Position A) In a series of studies, we are investigating how to optimize the study of educational materials by applying findings from cognitive psychology.
Now, as some of you may or may not know, I do a lot of work with kids. I've worked at summer camps for the past 9 years and I've been working at UCLA's on-campus elementary school for the past 2 years (also did some work with the elementary school kids here in Japan). I really want to work with kids in the future, and one path I had been considering with a Cog Sci major is the educational branch. Basically, I wanted to study how kids learn, then figure out the best way to teach them - basically, just what this experiment is doing (though I'm not sure the average subject age). In this position I'd be helping to run experiments, gather data, and do menial grunt work (as all research assistants do). I'd be able to take away what exactly goes into this type of research (as well as what you get out of it) and see if this is what I want to do.
Position B) A spin-off of the University of Southern California, creating computer-based serious games for learning foreign languages and cultures.
So, despite being a "spin-off" (whatever that means) of UCLA's lifelong rival, USC, the internship here sounds pretty interesting. It's with a company called Alelo that makes serious games, or games that are designed less for fun and more for teaching or other practical purposes; for example, surgeons play serious operation games to improve their dexterity, jet pilots play flight sims, and the military uses combat-sims before going into combat. This company seems to be military-oriented, since most of their languages under development are Middle-Eastern (Arabic, the two dialects of Afghanistan, and then French). In this position I'd probably be doing grunt work, as well as a host of QA (Quality Assurance, aka game tester aka lower than the scum on a peon's muddy boot). From this position I'd learn more about how such a game company is structured, get my name around the company and it's affiliates, and learn a bit about how to teach a foreign language and the research that goes into figuring out the best way to teach it.
Even though I doubt I'd be able to use my Japanese in this position, if I continue down this path, along with my Japanese major, I could possibly find other companies that do such work with Japanese (or if this company does Japanese down the road). Also, it would be good opportunity for me to view the management of such a game company. Management, such as being Producer or Assistant Producer, is another career path that I had been considering, but don't have much experience with.
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I've already been in contact with the serious games company, so I think I'd be able to do that if I so choose. I sent an email out to the Position A people today and am hoping for a hasty response. I just need to figure out which one to do, and I'm completely stuck in the middle :( I've thought about the possibility of doing both, but I think it would just make my schedule too hectic (especially with Brawl coming out, heh ^_<). So, guys, any ideas? ------------ For those that want to read the entire descriptions / email:
Position A)
| Title of Research: | Optimizing Education by Applying Cognitive Psychology |
| Description of Research Project: | Across a number of studies, researchers using simple materials (e.g., word pairs) have found that optimal techniques for studying are quite unlike those used by typical students and in typical classrooms. In fact, students and teachers often elect to use study methods that are in direct opposition to empirically sound practices. In a series of studies, we are investigating how to optimize the study of educational materials by applying findings from cognitive psychology. The scope and size of educational materials makes this a more difficult task than simply inserting educational materials into paradigms used in previous studies. Additional undergraduate researchers and their familiarity with current educational practices will be crucial in bridging cognitive psychology and classroom optimization. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | We require a minimum commitment of two quarters. You will collect data by running and scheduling participants and will infrequently retrieve from the library and photocopy articles. Prior research experience is desirable, but not essential. This lab is a great place to be if you are considering graduate school--we are very happy to give advice, write letters of recommendation, and help with the application process. It is also possible that you can be paid for your work with us (through the Props program, which requires a minimum commitment of two quarters--for info about Props, see http://www.psych.ucla.edu/undergrad/props.htm). |
Email Sent:
Dear Mr. Hays,
Hello, my name is Xander Peterson and I am a 3rd year Cognitive Science major here at UCLA. I am very interested in your research assistant position available for Psych 196B credit.
