Job Hunting

I have been busy looking for a new job (instead of blogging, sleeping, etc.) and searching for an academic job is a bit different than a non-academic job hunt. I think my family and friends are most surprised about the amount of paper involved, and the number of parts that comprise the application. The examples I will describe are mostly based on what American universities require, though it is similar in many other countries. The job interview can vary quite a bit, too. Also, one generally looks for an academic job starting one year before the position is open. So, by looking for an assistant professorship now, I am really looking at starting around August 2008, at the earliest. (Though I have seen some universities, particularly in the United Kingdom, that appear to only post jobs the summer before they are set to start.)

(Here I am before giving a talk this year.)

The applications are used to determine who to invite for the "interview" (again a bit different), and then the job offer is made. It is also possible that a department does not find precisely the type of person that fits the needs of the department, and the job search is closed, and perhaps opened again the following year.

What goes into the application? In psychology and cognitive science, the application is primarily composed of: 1) the cover letter, 2) the curriculum vitae, 3) a statement of research interests, 4) a statement of teaching philosophy and interests, 5) reprints of published work or to-be-published work, and 6) three or more letters of reference. Sometimes there is also an application form, but not often.


The cover letter is one's chance to explain why one fits the job description, and to summarize the rest of the application along those lines. The curriculum vitae (or CV) is basically the academic version of a resume. I have read that a business resume should stick to one or two pages; an academic resume has no such limit and is intended to include everything relevant that one has accomplished: publications, presentations, grants, honors, awards, education, teaching, etc. In no pre-defined order. The statement of research interests, at least in my field, usually summarizes what one has done, and what the next steps will be. The teaching philosophy similarly mentions what courses one has taught in order to reveal how one approaches teaching. Most job advertisements ask for reprints of one's published or forthcoming research papers. Letters from one's previous mentor or collaborators round out the application.


How is an academic job interview different from a non-academic one? The most obvious difference is the length and depth. Most last one or even two days. The job candidate meets one-on-one with many of the faculty, primarily those who are on the search committee or, if possible, with nearly all of the faculty. Meetings are also held with the department chair and the school or college dean (who must approve funding for the new hire). One key part of the interview is the "job talk." The candidate gives a lecture about one's research. Some departments actually have candidates give two job talks. My graduate school department at Johns Hopkins was notorious for this, particularly because the second talk used to be a surprise! Eventually word spread about this, and it is now just part of the expected interview there.


The job search process is quite different from a non-academic search as well. Many companies are always open to receiving applications from qualified candidates. If they are a good fit a position might be created for them. In addition, most people limit themselves geographically--perhaps looking for a job in only one city. An aspiring academic would find this difficult. Universities do not always have openings in every department every year. Even if they do, then the opening is for a particular specialty that is needed by the department. For example, I am a cognitive psychologist (or cognitive scientist or cognitive neuroscientist) and a psychology department may need a cognitive person one year, but a clinical or social psychologist the next year. Plus, outside of certain metropolitan areas, most cities have only one university.

A job hunt in academia is really an adventure--one never knows where job openings might appear and where one might move to in a year! In the fluid academic world I may be reversing the brain drain now, but in a year I could be contributing to it.

Technorati Tags: cognitive, job hunt, Johns Hopkins University, psychology, Johns Hopkins University, academia

Kindness from a German Stranger in the Netherlands

Here is an adventure I had last winter (January 2007).

I was supposed to go to Nijmegen at 9:14am from Düsseldorf via train, change to a local commuter train in Arnhem, then arrive in Nijmegen. Spend the day with our main collaborator there, give a talk outlining our fMRI experiment after lunch, then test our experiment in their scanner that afternoon with me inside playing subject. Then, get a 5pm train home, changing in Arnhem again to get back by 7pm. (Arnhem is just 15 minutes by train from Nijmegen.) This was the idea anyway!

The morning went fine, but on my train ride, my wife called to say she heard from people about some big storm coming, and they warned people to stay home! News to us! (Apparently most countries were not really prepared either, with the chaotic response that ensued...)

