Category: URECA

URECA x ECL AY22/23

Posted on by Setoh Pei Pei (Asst Prof) in URECA

Here are some thoughts and reflections from our ECL members who have completed the URECA programme!

Jerron Leow Yik Joon

When I first enrolled into the URECA programme, I was uncertain in my own ability to conduct research due to my limited experience. However, the opportunity to plan and set the direction of my own study was something that drew me in, and I’m glad I took the leap of faith. Through my journey with the Early Cognition Lab, I have been given the valuable first-hand experience of working with children as research participants, and the challenges that this entails (such as the child being restless/inattentive) and how to deal with these challenges on the fly.  Furthermore, our lab meetings and feedback session have allowed me to obtain valuable suggestions for my project, and learn from the senior lab members to ask good questions and think more critically about our research topics. Throughout the entire process, my supervisors and Prof Setoh have been incredibly supportive, and I’m thankful for the great environment that I was able to conduct my project in :). Overall, even if URECA was challenging at first, it has been an enriching experiencing that will surely be a highlight of my university life.

Kwek Zi Xuan

Taking up URECA has proven to be an immensely enriching experience for me. It not only equipped me with valuable knowledge and practical understanding of the entire research process in psychology, but has also instilled crucial skills such as resilience in the face of setbacks and the perseverance to overcome challenges. The extensive guidance provided by my supervisors has been instrumental, and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to broaden my horizons. I definitely have no regrets undertaking URECA, and I would encourage everyone to go it, irrespective of the interest in pursuing a research career, for the learning curve is truly rewarding and has significantly transformed my perspective on research in a positive way!

La-Mia Juan Crinis

I’ll start by admitting that I was intimidated by the URECA Project before I begun, and this underlying doubt stemmed from my lack of confidence in statistics and research skills. However, I knew that with the support of the lab’s team, as well as my optimistic approach to just grasp the opportunity – I would be able to overcome the obstacles I foresaw. There were some bumps along the way when I had a lack of knowledge about how to navigate different statistical methods, however, I felt supported throughout by my supervisor’s and senior student there to guide me. In the end, I feel like I have overcome my fear of statistics! This has allowed me to grow my interests in psychological research further, and to take up more opportunities. I would recommend URECA to all students who wish to push themselves out of their comfort zone, and to explore their interests further!

Low Yee Theng Heather

URECA was my first hands-on experience with embarking on a mixed method study, and although the journey was long and arduous, it was also incredibly rewarding. I gained so much knowledge on a variety of data collection and analysis methods for both quantitative and qualitative research; without this opportunity, I would not have been exposed to things that are outside of my normal curriculum. I received a lot of support throughout the course of my URECA project as well; supervisors and fellow lab members posed many critical questions for me to consider whenever I updated on my research progress, and this played a major role in guiding my research direction. If anyone is interested in a career in research, I highly encourage them to start off their journey by taking up URECA!

Myat Thin Kyu Aung

Doing my URECA project with the Early Cognition Laboratory was definitely an eye-opening experience. While the prospect of having to carry out a research project initially felt daunting, I did enjoy the process very much. It gave me an avenue to apply what I have learnt and to explore further. While I have learnt a lot from the works of other researchers, I feel that I have learnt most from the members of the lab. Being able to share my thoughts and ideas and receiving feedback in turn from other lab members definitely pushed me to produce a work that I am proud of. The experience and insights I’ve gained has definitely further my interest in developmental psychology. Thank you all for your guidance and support!

Ng Kai Li

When I first started my URECA project, I had almost no knowledge on planning and conducting research. At that point, I wasn’t even sure if research was something I could or wanted to do. Now, with all the foundation and competencies I have acquired over my year working with the lab, I’m far more confident in my skills and have a much clearer idea on what areas I can work on! With the support and guidance of the lab members and my supervisor, Petrina, my learning was always scaffolded and was never truly exhausting. Overall, I learnt a lot during my time at ECL, and it gave me the abilities and confidence to pursue further research projects later on.

URECA x ECL AY22/23 – Congratulations for Winning Poster Competition!

Posted on by Meryl Yu in Awards, URECA

This academic year, as part of the URECA program, 6 undergraduate students joined the Early Cognition Lab to embark on their independent research project. We had an amazing time exploring a range of research topics, such as parental disciplinary practices and parental dominance in parent-child conversation. We are thrilled to congratulate 4 of our students, Jerron, La-Mia, Kai, and Myat, for winning at the URECA poster competition. Kudos to their outstanding accomplishment! We spoke to them about their URECA journey.

