Prospective Graduate Students
Interested in joining the ACN Lab for the USC School Psychology program? Here are some answers to frequently asked questions that may help you make your choice!
ACN Lab Mission and Projects
1. What are the overarching interests and mission of the ACN Lab?
Our lab aims to bridge cognitive and neuropsychological science with educational applications using the latest technological advances. We have broad interests in cognitive and neuropsychological assessment, learning disability identification, EEG and neurofeedback assessment and intervention, and online test development.
2. What projects are currently going on in the ACN Lab?
Currently, we are working on projects involving learning disability identification and policy, computerized test development, and EEG as a tool in clinical assessment. Please see our research page for more information on each project.
Mentorship and Communication
3. How does Dr. Decker feel about including students in publication/ presentation and allowing students to initiate their own projects?
Dr. Decker strongly encourages student publication and has offered guidance and support for continued generation of new student projects, publications, and presentations since the lab was founded in 2009. The majority of publications from the ACN lab include graduate students who have made significant scientific, conceptual, statistical, and writing/ revising contributions to the published project. Additionally, we have a goal of all graduate students submitting presentation proposals to attend the National Association of School Psychologists' Annual Convention every year. In the past three years, all poster and symposium presentation proposals we have submitted have been accepted for NASP. This year, one of the graduate students is chairing the lab symposium and all three graduate students have accepted posters for NASP 2013 in Seattle. Graduate students are also encouraged to assist with grant writing and to apply for student grants and scholarships.
4. What is Dr. Decker's mentorship style? (e.g., hands-off or micromanaging)
Dr. Decker is flexible with his mentorship style according to individual student needs, but he strongly encourages an atmosphere of independence and confidence in the lab. He offers guidance and feedback on a regular basis on research projects, practicum cases, and career development (i.e., face-to-face meetings several times throughout the semester). Dr. Decker is very responsive to students who express the need for guidance and advice and is available several days a week for in-person meetings and help via email, as well.
What Will I Be Doing?
5. What kinds of lab tasks will I be involved in my 1st, 2nd, and upper years in the program?
First-year students typically "get their feet wet" by aiding with lab presentations and lab organizational tasks (e.g., data entry and recruitment for ongoing studies). Students with an interest in an academic career are encouraged to begin developing ideas for projects (for class requirements, theses, and dissertations) early on in their training and to help with ongoing projects by studying the literature, revising and editing manuscripts and presentations, and aiding in data collection. In the 3rd and 4th years of the program, students are encouraged to build on previous work in the lab or to initiate new projects consistent with the themes and resources of existing lab projects. It is during the upper years of the program that advanced statistical analysis and research methods skills, assumption of leadership positions, and continued development of theoretical and conceptual background knowledge pertaining to individual student and lab interest become priorities. Upper level (3rd and 4th year) students are encouraged to mentor new graduate students and undergraduate lab assistants and to take on administrative and lab management (e.g., training and goal-setting) tasks.
6. What will be expected of me during breaks and summers? Are there opportunities for research involvement during summer breaks?
For the most part summers are open and allow students to complete program writing requirements such as thesis and dissertation planning and composition. Students are encouraged to aid in ongoing recruitment and data collection over the summers, and some students teach summer undergraduate courses after their second year, but holiday breaks are typically free for personal activities and travel. Research assistant funds may be available pending on grants at the time.
7. Is there extant or archived data available to grad students in the lab?
Absolutely! One advantage of working for Dr. Decker is that he has co-authored and worked on test development projects for several standardized tests (e.g., Stanford-Binet, Woodcock Johnson, 3rd Edition, Bender-Gestalt II). This means we have plenty of archived standardization data for students to use for course projects, presentations, and potential publications. The lab also has data from previous studies that lab members are more than welcome to work with.
Current and Past Grad Students
8. What have previous students in the lab focused on for their theses and dissertations?
Our foci are wide-ranging and typically on the cutting edge of school psychological applications of new technology. Recently, student theses and dissertations have focused on Q-EEG test-retest reliability, neurofeedback as an intervention for college students with ADHD, visual processing components of reading achievement, cognitive and electrophysiological profiles of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and learning disabilities (LD), and development and validation of an original online measure of working memory (the WOMBAT). Graduate students have also published over a dozen peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters--both related to their thesis and dissertation projects and in collaboration with other students and faculty.
9. What are some goals graduate students in the lab have for research productivity?
For students interested in academic research careers, Dr. Decker encourages high research productivity during students' time in the graduate program. Current students have goals of completing 5-7 peer-reviewed manuscripts before graduation and of presenting nationally at least 3 times. These goals are based on individual interests and career objectives, of course, but currently all graduate students are on the path to reaching these goals.
10. What are some awards and scholarships graduate students in the lab have earned in the past?
Graduate students in our lab have won prizes, scholarships, and awards at several levels. Two current graduate students received the competitive Graduate School Fellowship as part of their recruitment package for the USC School Psychology program ($8000/ year, renewable for 3-4 years). Students have also won national scholarships, including an award from the International Society for Neurofeedback and Research to fund one student's dissertation, and the American Academy of School Psychology’s Hyman and Lambert Memorial Scholarship for early academic accomplishments and potential to impact the field of school psychology. At the state level, the South Carolina Association of School Psychologists awarded one graduate student in the ACN Lab funding to carry out participant recruitment for her dissertation research. Additionally, students have won cash prizes for oral and poster research presentations at USC's Graduate Student Day the past two years in a row (1st and 2nd place).
11. What do current students in the lab plan to do after graduation?
Previous graduate students have gone off to prestigious internships, post-docs, or employment as practitioners. Some will apply for research-focused positions as faculty members at major institutions, while others plan to apply for teaching- and training-focused positions at master's-level school psychology training programs. Others plan to combine a career in academia with private or school practice. The beauty of the PhD in School Psychology at the University of South Carolina is that the career options and opportunities are endless--both on the research and the practice side of psychology!