Here is the "extratropical cyclone" that hit Europe:


So I worked on my talk on the train, changed trains on schedule in Arnhem, noting that the station there looked really thrown-together and not a real station, then made in to Nijmegen. (Arnhem was constructing a new station at the time.) I caught a bus to the FC Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging. I gave my talk after lunch and, after getting some tough questions from nearly every principal investigator, our project was approved. Then we went down to the scanner and tried out our experiment and it seemed to work really well! My colleague decided that, even though the trains were not showing delays, I should take an earlier train to make my connection because the Dutch trains don't necessarily run on time (compared to Amtrak in the US, the German ones do run on schedule fairly well, though I guess Switzerland has even better on-time performance and most expats complain about the delays by German trains!).

So I grabbed the bus (hmm...sure is windy outside), went to the station, and ran to the platforms. They were all packed with people waiting for different trains. I frantically tried to figure out which was the right track, but none of the signs matched. The info-desk person was not there but I found a railway worker wearing day-glow orange and asked if he knew which platform was the Arnhem train, or how I could find out. "Didn't you see the storm outside? No more trains are running from here!"

Umm...did anyone think of telling that to the people waiting on the platforms for trains? Guess not. I asked how I could get there to make my connections and he said there was a bus going there--"it takes about one hour"...and I have about 45 minutes to spare at this point. I check inside and news was that the ICE's (the German express trains between major cities--and my way to get back to Düsseldorf) were still running, so if I can get to Arnhem, I can get home. I ran outside to check the bus stop--and they weren't running extra buses to transport people, just the normal, once an hour bus to Arnhem, and there were about 300 people waiting for it. Not a good sign. So I looked for the taxi stand. A train station has to have one right? Um, no. I find someone inside who tells me where taxis usually park. None there. Bus still not coming. Wind getting really strong (I can lean over at nearly a 45 degree angle at this point and not fall down).

Finally, after running in circles, I find a taxi driving on a different street and catch him. "How much to get to Arnhem?" "About 40 euros" "How long" Üsually 15-20 minutes" Yes! I hop in and we go....and hit traffic. It actually takes about 30 minutes with trees starting to get blown on the freeway, but we make it to the Arnhem train station.

Two minutes to spare! I run out of the cab, no time for a receipt. Sprint in to the "station" straight to the platform (running up and down those stairs they stick between temporary bleachers) and nothing. Did I miss it? Is it late? I overhear something in German that doesn't sound promising. I go upstairs and hear something in English about how no trains are coming from Germany. I finally find at employee who says that nothing is going to Germany either, and they don't know anything else. It is a bit wet in the station because the plywood and corrugated metal walls have a big, 10 foot gap between them and the roof. Interesting design. I notice posters for a new station being built in 2 years on my way to the ticket office.

Now that I am not running, I notice people sitting dejected on the floor everywhere, getting a bit wet with the lack of enclosed walls. I go to ask the ticket agent what I should do when the trains run again. Get a new ticket? Use the old one? He says to use the old one. When might the trains go again? The storm is supposed to be at its worst in 3 hours, so maybe tomorrow morning or afternoon. Hmm...OK. Is there a hotel at the station I can get a room in? No. Are there some nearby? Only a couple but they are full. (This is not making my adrenaline go down yet.) Then man hunched over the counter next to me says "Maybe you can trying calling hotels after I'm done, but I'm not finding any yet." He has a phone book. So I wait behind him and hear him asking in German over and over for a room. Finally it sounds positive and he asks for directions from the clerk (something about no taxis...nice!).

He starts to leave and I stop him. Excuse me, did you find a room? Yes! But I forgot to ask if they had more. The agent said it is just a short walk if you want to come and ask if they have one. Not having anything else to do, I say sure. He mentioned it might be expensive, at least 150 euros, but without a choice, it seems, that was better then sleeping in the rain and wind at the station.

Thirty minutes later...the nearby hotel is seen on a roadway. I guess most Dutch hotels are on roadways rather than at train stations. The German Man who found a room had first walked to the few near the station and found them all booked. Tourist info had closed early. All the taxis decided to go home. Then he had to twist an agent's arm to get a phone book. Great customer service! He explained that the ICE train employees would take care of customers much better in Germany. As we walked we talked about what we did for a living (he did something with IT), where we were from (he lived near Frankfurt, waaay south of where I live), what we were doing (he had a client nearby he met with for a couple of days), etc. We get to the hotel and a few others are checking in. He gets up to the front and says he just called to reserve a room, and there was this other man at the station (me) who was also stranded. Do they have another room? No. Last one went to him.

