You’ve Done the Research; Now Go to a Conference!
As a research assistant in the Interactive Measurement Group, you have many opportunities to do research. You can create literature reviews and conduct factor analyses. You can become an expert in data checking and emotional awareness. Doing this research is both challenging and rewarding, but to complete your research experience, you should present your work at a research conference. Presenting at a research conference is invaluable because it allows you to contribute to what is known about a research topic and receive feedback on your ideas for future research. Presenting a poster is especially valuable if you are hoping to attend graduate school because it gives you practice explaining your research, which you will need to do during graduate school interviews. It also allows you to network with other students and professors, discussing your research ideas in the context of published papers and learning about unpublished research that is now being conducted or designed. Presenting a poster at a professional conference is also a great honor, because you are representing your lab and university and because the conference organizers thought your research was done well. Finally, presenting a poster often gives you an opportunity to travel out of town.
The American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences (AABSS) Conference and the Western Psychological Association (WPA) Convention are two conferences that members of the Interactive Measurement Group attend annually. AABSS is a two-day conference that is in Las Vegas each year. Poster sessions and presentations cover social science and education research, and the small venue is easy to navigate. Because AABSS invites presenters from various disciplines, you can receive feedback from someone outside of your particular research field. This is likely to lead to new insights because another point of view may help you realize an idea that you might never have considered before. For example, when we attended AABSS in spring 2017, we were able to talk to both sociology and education majors. They provided us with ideas to expand our current research in data checking and emotional awareness.
WPA lasts about four days (Thursday – Sunday) in a different Western state every year. At WPA, there are many poster sessions, presentations, symposiums, and movies to attend. Since there are so many fun things to see at WPA, you should look at the convention program ahead of time. This will give you the chance to create your own schedule filled with poster sessions and symposiums that you don’t want to miss. We recommend noting any activities that are related to your own research interests, as well as those that you are just curious about. When April presented at WPA in spring 2017, she sat in on symposiums about applied research opportunities and navigating the graduate application process, saw posters related to emotion research, and even met Dr. Philip Zimbardo. After attending WPA, she was even more confident in her decision to pursue a career in research.
There really is no better research experience than the one you receive when you attend a research conference. These events are full of opportunities to be inspired by current research, to network with potential graduate advisors or employers, and to grow as a young researcher. If you haven’t started planning your next poster presentation yet, start planning now!
April Contreras is a junior at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is majoring in psychology and minoring in neuroscience, and has been a member of the Interactive Measurement Group since Spring 2016. She plans to go to graduate school to obtain a Ph.D. in neuroscience. Her research interests include neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, as well as their effects on temperament and personality.
Carmela Tayag joined the Interactive Measurement Group in the Fall of 2015. She graduated from UNLV in May of 2017. Carmela will be starting her master’s in criminal justice with a concentration in forensic psychology at the University of New Haven in the upcoming fall semester. Her research interests include sentencing and incarceration, mental health law, and forensic assessment.