CLICK BELOW TO HEAR SOME OF CONCORDIA’S VERY OWN PSYCHOLOGY GRADUATE STUDENTS TALK ABOUT THEIR RESEARCH ON A NEW ACCESSIBLE PODCAST CALLED ABSTRACT!
Abstract is a podcast where graduate students are interviewed about their research in a way that makes it accessible, bringing into the discussion aspects that are fun but challenging, covering a day in the life, work-life balance, and also just throwing around cool theories and ground-breaking findings they’ve come across in their readings so far. Jeremy Ullman taps into the wealth of information swirling around graduate student’s minds, culminating from months to years of research and reading. That knowledge is harnessed one episode at a time; you won’t want to miss it!
New episodes are released every Sunday evening on a brand new topic, with a brand new guest!
EPISODE 0. WELCOME TO ABSTRACT! - JEREMY ULLMAN
Meet your host, Jeremy Ullman in this first, introductory episode of Abstract: The Future of Science!
Here on Abstract Jeremy interviews graduate students from a variety of disciplines to translating months and years of research and reading into an hour of accessible knowledge.
For a full list of Abstract episodes click here
Click here to listen to the episode.
EPISODE 1. DRUG SEEKING - ALEXANDRA CHISHOLM
Alexandra Chisholm is a Ph.D. Candidate in Experimental Psychology at Concordia University. Her research explores the neural mechanisms involved in heroin seeking and relapse using a new technology that uses receptors designed to be exclusively activated by designer drugs. What happens in the brain that affects drug seeking behavior? Lets find out!
Want To Improve Your Academic Writing For Free? Alexandra Recommends: https://www.coursera.org/learn/sciwrite
Reach Out To Alexandra On Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamalexchisholm
Click here to listen to the episode
EPISODE 2. COGNITIVE EFFORT - SEAN DEVINE
Sean just finished his Master’s degree in Psychology, where his research focus was on the role of individual differences in decision making. On today’s episode, we discuss the practicality crisis in academia; ego depletion and self-control; cognitive effort and the effort paradox; what your pupils tell us about how hard you’re thinking; and the importance of making daily progress towards your goals.
Got a question for Sean? Drop him a line at: seandamiandevine@gmail.com
Click here to listen to the episode.
EPISODE 3. THEORY OF MIND - ELIZA DUTEMPLE
In this episode, Eliza Dutemple weaves together a rich and coherent picture of the three predominant theories of Theory of Mind (ToM), aka. the ability to assess others' thoughts. Follow us down the ToM rabbit hole, and learn about Change Blindness, Violation of Expectation, and staying organized, in and out of academia!
Reach out to Eliza on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DutempleEliza
Click here to listen to the episode
EPISODE 4. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INJURY PREVENTION - SHAUNA ERICKSEN
Our guest today is a passionately curious hobbyist and the first of hopefully many graduate-researcher-business-owner guests we’ll have on the podcast. She is studying how stress and anxiety can affect decision-making skills in the world of sport and how to reduce injury risk in your athletes through mindfulness and meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy, and imagery! Oh yeah, and you should all be training to move better, even if you’re a fit 20-something (and especially if the golden years are rapidly approaching).
You can reach Shauna on Twitter: @shaunalea_22
Click here to listen to the episode
EPISODE 5. LEARNING & DOPAMINE - ALEXANDRA USYPCHUK
Alexandra is a quirky, curious, ambitious, and high-energy Master’s student at Concordia University. Groundbreaking research is happening everywhere all the time, and Alexandra’s lab is no exception. She’s studying the role of dopamine in learning using optogenetics - or the manipulation of genes using light! On today’s episode we discuss everything from neurotransmitters to models of Pavlovian conditioning to exposure therapy and context. What are Serotonin and Dopamine? What are the benefits of studying rats? And how does it all relate to finding a crisp $50 bill on the side of the road? Answers to these and more on episode 5 of Abstract! For the foundational paper on plateau curves AKA. the Rescorla-Wagner Model, see Rescorla & Wagner, 1972.