I started getting that "sinking" feeling (maybe it was that Perfect Storm brewing outside). I figured I would wait until he checked in and then I would ask the desk clerk to help me find a room somewhere, and maybe a taxi to get there. If there was somewhere. And if there was a taxi.

German Man then asks them how big the room is and they say it is a double. He turns to me "Want to share my room?" I asked if he was, Serious? Yes, it is better than the station, and I already called a dozen hotels before this one and they all had no room. OK! They say it has two beds, so that works. I pull out my wallet and he says not to worry about it, he would take care of it and, as he was there on business, just account for the room as for his stay. Wow. What do we do now? It is almost 7pm, and I am starving (I eat light when I give a talk) so I ask if I can buy him dinner as a thank you for sharing the room. So we go upstairs to drop our stuff. Let's see...I have a computer and paper. Fortunately I also had a toothbrush as I like to brush my teeth before talks--helps with having that feeling of confidence, rather than onion-smelling nervousness. No contact lens cleaning solution, but I have a roof over my head--and it's connected to the walls unlike the station! The room appeared to have one large bed instead of two but then the German Man noticed it was actually two beds that we could push apart.

We head down to the pricey restaurant and German Man asks for a "really big beer" and I'll have one too. He had already eaten Burger King as he hunted for a hotel, unsure if he'd have another opportunity. So he just gets a salad (more meat than green, with parma ham on it) and I get "tandoori salmon" which is basically sushi--raw salmon with some sauce and noodles, potatoes and salad. I was starving though so it went down quick. We talked in more detail about work, family, politics, cultures, play "who in the restaurant really wants to be here, and who is stuck like us?", etc. Just hang out there for a few hours with nothing else to do. Head up to get some much needed sleep at 10pm, with a plan to get up early and to the station in case the first scheduled train is running again.

Breakfast at the hotel. Beautiful view of the Rhine (or Rijn, in Netherlands, like Rembrandt von Rijn), then walk back to the station, straight to the platform, as the TVs all show the normal schedule. Ha! Finally they announce that there are local trains, but no international ones, please go to the travel desk. So we go, and stand in super-long line.

As we are waiting I notice the German Man's luggage tags. Hmm...maybe I should find out his name? Especially after sharing a hotel room together the night before. "Umm, I just realized I never introduced myself! I'm Michael." He starts laughing. Nice to meet you! Again! And he tells me his name is Martin. Somehow we went a whole night without that little formality. We finally talk to the ticket agent. Martin asks why they don't have buses running to transport people. The agent notes that is an interesting idea. Then says that the trains might run again sometime tomorrow--goodbye!

So Martin calls his coworkers and ask if they can find a rental car--there is no office for one at the "station." If they find one he'll drop me near Düsseldorf on his way to Frankfurt to go home. So we go to find coffee and sit down and wait. En route we see that the taxis came back! A bit late. We venture into Arnhem, find coffee and his coworkers call back in about an hour. A car! They had trouble finding a rental office, but finally found a reservation for one available at 2pm. They give the address and phone number. Martin calls and the person seems a bit confused, but says 2pm is right. So we walk around Arnhem, look at some stores, the market, then look for lunch...all the restaurants seem closed. Just the wrong time to be in Arhem, or maybe it is always a bad time to be there?

My boss calls while we walk around and asks "where are you?" Umm, Arnhem. But don't worry, I met a great German man who is willing to rent a car and drop me off in D-dorf. "Why aren't you on a train on your way here yet?" Umm, didn't you hear about this storm thing? No trains? A smoky bar/cafe is open, so we lunch there then go get a cab to the car rental.

