For the duration of the ARIA project, I worked under the supervision of Dr. Bertone from the department of educational and counselling psychology. Our project was essentially to study the multisensory integration abilities of individuals across development. Multisensory integration is a fundamental cognitive process that underlies our behaviour and decision-making as we adaptively interact within our environment. Using a target detection task that measures the reaction time of participants in audio, visual and audio-visual conditions, we were able to assess the integrative abilities of 111 participants and create the profile of a typical development of MSI for simple non-social information.
The reason why an ARIA project was appealing to me was mainly because I was really interested in completing a project under the guidance of a professor to gain hands-on research experience. I wanted to work closely with a faculty mentor and learn to effectively communicate my ideas and express my opinions. Another reason was the community of mentors, and other student researchers that I get to meet along the completion of my project.
My learning objectives consisted, but weren't limited to:
- Learning how to use online library databases to conduct a literature review that was relevant to my topic.
- Learning how to work effectively and collaboratively with the researchers in my team and develop efficient listening and communication skills.
- Learning how to apply research ethics and responsible conduct in the context of an experiment.
- Learning how meet deadlines in a timely manner while being able to have an appropriate work-life balance.
- Learning how to enter, organize, and analyze existing data and data to be collected during her tenure at the laboratory.
I was working by myself a big portion of the internship, therefore when I did get to meet the team that I work with, it was such a fun experience. I believe that having a team to rely on, and share thoughts on a project that we are all working on together makes the experience so much more complete and enjoyable. For example, for one in-person meeting, it was Dr. Bertone’s birthday and the team prepared food, drinks and a cake so that we could celebrate his birthday in the lab. It was definitely a fun bonding experience, and I got to realize that working in a lab does not limit to work only, but there is a very social aspect that was unknown to me.
I think the biggest challenge I have learned to overcome is to not be afraid to admit when I needed help and ask for guidance along my project. I have always been a very independent person, which makes it difficult for me to rely on other people to accomplish the tasks at hand. In the beginning, I wanted to do everything perfectly on my own so that my professor would be impressed by the work that I do. However, I soon realized that to actually learn, I needed to seek help, ask questions, and be open to criticism. Not everything has to be perfect, and I did not need to know everything from A to Z before starting a project, and finally, that it was okay to learn along the way. Therefore, at the end, I learned so much more than if I were to keep to myself.
ARIA has given me the opportunity to apply the knowledge that I have learned in the context of a class setting in a real-world setting. For example, in my honour’s seminar class, we have learned about the process that comes before even starting research, which includes planning, conducting, and analyzing an experiment. Through the numerous exchanges I have had with my supervising professor Armando Bertone and his excellent team, I was able to dive deep into the process of data analysis and thus, gained valuable knowledge. I think this gave me confidence to pursue research and explore that path, but also keeping my options open for clinical training and graduate school.
I am very grateful for the experience I got to have with the ARIA internship. I got to meet peers who had similar background as me, but also people who were from very different disciplines; in result, I grew my network of connections while gaining experience on the process of research.