What was your project about?

La-Mia: My URECA project was on whether child gender could influence parent’s conversational dominance. I coded parent-child conversational transcripts from a picture-book reading task, for parent’s total number of words in proportion to the child’s total, mean length of turns speaking in terms of the number of words spoken each turn, and the number of wh-question’s parents asked their child (questions using wh-words to elicit input e.g., what, where, why, when, and how). I compared each of these dependent variables by child gender, to see if gender had an influence on parent’s conversational dominance. From this project, I hoped to find more insight into when gender patterns of conversing may begin to develop during childhood.

Kai: My URECA project looked into the long-term effects of childhood neglect experience on negative parenting practices. Specifically, I was interested to find out how specific types of neglect could be associated with coercive forms of parenting, such as verbal hostility and physical coercion!

Jerron: My URECA project was about how parental physical discipline related to child anxiety. I decided to focus on physical discipline as it is highly prevalent in Singapore society, yet there has been very little research done on how it affects Singaporean children. I was driven to investigate its relationship with different dimensions of anxiety as we still do not have a clear picture of how physical discipline causes anxiety, and also due to the rising rates of mental illness in Singapore.

Myat: My project explored the trajectories of parenting practices through early and middle childhood. We know intuitively, and perhaps anecdotally, that how our parents parented and disciplined us changed as we grow older. However, there is little empirical research exploring such changes. Even when it is explored, research was often limited to physical discipline. In addition, most previous research focused on mothers and a Western population. Thus, I also wanted to explore whether the trajectories of parenting practices differed between Singaporean mothers and fathers.

Why did you choose to do a URECA Project?

Myat: In the previous summer, I had the opportunity to work in the Early Cognition Lab. Through doing literature reviews, participating in Lab meetings, doing data cleaning and helping in data collection, I was exposed to various steps in the process of doing a research project. This experience not only piqued my interest in the research process, but also furthered my interest in early development, especially in the outcomes of discipline practices. I also wanted explore how the theories and methods I learnt in class could be applied in research, hence, I took on a URECA project.

Jerron: Before I embarked on the URECA Project, I was already certain that I wanted to pursue a career in Clinical Psychology / mental health. However, I was uncertain about the age groups that I would be comfortable working with or specializing in. After taking Prof Peipei’s course in developmental psychology, I gained a newfound interest in how the environments children grow up in can affect their development – which led me to apply for a project at the Early Cognition Lab to experience being involved in child research.

What was your experience during the course of this project?

Kai: It was a very positive experience! I learnt a lot about the research process, and it certainly gave me the foundation to pursue the other projects that I have since taken up. Furthermore, as I had been studying how early years’ experience could affect people, it made me more appreciative and comfortable with the domain of developmental psychology. Additionally, I had a lot of support and encouragement from my supervisor, other lab members, and fellow URECA students.

Myat: I would say that embarking on this project has been really exciting. The project gave me the opportunity to apply what I learn in class to real data, and even explore beyond what I have learnt. Performing statistical analysis on the data and interpreting the results was particularly interesting for me as I could apply the methods I learnt in class but also explore new statistical methods. There were also many times that I felt lost or unsure about certain parts of my project, however, my supervisor, Mioko, and everyone in the lab was there to give great advice and share their thoughts. The process of receiving and giving feedback gave me the opportunity to improve on my project.

What was your biggest takeaway from pursuing the URECA project?

Jerron: My biggest takeaway from URECA would be that spending time and effort in staying organised and consistent is worth it! Throughout the course of my project, I’ve read numerous research papers, generated many statistical outputs and have created many drafts of posters/reports/findings, which has been a little problematic for me when I’ve had to review the progress of my project. For example, I’ve had trouble finding the studies that I had intended to reference in my report, and had wasted loads of time trying to identify which of my statistical outputs was the most up to date. I recommend to anyone that takes URECA that you clearly label and sort all the files you use for research, and to have a detailed and organised reading list of all the relevant papers that you have found, it will save you a LOT of time.

La-Mia: My biggest takeaway from pursuing the URECA project is to always be an eager learner, and to love learning. Having an open mind and proactively seeking feedback will allow you to grow as a student! It’s important to explore different interests throughout university, such as the career pathways your major can offer (e.g., academic research). It will help to attract more fruitful opportunities!

