upon reviewing the data, however, we noticed that there were some discrepancies in scoring and that the scores needed to be reviewed. For the last month or so of my internship I reviewed over 400 participant's scores and ensured that they were scored correctly according to the guidelines. These corrected scores were then compiled into an excel sheet and given to my supervisors to cross-check and approve.
In my two years as an IUPUI student, this experience has by far been the most enriching one I have had the privilege to be a part of. I have continuously been given opportunities to learn from professionals in my desired field and bond with my supervisors and co-workers.
What's Next?
I am happy to be continuing with the Hulvershorn Lab as a paid staff member for the summer of 2022. I hope to continue making important contributions in adolescent behavioral health and I believe that working with the Hulvershorn Lab gives me an opportunity to do that every single day.
Acknowledgements
I would like to extend a special and sincere thank you to Dr. Leslie Hulvershorn, Nikhil Shah, Michael Smoker, and Mohannad Abu-Sultanah for being an amazing and enriching team. I have continuously felt welcomed and supported by every member of my team and am glad to continue working with them for the next few months.