The taxi drives, and drives, and...I'm almost back in Nijmegen! We are in the middle of nowhere, and he stops at a Home Depot-looking place. Martin confirms the address is right, so the taxi drops us off with a "good luck!" We go in and see they rent drills, chain saws, buckets...no cars. We ask an employee who at first confirms this but says he'll make a call. Person on the phone confirms that a car is supposed to be there for us from a big rental company, but they just partner with them. "Come back in an hour." Ok--where can we go for an hour around here? (Remember--we are here to rent a car!) "Nowhere around here." We are in the middle of nowhere. So we go for a long walk doing nothing, come back, and the car is there. Only problem is they don't know how to rent it to us. After about 15 minutes of calls, they get the company to fax them the rental forms, Martin signs them, and we go (noting that the forms do not say which car we are taking--hope it is the right one!).

A little over an hour later Martin drops me off at the Düsseldorf airport and hurries off before I can get his card or something--hoping I could thank him again somehow. Eventually I find my way home. My wife was happy to see me home after wondering where I was (my phone ran out of credit about halfway through all of this), who I was sharing a room with, and if I'd ever make it back.

Then I had to go back to Nijmegen again the next weekend!

A nice ending is that Martin found me on the internet, using my first name, city and work, and emailed me, so I was able to send him a proper thank-you. It was really amazing how he was just automatically sharing like that (his room, his car, etc.); many Germans I tell this story to keep saying that is a rare thing here. Even outside of Germany that level of generosity is uncommon.

Technorati Tags: culture, expat, Germany, cyclone, The Perfect Storm, Netherlands, trains, kindness, stranger, fMRI

Reflections on life in Germany, from an Auslander's perspective

My list of little observations about living in Germany:

1. Instead of clapping after a research presentation, Germans knock on the table. Apparently there might be a linguistic link as this might also be common in Austria and Switzerland.

2. Bring a birthday cake on your birthday and

3. Throw your own retirement party. In the US it is more likely that this will be organized for you and actually paid for by your employers.

4. Wurst-Salad (yum! er, yuck!). (Wurst is sausage, though it applies more widely than the term is used in English.) OK, so we have tuna salad and chicken salad...but it seems a line should be drawn somewhere for what is referred to as "salad." What looks like chopped up bologna is where I draw the line in calling something a "salad".

5. Smoking like crazy everywhere, particularly under "no smoking" signs in the University.

6. Kid-accessible cigarette vending machines on the sidewalks.

7. Three years of Kindergarten. Why doesn't the US steal this great idea? We already copied their research universities, might as well go for real Kindergartens, too.

8. Accessories required for Kindergarten: "gummis" (rain boots), rain pants, toothbrushes, etc. Kids really learn to be self-sufficient and prepared, and to have good oral hygiene.

9. Bathroom sinks in hallways--they look out of place, but are very convenient to have near the office.

10. Bags in grocery stores are not free. This would seem like a seismic shift in the US, but it needs to happen.

11. Weird cheapo grocery stores. I have to admit stores like Aldi and Lidl scared me at first: poor lighting, often no shelves, strange generic brands... But now I have found the good deals that pop up there periodically (Mexican week! American week! Italian week!), and I am a bit fond of them. I do miss nice grocery stores sometimes, but a short trip to Belgium takes care of that.

12. Bubbly water as default (which I like, too).

13. Cold cut sandwiches good for all 3 meals a day. Strange that Subway can be open for breakfast without changing its menu--it sells the same thing as bakeries, so why not?

14. Apartments are rented without a 1) Kitchen 2) lights 3) floors 4) sinks 5) mirrors.--plus you paint when you leave and pay for all non-rent costs additionally (eg, building maintenance). I don't really understand how this system evolved to really punish renters who have to invest a great deal in a temporary place!

15. No credit cards anywhere--well many places, but not at places you would expect like Ikea or an electronics store where the items for sale cost quite a bit. Funny with the MC support of the world cup "if you bring your Visa, American Ex, well or even your MC, you can't use it"! It does probably reduce the incidence of consumer debt, which is out of control in the US.

16. They write phone numbers with a different grouping mechanism here. Usually it is something like this: 73.56.67.4. Even stranger for an American here, local numbers are not required to have 7 digits, so if a phone number doesn't work you don't know if it is because you are missing a number or not, as there might only be 6 digits.

17. The verb is at the end of the sentence--do Germans have superior semantic working memory than English-speakers to hold all of the info in mind until the crucial verb is spoken at the end?

18. Germans keep both hands visible at the table when eating, it is rude to have one hand under the table (what are you doing with it???).