URECA x ECL AY21/22

Posted on by Setoh Pei Pei (Asst Prof) in URECA

Here are some thoughts and reflections from our ECL members who have completed the URECA programme!

Allison Chiew Kay-En

URECA was a fruitful and helpful introduction into conducting research. The project allowed me to gain first-hand experience conducting testing sessions, analysing papers, and writing my own paper, and I felt it really supplemented and enriched the academic writing modules I was doing in school. More importantly, through working with my mentors and interacting with other students in the lab, I have gained a better understanding of what it means to think critically and ask good questions in a research setting. I am very thankful for this experience and would encourage others to take it up if given the chance!

Choo Jing Wen Germaine

This was my second URECA experience in the lab, and I’m really grateful to have been given the unique opportunity to think of a new project and research direction in this past year! This experience has truly reinforced my interest in research (although at times it was daunting), and I’m grateful to have had the support and guidance from everyone in the lab. I have learnt so much from them, and have been able to learn new hard skills (eg. data analysis) and soft skills (eg. presentation, asking good questions). This project has shown me areas that I have to improve on and this experience has given me more chances to practice areas that I am weaker in, such as statistics. URECA is definitely one of my highlights of university life, and it has helped me to grow in my skills and confidence as well. I’d definitely recommend juniors to do a URECA project as well!

Chow Si-Ting, Tracy

Though the beginning stages of my URECA journey were daunting, my supervisor and co-supervisor were very encouraging, and their guidance made this experience an eye-opening one. Besides honing valuable research writing and statistics skills, I was also given the opportunity to collect data through both online questionnaires and virtual face-to-face sessions, which made this journey even more thrilling and fulfilling. Despite feeling overwhelmed at times, I would recommend those interested in research to join the URECA programme as it would be an enriching experience.

Hu Huiying

URECA was a challenging yet exceptionally fruitful experience. In the beginning, the year ahead seemed daunting, especially with the steep learning curve and the scale of the project in mind. But with the guidance of my mentors and the supportive team at the lab, I was able to tackle each part of the research process one step at a time. This programme allowed me to improve my research skills by partaking in data collection, statistical analysis, and finally, writing the final report. Overall, this project gave me the chance to discover more about a topic that I am deeply interested in, and I have learnt so much from my URECA journey!

Lau Jing Xuan

When I started my URECA journey, I was unconfident about my ability to conduct a research study. I was always stressed before data collection and fumbled from the anxiety. However, after many more sessions, I started feeling comfortable guiding data collection as the primary experimenter. Then began the arduous process of data analysis and research paper writing. It felt like one challenge after another, where I would get better at a skill and realise that I am entirely lacking in another. Thankfully, I had mentors who guided me patiently throughout the confusing and challenging process, which immensely enriched my experience. The constructive feedback allowed me to improve my skills as a researcher, and I am so grateful for a supportive and responsive group of mentors! Overall, the URECA experience was challenging and stressful, but I learned so much more about research than I could have from my current curriculum. It was a holistic experience that helped me grow as a researcher and a psychology student. I am excited to bring whatever I have learnt into the upcoming semesters!

Terese Lor Yue Jia

My URECA experience with the Early Cognition Lab was an eye-opening experience. I was able to engage with the full research experience, in terms of literature review, data collection, data analysis and report writing. As I was a second year psychology student undertaking URECA, it exposed me to research in a more in-depth manner.
Under the guidance of Prof Setoh and my supervisors, i was in awe as I see their dedication and passion towards research. They continuously pushed me to be my best, and for that I am grateful.
Overall, I am very appreciative to have this opportunity to do research, especially with dedicated individuals.

URECA x ECL AY20/21

Posted on by Meryl Yu in URECA

Here are some thoughts and reflections from our ECL members who have completed the URECA programme!

Celine Tay Shi Qing

Taking on URECA has given me a fulfilling experience – one that has enriched my understanding of research processes. Under the valuable guidance of my mentors, I was able to stretch outside my comfort zone by learning how to integrate computational knowledge into my project. Through this, I am thrilled at the possibility of incorporating such computational methods in future studies. Undergoing URECA has also provided me with ample opportunities to sharpen analytical and writing skills. Given that this project was my first, it was interesting to use statistical software outside of ordinary curriculum. Overall, though the learning curve was steep in the initial stages, URECA was certainly rewarding and allowed me to catch a glimpse of the work that researchers do.

