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Experiences of alumni Iris Groen, alumna Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Alumna Iris Groen obtained a bachelor Bèta-gamma (cum laude) with a major in Psychobiology and graduated also cum laude from the master Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in 2009 with the specialisation Brain and Behaviour (now Cognitive Neuroscience). At the moment she's doing a PhD project at Psychonomics (UvA). Read about her experiences.
I’m still involved in truly interdisciplinary project
After I obtained my master's degree earlier this year I started a PhD at the UvA in the group of professor Victor Lamme. The topic of my PhD is on the role of natural image statistics in human visual perception: my task for the next four years is to figure out to what extent the human brain is sensitive to underlying regularities of the natural world, as for example expressed in the distribution of contrast in natural images. Such a distribution can be quickly summarized by fitting a function with certain parameters to it - which, we think, is something neurons can actually do. As such, my topic is really about the integration of computation modelling of information (such as done in information science, artificial intelligence, cognitive science) with investigations of the workings of the brain (neuroscience). Therefore, I am proud to say that, although I have finally managed to leave the IIS - I am now in the department of Psychology - I am still involved in a truly interdisciplinary project!
If you'd ask me why I think I am up to such a challenging job, I would have to answer that that is because of my background. In the master Brain and Cognitive Science I learned a lot about the many different ways one can think about the mind and the brain. From the single cell level in our 'Development and Plasticity of the Nervous System' course to the mind-body problem in 'Introduction to Cognitive Science', we learned that there are many levels of description in cognitive neuroscience. This is exactly what makes the field so interesting. Before I started the master, I obtained a Bèta-gamma Bachelor with a major in Psychobiology. My major programme was an excellent preparation for the master, since it provided me with the basic knowledge of the biology of the brain, and of different aspects of cognition. But it wasn't until the master that I really started to understand the concept of cognition, and the many ways people have thought about this: for example, the possibility to consider the question of how important language is for thought to arise, and whether or not it may even be a prerequisite for thinking. Although this high-level approach of the brain is not the research field I am actively working in now, I am glad to have learned about it.
It is important to speak the language of other fields
I do not think that being trained in interdisciplinary thinking (which is supposedly what happens during the IIS bachelor and master) can replace specialist knowledge. If you want to go into research, it is very important you know the basics of your field and that you have the appropriate skills. Luckily, the programs that I followed allow for enough space to obtain this knowledge and learn these skills. Also, you learn the most of these by actually starting with doing research - whether that is in a research project or, as in my case, in a student-assistantship. Moreover, I think that also in the practical domain, it is very important to be able to understand the issues and approaches in other fields/at other levels of description - such that you can relate to people working in those areas and set up collaborations, for example. It's important to be able to speak their language, and this is something you learn in the bachelor and master's programs that I followed. But most of all it is critical to keep an open mind towards other's approaches, theories and findings - you never know what new light they can shine on the approach, theory and results you're working with at the moment.
I definitely think that the fact that I have learned about the many ways to approach and formulate a problem is an added value that I will benefit from for the remainder of my career. If anything, I will always be grateful for the fact that I learned about matrix computations in the Mathematics course in the first year of the Bèta-gamma bachelor - which is something I am significantly benefiting from now in my PhD.
My favourite teacher was Richard Ridderinkhof
My favourite teacher would have to be Richard Ridderinkhof. He is a very intelligent professor that always has an impressive question after any type of talk - and he has a great open attitude towards his students. When talking to him, you can sense that the interest he displays in his students and their undertakings, is sincere.
For the best memory of my master's studies, I can't decide between the following two. First, the study trip we made to Cambridge (UK) in my first year, which was a lot of fun - and to me, also very impressive, as apparent by the fact that I ended up doing my graduation project there (at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit). Second, the science/art party that I and some other students organised when we were still the board of Cognito, the student union of the master: we set up an 'experimental room', where people, amongst other things, could experience illusions, take part in little experiments to have strange experiences (such as the rubber hand syndrome), make an attempt at 'do it yourself phrenology', try to distinguish real MRI-images from fake ones, make cognitive fridge-poetry and eat brain-food. My contribution was making a brain-in-a-jar by sculpting a cauliflower such that it started to look brainy, which was a lot harder than I expected. Yes, I admit, scientists have a peculiar sense of humour.