19. No over-the-counter drugs; cough syrup for kids is seen as child abuse by the pharmacist (though the doctor will prescribe it, no problem).

This will have to be continued in a future post, of course...

Technorati Tags: America, culture, expat, Germany

German vs. American Higher Education

The Uni here is going through a transformation. Traditionally German universities awarded the Diplom degree as the terminal undergraduate degree (or, in British terms, graduate--graduate students in the US would be called postgraduates in the UK). That is all changing. There will now be a BS and MS available, replacing the Vordiplom (pre-Diplom) and Diplom, respectively. The idea is to have the German system match that being used throughout Europe, and in the US, which would increase the mobility of university students here. Many outside of Germany do not know what a Diplom is, with the best translation being a Masters because of the thesis work required.

This change to, what I know as, the US system is fascinating. First of all, one hundred years ago, German universities were the top in the world and German was the lingua franca of science. Santiago Ramon-y-Cajal, in his Advice for a Young Investigator wrote that one must learn German to have an impact on science--publishing only in Spanish-language journals would have no impact internationally.

Second, the German educational system educated the first generation of American experimental psychologists, with Wilhelm Wundt as the founder of it all. My intellectual ancestors go back to the great German physiologists who most influenced modern cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

(Me and the big girl in front of a statue of Johannes Mueller in Koblenz)

Third, some great American universities, such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Chicago, were modeled after the German system. The Diplom is founded on the idea that learning best takes place by doing. That is, one must engage in research to truly become educated about one's field. Johns Hopkins originally granted only graduate degrees because that seemed to be the American equivalent of what the German universities were doing, in contrast to the liberal arts degrees one studied for at Harvard and other such schools at the time. (Interestingly, Hopkins still does not require a Bachelors in order to be accepted into a PhD program.)

Fourth, the standard pedagogical technique in the classroom at places like Johns Hopkins was inspired by the German-style seminars. Again, it is the case of learning-by-doing. Instead of only having lecturers pour information into the brains of the students, through the ears, the seminar was created to have students learn by studying the topics with professorial guidance, and then presenting the overview to their classmates for discussion.

Now my colleagues here are asking me how multiple-choice exams are administered and graded, as the standard oral examinations will be unreasonable in the face of larger course enrollments and lecture-style courses!

Clearly there is something to be said for mobility, particularly in the European Union. However it is strange to see such an important tradition in higher education disappear, particularly one that has been widely emulated and transformed American universities into the research-focused institutions they are today.

Technorati Tags: America, Bachelors, Diplom, European Union, Germany, higher education, Johns Hopkins University, Masters, Santiago Ramon-y-Cajal, science, seminar, University of Chicago, Wilhelm Wundt

Scientific (and Statistical) Literacy Meet the Press

"Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that."
~Homer Simpson

Often when reading the newspaper I am flummoxed by the treatment of numbers. Here is a recent example from the New York Times/ International Herald Tribune:

"The polls, taken for a local newspaper, use small samples, 500 people, limiting their usefulness as a gauge of popular sentiment in a city of one million."

Although numbers are often cited to provide evidence, they are often taken out of context or, just as bad, not given a context. Although editors seem keen to check the accuracy of quotes or the reliability of sources, they seem to skim over any mention of numbers. This is true of both op-ed opinion pieces and front-page investigations.

Besides teaching a research methods and statistics course, I also once worked for a public opinion polling firm, so the above quote struck me as incorrect on more than one level. So I wrote to the journalist:

"Your article on the mosque in Cologne misrepresents what is scientifically acceptable regarding sample sizes and population size. The whole point of a sample is to gauge the opinion of the greater population by taking advantage of probability. A sample of 500 is more than sufficient to do this--one need not ask every single inhabitant to infer their opinions! A properly created sample that randomly selects members of the population and does not seem to choose accidentally one segment of the population (e.g., the 500 polled all happen to be Turkish) is an excellent way to gauge the opinion at large with a confidence interval of +/- 4% to 5%. Unfortunately you do not provide the poll's results, just a summary that a majority support the mosque, so it is hard to apply the confidence interval here. The Times really should consider having a 'numbers czar' (maybe a colleague from the Science Times?) available for consultation on this and other issues that involve statistics and scientific literacy. The offending quote: 'The polls, taken for a local newspaper, use small samples, 500 people, limiting their usefulness as a gauge of popular sentiment in a city of one million.'"