The study of pedagogy is very fascinating to me. For the past nine years I have worked at summer camps for kids, and for the past two years I've been working at UCLA's on-campus elementary school. I love to work with kids and hope to make their betterment a center part of my future career. I have always been interested in how children learn, and have felt that if I could study their process of learning, I could learn how to optimize it. In fact, this was probably the main reason I became a Cognitive Science major. From my understanding your research is basically this, and even if your subjects are adults, I'm sure there is much in common. Thus, I feel that this would be a spectacular research assistant position for me to undertake. Admittedly I don't have much prior research experience, but I am very willing to learn and help out in any way I can (grunt work is fine by me!).
If you could please inform me as to what the current availability of the position is, and if it is open, if you could please fill me in a bit more on what the position would entail, and perhaps a little bit more about the research itself, it would greatly be appreciated.
Thank you for your time and response!
-Xander Peterson
ID#: 103355648
Position B)
| Description of Organization & Population Served: | A spin-off of the University of Southern California, creating computer-based serious games for learning foreign languages and cultures. |
| Description of Fieldwork Project and Responsibilities of Intern: | Possible internship topics: a) Assist in development of current games. Experience with game design and game development tools is a plus, as well as ability to program in C++ and/or Python. b) Assist in development of associated authoring tools for creating create content. Java and Web programming skills desirable. c) Assist in annotating speech corpora for creating speech recognizers for new languages. Knowledge of linguistics and speech processing particularly desirable. d) Assist in the analysis of data collected from learners using our games, to assess effectiveness. Knowledge of statistical analysis packages is desirable. |
Email Sent:
Dear Dr. Johnson,
Hello, my name is Xander Peterson and I'm currently a third year Cognitive Science major. I was looking for an internship to fulfill the 195B requirement when I saw your research assistantship post about creating a serious games computer game for learning foreign languages and cultures. Not only is the work inherently very intriguing, but in my case, it is especially of interest. I have been studying abroad in Japan since August (and will be returning a few days after the quarter ends, on December 23rd) to help further my Japanese and get credit counted towards my second major, Japanese. After two and a half years of Japanese I would not say that I am anywhere near fluent, but I can hold my own in a conversation, do a bit of translating, and have gained the appreciation for the acquisition of a second language.
Not only do I have experience in (intensely) studying a second language, but I also am very immersed within the gaming community. Thanks to my father's past job as a lead game designer (back in the pencil and paper day, eventually graduating to work in the videogame industry), I have been constantly immersed in the game industry. For the past five years I have attended the Game Developer's Conference (http://www.gdconf.com), which is the world's leading conference for game development, as a Conference Associate (basically someone who helps run the convention). Having attended the GDC's seminars, round tables, tutorials, and having many discussions with my friends currently working in the game industry, I have a fairly decent sense of how game development, both casual and serious, tends to run.
Aside from my credentials, I also have a very strong desire to learn. While I am only able to go off of what little information was posted in the ad and on the website, I feel that the experiences that this research assistant position offers will be very beneficial to my cognitive science career path.
The one caveat throughout this is that I noticed that an intern with capable programming skills, either in C++ or web design language like Java, is desirable. Despite having taken two quarters of C++ last year (and actually having found it surprisingly, and slightly frighteningly, enjoyable), and a quarter of web design, I do not feel that what coding language I do remember would be of any great service. I might be able to retrain myself rather quickly to pick up where I last left off, but that would probably take some time, and I doubt the level that two quarters of a C++ class brought me to would be of any great service to an actual game, especially one of your caliber. Whether or not you have a position that is perhaps more oriented away from programming and more along the lines of being a step above grunt work is unbeknownst to me, but if there is a niche that needs to be filled, I would do my best to do so.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your reply!
-Xander Peterson
student ID #: 103355648 (in case it matters)
Response:
Dear Xander,
Thanks for your inquiry and your interest. Do you have any experience with media editing tools? If so, maybe we could assist in content production. If not, we might be able to have you help test some of our new games. We need people to do quality assurance testing, as well as actually trying to learn
from our games and identify learnability problems.
Cheers,
Lewis Johnson
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