Er Jia Yun

My URECA journey has been a very fulfilling one as I had the opportunity to work closely with my mentors and was involved in the entire research process, from data collection to data analysis and finally, producing a research report. Under the guidance and support of my mentors who are experienced and knowledgeable, I was able to hone my research and writing skills. This experience has also equipped me with various statistical software skills, which I find to be useful and valuable. As I have always been interested in research, this experience has been enjoyable as it revealed to me what it is like to be part of a research lab. I would strongly recommend other like-minded students who are interested in research to take up the URECA programme as it is an eye-opening experience like no other.

Choo Jing Wen Germaine

Although URECA was daunting at the start, it has become one of the most fruitful and enjoyable experiences for me in NTU to date! The team has been incredibly supportive and I have learnt so much from all of them. It was really exciting to participate in data collection and conduct statistical analysis. The lab meetings made me more aware of recent studies and gave us an opportunity to present our posters which provided great feedback for improvement. I would encourage my juniors who are interested in research to take on a URECA project as it has helped me grow in my research skills and my interest in research has definitely grown too!

Koh Xiao Ting Anne

URECA has been a very enriching and eye-opening experience. I have been able to learn and experience more than when being a research assistant in the lab, such as in presenting research papers during lab meetings, conducting testings, research analysis and writing. Our mentors gave us a lot of guidance and support which I am very thankful for, and helped me to slowly gain and improve my research skills. I have learnt a lot more about research through the URECA experience, and am very grateful to have had this opportunity!

Tan Lay Hui

My URECA experience in the ECL lab was a very enriching one due to the guidance and extensive exposure to different stages of research. In particular, I was able to partake in the literature review, data collection, data analysis and conduct experiments in both physical and virtual settings. With the prompt and detailed guidance from my supervisor and co-supervisor, my research capabilities have improved greatly. Although it was overwhelming at times due to the lack of experience in research, the support from my URECA peers and my supervisor has made the research experience more manageable. In my opinion, the URECA programme is essential for anyone who is considering to be a researcher in the future.

 

URECA x ECL AY18/19

Posted on by Meryl Yu in URECA

Here are some of the musings of our students after completing the URECA programme…

Choosing to take on URECA is definitely one of my best choices during university. It is a one of a kind experience that is unlike other. My mentors have always given me their support and guidance, and helped me to improve my writing and statistical software skills. It is really eye-opening to be part of a research project where I got to brainstorm for the project’s methodology, participate in data collection and coding, create a poster, and write a research paper for my project. I would definitely recommend my juniors to take on URECA to learn more about research and benefit from URECA. –Rachel Chan Si Hui

I am happy to say that my journey through URECA has provided insight into what the life of a researcher really entails. When I first began my journey, I did not know what to expect as I have never done proper research from scratch – from the collection of data, to the analysis of the collected data, to writing a whole research paper on the topic. URECA also allowed me to apply the psychological theories that I learned and ultimately helped me better understand these theories. –Darren Sim Kah Ho

What made URECA an enriching experience was the mentorship that was provided to us. Our mentors were well-versed and had loads of experience in this field and provided a great deal of support and guidance throughout the research process, allowing me to learn the ropes of research with greater ease. Being a part of the lab also allowed me to get to know individuals who are passionate about a similar topic as I am, making this experience much more enjoyable as well. All in all, I feel that URECA is an experience I would recommend to any aspiring researcher as it has provided me with great opportunities to hone the skillsets of a researcher and to experience the demands of the role as a researcher. –Chua Pei Fen Athena

Engaging in URECA extends much further than just being a research assistant. In addition to participant recruitment, conducting surveys and testing, data entry and analysis, we were also given the opportunity to summarise our research findings into a poster, to present our results to other URECA students and professors, and to write a research report that is a culmination of our semester’s worth of research efforts. –Lin Xiao Wen

Right at the start, I remembered how difficult it was to understand the literature and the statistical analysis used. I became anxious when I needed to submit the pre-registration form and present the pilot study results in a poster format. Also, I came to realise that careful thought is required especially when preparing the stimuli or designing the procedure. For instance, I did not expect the task of creating a set of standardised dance moves to be so tricky. Yet, over time, I started to enjoy the problem-solving process and I learnt to see things beyond the surface level. –Ng Wan Zhyi

My first URECA experience was useful in giving me a head start in gaining experience on the writing and time management skills that would eventually be needed for my FYP. From this opportunity, I gained a better understanding of my FYP topic earlier than my peers who did not take up URECA. Overall, I really enjoyed my time with ECL. I think the lab is organised in a way such that there are structures and resources (e.g., research procedure guides for each projects, observation periods) available to supports students who may be new to research. –Ng Chen Ying Heather