The journalist was kind of enough to run a correction and write back to let me know:

"Your point was legitimate, as is your suggestion that we do a better job of vetting these issues before they get into print. We ran a correction on Saturday on the size-of-sample issue.

Best, Mark"

Here is the correction, with a link to the original article:

"An article on Thursday about a German backlash against plans for a mosque in Cologne, known for its Gothic cathedral, referred incorrectly to the size of polls taken for a local newspaper there, assessing the popularity of the mosque. The sample of 500 people was sufficient for a scientific poll; that sample was not "small," nor did its size limit the poll's "usefulness as a gauge of popular sentiment in a city of one million." (Go to Article)"

First, my thanks go to Mark for being open to the comment, and for having a correction appended. Second, I really do hope this paper and others consider having a staff member edit articles for numerical clarity. The readership deserves to have all the news be fit to print.

Technorati Tags: New York Times, International Herald Tribune, science, scientific literacy, statistics, Mark Landler, sampling, public opinion, Homer Simpson, Cologne, mosque

Neuroscience or Pseudoscience? The Age of "Check Spelling"

In writing a forthcoming blog, I noticed that the automatic spell-check picked up this problem, and offered a wonderful suggestion:

I do not know who is responsible for this suggestion, but it has also arisen when I have typed an email as well! I think Google might be behind this...

Technorati Tags: neuroscience, pseudoscience, science, spell-check, Google

"Psychology Sets" for kids--why stop with Chemistry?

Remember the old Chemistry sets? They once actually came with corrosive and explosive powders that allowed many kids to discover and destroy. Now, they are a bit toned down. We were looking to get our daughter a microscope and Grandma gave her one with one of these new chemistry sets, too. Beware the wonders and danger of .... gelatin. It's a start. Some of the experiments are pretty time-consuming for a kindergartener.

One evening she was asking to do one of these "spare-a-mints" (it is hard to correct pronunciation when it is that cute) but it was too close to bedtime to complete one. Then it occurred to me that she could do a small version of a "daddy experiment" and still get to bed on time. The Psychology Set! I made a quick, cartoon version of four different instances of visual search, based on Anne Treisman's seminal work from 1980. The target was always the same, a red X. Here it is, outlined in yellow.




The only thing that changes are the nontargets, or distractors. The other two letters are the types of nontargets she saw. The first is the blue X, and the other is a red O. So her job was (and now your job is!) to find the red X. To emulate her experience keep a clock nearby and see how many seconds it takes. (If you do not find the target after awhile, you are allowed to stop looking.) Ready? Go!




Found it? Good. Now look for it again here:




OK, that was a bit tricky. No target there. Try again here:





Found it again? One last time, where is it here:




All done! Afterwards I plotted Isabella's data (averaged across two attempts at each trial type) like this:




When the red X is the uniquely colored item it can be found quickly. When it is absent, it takes a bit longer to check and make sure it is not there. However, when there are also a bunch of red Os present, one has to look for the combination (or, conjunction) of red and X to find the target because there are other red items and other Xs, but only one red X. That takes a bit longer. It takes even longer when it is absent because it is harder to make sure it is not there when there are both other Xs and other red things there.

Isabella immediately took up the idea that it was easier for her brain to find the only red thing and harder when it was not there and when there were other red things to "trick" her--she at first pointed at several red Os before finding the red X. (A nice example of searching through just one subset of the nontargets...) And she wanted to keep searching again and again, like a homemade "Where's Waldo" (or, one German version (I think there is another one, too), "Wo ist Walter"). It's nice that she is actually interested in what I did for my dissertation!

Technorati Tags: Anne Treisman, kids, psychology, science, visual search, dissertation, Where's Waldo? experiment

Seeing with your ears?

Here is a little insight into the sorts of experiments I do.

