Jedediah Allen studied Cognitive Science at SFU, and graduated in 2003. He achieved his MA in Psychology at Lehigh University under Laura Gonnerman studying psycho linguistics and connectionism. He is currently pursuing his PhD at Lehigh with Mark Bickhard, in Foundational Issues in the study of the Mind. |
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‘Be proactive in making sure you get done what needs to be done.
Ultimately it's your life, and you need to be the one making things happen.'
Q. Jed, what made you get into Cognitive Science?
A. I started out in Engineering, and realized I didn't want to continue. I was already taking some Psychology, Philosophy and Computer Science courses, and those interested me a lot. A friend of mine asked “have you heard of Cognitive Science?” and it just fit. I declared my major, and my courses focused towards Cognitive Science requirements, so I was taking Philosophy of Mind instead of Ethics. I didn't really have any expectations other than that it was the inter-disciplinary study of the mind. I like that Cognitive Science looks at all its philosophical assumptions before moving toward a solution.
Q. Did you have a clear idea of where you wanted to go with it when you started?
A. Not at all... well... I guess I always had the implicit assumption I would continue on to graduate school to pursue academic studies of some sort. The more I got into it [Cognitive Science], the more I discovered which areas I was most interested in. For example, out of all my courses, I found Artificial Intelligence (CMPT419) with Bob Hadley to be an amazing Cognitive Science course. Also, Memory & Mind (PSYC325) with Bruce Whittlesea was another one of my favourites.
Q. Tell us about the graduate school process as a Cognitive Science alumnus
A. I took a year off and did research during my free time into which schools would be a good fit. I only found five in North America with a dedicated Cognitive Science grad program: University of California, San Diego (UCSD), which has a neuroscience focus; John Hopkins University; Brown University, which are both focused towards Computational / Linguistic research; Rutgers University; University of Western Ontario. Lehigh University only offers a certificate in Cognitive Science from within the Psychology Department so I was faced with the decision to pursue grad school at one of these schools; or work with someone who cares, as I do, about foundational issues. As a Cognitive Scientist you often look at foundational questions each field asks. Dr. Mark Bickhard, of Lehigh University, is a Theoretician, or Theoretical Psychologist. He wrote Foundational Issues in Cognitive Science (1995), which I read and admired, because he approached many of the foundational questions I wanted to explore. This perspective appealed to me because it mirrored my experience as an under-graduate. I ended up picking Lehigh because I wanted to work with Dr. Bickhard. I visited the school, and did an interview. They said that I would need to do an empirical MA thesis first, before pursuing my PhD. I was accepted, and began working with Dr. Laura Gonnerman in Connectionist modeling of Language.
Q. How have professors at the graduate level responded to your Cognitive Science degree?
A. For the ones that knew, they were interested in Cognitive Science, and liked that I had that experience. Overall it wasn't a big topic of interest. Sometimes I would ask an inter-disciplinary question, because of some course I had taken at SFU. This would kind of stun people. With my diversified background I had more to bring to the table.
Q. Have you noticed your Cognitive Science skills needed upgrading for your MA?
A. I personally didn't, but I could see how it could happen. Fortunately I had taken a minor in Psychology during my Cognitive Science major, so I had a lot more Psychology courses under my belt than a typical Cognitive Science graduate.
Q. Tell us about your Research/Lab experiences at Lehigh
A. I don't work in one right now, but when I started my MA, I worked in the Psycholinguistics lab run by Dr. Laura Gonnerman. I studied infant morphology. Our basic methodology was to put babies in a 10x8 “theatre” we built ourselves. We habituated the kids to a certain image, then we would selectively change the image to discover which images the children recognized. In one particular experiment we simultaneously showed them one still picture of a person doing an action, (intermodal preferential looking paradigm) and one picture illustrating a quality (shiny, etc). Then a word was said which morphologically represented the action or quality but didn't match it (shiny = gorpy). We studied which image the kids looked at, and correlated it with the word said. Thus finding out how morphology played a role in the child's comprehension level.
Q. I'm sure you've been able to use your Cognitive Science skills directly in a research situation, do you have any good stories around that?
A. Absolutely. Anything that came up related to programming I understood and could integrate much easier than other students. Also, for understanding how it fit in to the bigger picture, having Cognitive Science under my belt helped a lot.
Q. Tell us about some of the conferences you've been to.
A. I have presented and postered at two conferences, Jean Piaget Society (JPS) 2004 and 2007, and also gave a talk at the Interactive Summer Institute 2007 and attended others, such as Psychonomics. Conferences allow you to interact with like-minded people. They enable you to create connections with other people who are pursuing similar goals.
Q. Tell us about the professional organizations you belong to, why you joined, what you were looking to get out of it.
A. I belong to the Cognitive Science Society , and the Jean Piaget Society. If you're going to present, you have to be a member, so that's one reason. Also you get the journal, so that's a plus. With the Cognitive Science Society, I was asked to referee entries, which was a great experience. If you're going to pursue academia, you need to integrate into your chosen field.
Q. Any word on the street in your field about where Cognitive Science graduates are being hired?
A. Any Computer Science-related field. And for anyone not going into research, you can do the same with your degree as people with a Philosophy or Psychology degree, but probably better because you have multiple perspectives.
Q. Looking back...what advice do you have for current students?
A. See the Academic Advisor. Be proactive in making sure you get done what needs to be done. Ultimately it's your life, and you need to be the one making things happen, and that is especially true in graduate school. Also stay organized.
Thank you very much Jed, for taking the time to speak with the SFU Cognitive Science Program today.
The heart of the Cognitive Science Program lies in its ability to facilitate creative cross-discipline thinking. Cognitive Science at SFU is proud to be the home of many thoughtful students who have found imaginative approaches to connect their broad interests in ways that allow them to get the engaging education they want. Learn more about other Cognitive Science Program alumni.