You can reach Alexandra on Twitter: @alex_usypchuk
Here’s one of her publications in Nature Neuroscience: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-019-0574-1
Click here to listen to the episode
EPISODE 9. CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY - AUSTIN TRUDEAU
Our guest this week is the ever optimistic Austin Trudeau, the man who inspired this very podcast. He is our second graduate student business owner after Shauna (Ep. 4), and he has been studying emotional decision-making in a marketing context. His focus is on the phenomenon of delayed discounting – which he breaks down for us in great detail – and the effects of sexual imagery on people’s spending habits. Austin is chock full of great pearls of wisdom; strong mindset, perspective and time management skills are the cornerstones of Austin’s philosophy. He also believes that you are an average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with, and he’s proud of his 5!
Austin and two fellow business-owners started the podcast that inspired this one, so please do yourselves a favor and check out The Weekly Call, available everywhere you find Abstract!
Click here to listen to the episode
EPISODE 12. RELATIONSHIP DYNAMICS & WELL-BEING - RYAN PERSRAM
On this week’s episode I sit down with ambitious, caring and creative postdoc Ryan Persram. We discuss the nature of sibling conflict, the general and three specific sub-types of trust, tools for conflict mediation, the importance of promoting positive interactions with other people, empathy, collaboration, friendships, family dynamics, nesting, identify development and we close it out with a deep dive into defining and characterizing work-life balance! Moving forward, Ryan hopes to contribute to the creation of new policy and design of outreach programs to educate adults and parents on child development, well being and relationship building.
Click here to listen to the episode
EPISODE 20. FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY & THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK - ALEXANDER BAILEY
Our guest this week is recent undergraduate and winner of CJAP’s 2020 Podcast Guest Opportunity Award, Alex Bailey. It was an absolute treat to have Alex on the podcast this week and our conversation was truly eye-opening: ear candy for all! We answer questions like: What is functional connectivity and the network theory of the brain? What is the Default Mode Network and the nature of resting brain activity? What is fMRI and when/why do we use it? We also discuss how our brain compares to the “Reptilian” brain, the future of research using multimodal techniques, and the role of specific brain regions in the orchestration of neural activity. This and much more on episode 20 of Abstract – let’s go!
If you like what you heard and you’re interested in reaching out to Alex you can reach him by email at: alexander.bailey@mail.concordia.ca.
Click here to listen to the episode.
EPISODE 25. LIFE TRANSITIONS & MENTAL HEALTH - SARAH NEWCOMB-ANJO
Our guest this week is Concordia University Clinical Psychology PhD and now practicing Psychologist Sarah Newcomb-Anjo! We discuss stress, mental health and life transitions, with a big emphasis on mindset. Sarah also shares with us her favorite question she likes to ask her patients, which actually stems from her graduate research.
Email Sarah at: snewcombanjo@gmail.com
Click here to listen to the episode.
EPISODE 35. MUSICAL COMPLEXITY, PREDICTABILITY & ENJOYMENT - ALEXANDER ALBURY
Our guest this week is Alexander Albury, PhD candidate in Psychology at Concordia University. His research is focused on uncovering the relationship between complexity, predictability and liking of music!
Click here to listen to the episode.
EPISODE 53. DECISION-MAKING & METACOGNITION - ALEXA RUEL
Our guest this week, Alexa Ruel, is completing her PhD in Psychology at Concordia University. Her research is focused on decision-making, making decisions about decisions and how that process changes across the lifespan. ALSO, for the first time ever we’re joined by a high school student! Allegra is a bright eighth grader who sneaks insightful questions into the discussion throughout the episode, and keeps us accessible! You don’t want to miss this (or any) episode!
Click here to listen to the episode.
EPISODE 53. DEATH BY DEFFERAL - TANYA SINGH
Tanya Singh is a PhD candidate in Marketing at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University. She studies the psychological and behavioral consequences of putting off decisions. She’s also interested in difficult trade-offs (ex. quality vs. quantity) and how consumers respond to resource scarcity. In addition to her current PhD, she also has a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in Evolutionary Biology (you heard right).
Click here to listen to the episode.