My previous research has mostly focused on the brain finds things visually. For example, how we can find an apple mixed in with other fruit (plus an example of how neurons in the parietal lobe might respond when faced with such a task, from a mini review in J Neuro):




Nowadays I have moved beyond vision to take a look at our other senses, such as how we hear and feel the world, and in particular, how all of this visual, auditory, and tactile information comes together. There are two ways we are doing this. First, we are using a program designed to aid the blind by transforming images into sound called The vOICe. The hope is that, with sufficient training, this device could allow the blind to "see" again, but by using their ears to receive visual-spatial information about the world. Here is what this basically looks like from a NY Times Magazine article on Peter Meijer's device:



(This picture tries to show how a small spy camera takes a picture of the area in front of the user, then transforms the picture into a soundscape. With practice one can learn to interpret these soundscapes in terms of what objects are in the field of view, and where they are, and in a sense "see" again. That is the end-goal at least!)

Secondly we are also studying synaesthesia (also spelled synesthesia), which is a special "cross-wiring" in the brain that certain people have that allows them to perceive something through a different modality than normal. For example, some persons see colors when they hear music. Others always see black-on-white text like this in different colors that are not there such as you see here. Both of these routes will allow us to better understand how the brain puts all of this information from different sources together into one coherent experience.

Technorati Tags: Journal of Neuroscience, New York Times Magazine, science, sensory substitution, synaesthesia, synesthesia, The vOICe, visual search

The Internet & Productivity

Courtesy of http://www.phdcomics.com





Technorati Tags: internet, productivity, research

Seeing with another's perspective

I have been fortunate for the past few days to share the company of a blind person that is participating in our research. Just walking and talking with her opens up new ways of "looking" at where I walk, how I talk, and what I notice through my other senses.

Walking: Offices, houses, hallways, and sidewalks are all cluttered! There are so many objects to be avoided, steps to navigate, branches to duck under, and cords to step over.

Talking: I use the words see, look, and picture in normal conversation to a high degree. It makes sense--we are usually either using our visual system or instructing someone else to do so as well.

Hearing: Many stoplights have no auditory tone accompanying the walk signal. Some are equipped with vibrating units, but many of those do not work. However, if there is traffic, one can hear the direction of the cars moving, and anticipate the likely signal for crossing a street. If the streetlight has a walk signal that is not coordinated in that way (such as when there is a left-hand turn green arrow and the walk signal is red), then that can be a challenge.

The guide dog gets breaks of course to run around on the grass, play, and use the facilities. Careful listening can be pretty revealing of not only where the dog is, but what it is doing. Rolling around on the grass makes the tags jingle quite a bit, while running around is heard with the heavier footsteps.

Touching: While walking I can notice the surface below my shoes even through the fairly thick sole and two pairs of socks (yes, two, but that is another story). The change from brick walkways to a sort of cobble-stone parking lot to concrete are something that can be noticed a bit, and provide cues to the location.

Smelling: I have allergies to some pollen right now, so my nose is sort of useless.

Jose Saramago (his books are great! read them!) wrote a very good novel called Blindness (and an accompanying "sequel" of sorts called Seeing, also good and a very interesting idea for political activism). It was revealing of human nature at both its best and worst, and a page turner (sometimes a stomach-turner as well). I recently read a review that pointed out the bias in the novel that arises from having the heroine be sighted, and helping some people who suddenly (and inexplicably) became blind. Why wasn't the heroine a person who has been blind from birth, and would best know how to navigate a world in that way? I think this choice of Saramago's (if it was a "choice" in the conscious sense of the word) is probably a common sighted bias, but perhaps if he spent some time seeing the world without eyes, he would have chosen differently.

Technorati Tags: blindness, Saramago, science, sensation

Pondering the blog commitment

I like blogs that post on a regular basis about everything from mundane daily activities to philosophical thoughts to tips on living in a strange new place to describing new science results to discussing new, interesting books. And more. The key part is the regular basis, which is not an easy commitment when other things in life are clamoring for attention. I almost started a blog for a job website about life as a postdoctoral scientist, expatriate, parent, and soon-to-be-job-seeker. Among other things. This may be the place for that.



The title comes from the question I most often get here--"Why would an American come to Europe? Everyone wants to go the other way!" Well, I am happy to do my part to reverse the "brain drain", because some great, creative research is being done here.



In the meantime you can learn a bit more about that research from the links on my web page:

http://mproulxjhu.googlepages.com/

Technorati Tags: blogging, expat, science