Hi everyone! Throughout the course of this semester, I have had a lot of amazing experiences that have allowed me to grow as a researcher and a student. This past week, I had the opportunity to present a poster at the Society for Research in Child Development’s 2023 Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. This conference provided me the chance to network with students and researchers studying topics in child development and learn about current research in the field. My poster included my work on wh-question answering in children at an elevated-likelihood for autism and other language delays. A lot of the people who approached my poster did research on autism themselves, and some even had done similar projects on questions. It was great being able to get feedback from these people and get their thoughts on where I should go next with my work.
In the days leading up to my poster session, I was pretty intimidated by the idea of having to present my work to experts in the field. Yet, the main thing I took away from this experience was how supportive and collaborative research can be. My fears subsided when I realized how genuinely curious people were to talk about my work and provide relevant feedback. This also allowed me to feel very comfortable going up to other peoples’ posters and discussing their projects with them.
In addition to presenting my own work, I also got to attend multiple flash-talk sessions and paper symposiums on a wide range of topics. Listening to these talks exposed me to different issues and topics in the field that I would not have probably heard about otherwise. It was super interesting to hear people talk about the work they are passionate about and see their excitement regarding their findings.
After returning from the conference, I feel super motivated to finish the rest of my directed research. I hope to dig deeper into the different wh-question types and compare responses to questions that are more abstract (why, how) to those that are more concrete (what, where). I am curious to see if responses to these different question types differ among the different outcomes groups we study within the lab. I hope to be able to get all the coding work done by the end of the semester and begin to start looking at the data. From there, I hope to start working with my graduate mentor on writing up the work we have done.
Overall, receiving the CURF this semester has provided me with new and exciting opportunities, while also giving me the support I needed to finish a project I have been working on throughout the course of my undergraduate career. I would recommend participating in research to any student at Pitt. Seek out something that interests you and see where it can take you! The Honors College provides an immense amount of support to students hoping to pursue independent research, and getting involved with a lab is the best way to start!