My FYP-URECA experience has been unlike any other! It gave me a unique platform to develop my research interests and allowed me to pick up skills in project management. In the past year, I learnt a lot from coordinating with research partners, developing tools and conducting analyses on findings. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the classroom with the student participants. Overall, the FYP-URECA experience helped grow in my confidence and capabilities as a researcher. –Ng Kai Lun Jessica

URECA x ECL AY18/19

Posted on by Meryl Yu in URECA

Each year, as part of the URECA program, the Early Cognition Lab accepts undergraduate students who are passionate about research to take on an independent research project. This year, 7 students joined us and we had a great time exploring diverse research topics. We are very proud to share that 2 of our students, Athena and Jessica, won prizes at the URECA poster competition for their outstanding research performance. We speak to them about their URECA journey.

What was your project about?

Jessica: My project was about the relationship between bilingualism and executive functioning in Singaporean pre-schoolers. I am deeply interested in early cognitive and language development, and working with this lab allowed me the rare opportunity of conducting studies directly with young children.

Athena: My project examined the biases that Chinese and Malay children in Singapore might have about intelligence. I felt that how children and their parents think about intelligence is very significant because children’s self-concepts can affect how they make decisions about their pursuits later on in life. It was also a bonus that the children whom I worked with were very endearing and it was a joy to be able to interact with them!

 

Why did you choose to do a URECA Final Year Project?

Jessica: I had wanted to participate in the URECA poster conference to meet other student researchers who are passionate about research in diverse fields. Hearing from them about their research projects pushed me to think beyond the scope of what I know and opened my eyes to new perspectives concerning childhood language and cognitive development.

 

What was your experience during the course of this project?

Athena: I had a fruitful experience getting involved in each stage of a research project, from recruitment to testing to drawing findings from the data obtained. We learn about various psychology testing methods in class but it is a little harder to grasp how these methods can be applied. It really was a unique experience to formulate experiments to test out theories and obtain the results first-hand. On its own, research could be a very daunting task but I was fortunate to receive close mentorship from the lab members and I learnt a great deal from them.

 

What was your biggest takeaway from pursuing the URECA project?

Athena: Choosing a URECA project based on a topic that I was interested in definitely made this research process a very enriching experience. The biggest takeaway was for me to conduct and see through a research project from start to finish. It is not always a smooth-sailing process but working through the little obstacles made the overall experience very worthwhile at the end of the day.

Jessica: I thoroughly enjoyed my time doing this project and I was very glad to do something so closely aligned to my interests, being in the classroom with the young students. I think that URECA is a great platform for honing your research skills and pursuing this project certainly grew my confidence and capabilities as a researcher.

URECA x ECL AY17/18

Posted on by Setoh Pei Pei (Asst Prof) in URECA

Each year, many students join the Early Cognition Lab for the URECA programme. Our students pursue an exciting variety of projects uncovering the socio-cognition of children from their pre-school to primary school years. We are proud to announce that one of our URECA research students, Wendi, clinched the first prize for the URECA AY17/18 poster competition! We spoke to Wendi about her project and her experience.

What was your URECA project about? My research project is on children’s concept of justice and specifically on children’s resource distribution in a third party moral transgression.


Why did you choose to do this project and to work in this lab? I decided to work in this lab to gain experience working with children as I haven’t had the opportunity to do so despite my interest. I chose this research project as it focused on children’s ability to punish antisocial adults, which was not something we got to learn in class. I was also keen to explore the use of implicit measures, where instead of relying on children’s verbal testimony, children’s behaviour could be measured based on their responses in a resource distribution task.

What was your experience through the course of this project? Being new to research, fulfilling the URECA programme deliverables seemed intimidating at first but they turned out to be manageable thanks to the close guidance given in the lab and from Kristy, a doctoral student and my research team leader. Being part of a close-knit research team also provided a sense of comradery, which made the experience fun and less daunting.

Do you have any words of encouragement for people who want to pursue a URECA project? Pursuing a URECA project requires commitment but it gave me a huge sense of accomplishment, being able to do a research project independently. It also provides a sneak preview to what the Final Year Project would be like and builds the foundation for research report writing. It can be challenging but it is a great opportunity for anyone interested in research because you get a first-hand experience here!