Science & Employability module summary

As the end of the academic years looms close and exams are fast approaching, this will be my final blog post as part of the Science & Employability module.

Luckily for me, I have another year studying at Bangor University. However, for most students in my year, and a lot of my friends, the curtain is drawing to a close on their university lives.

If they take as much away from this module as much information as I have, they should be set to step out into the real world of employment.

This final post will summarise the module content as a whole, as well as which aspects I personally enjoyed the most.

CV’s & Assessment centre

Clare Brass kick started the module with her graduate CV lecture. The content of this lecture included clear guidelines for what should be included in a graduate’s CV.

Admittedly, at the time parts of my CV didn’t follow her guidelines. After this lecture, I went home and reviewed my CV and made several alterations to it and I am now happy with it.

Because of this, I can say I found the CV lecture hugely helpful and particularly like how clear Clare had set everything out.

Clare also ran a workshop on assessment centres. I personally found this content the most useful overall from the module.

Assessment centres were something I was unaware of and the whole sessions was great fun as well as being informative.

During the interview activities, I learnt a lot about how I behave in a interview environment. It gave me the opportunity to receive feedback from others which has allowed me to improve and can now incorporate new interview techniques into similar situations in the future.

Business planning

A series of lectures were delivered by Chris Walker regarding the construction of your own business and bio-enterprise skills. He finished off his series with a ‘dragons’ den’ workshop.

I’m sure to someone who has the intention of one day starting their own business, Chris’ lectures would be huge help. He provided tips and various points which must be carefully considered when creating a business.

I especially thought  the business model canvas was a smart way to quickly jot down ideas and ensure your idea could be successful. For these reasons, I can understand why it’s important to include these lectures in the module.

However, I have no intention in starting a business in the future. If anything, these lectures have confirmed that it’s definitely not the career path I wish to take due to the tonnes of planning involved as well as the necessity for a new idea/invention.

Personally, I think the Dragon’s den workshop could have been run a little better. It was far too short and busy. As a result, everything was a rush and not everyone got to properly present ideas. I think it could have been improved if it was ran all day, not just a few hours.

Social Media

Christian Dunn provided a talk on the do’s and don’t of social media and how everything you post can have good or bad consequences in the future.

As someone who actively uses several social media platforms, I should be careful what I put online. Admittedly, before this lecture I wasn’t. This lecture influenced me to go and check all my social media accounts.

I deleted anything which I wouldn’t want a future employer to see. It also drove me to create a new twitter purely for academic/employability purposes. I am pleased that I have kept this twitter going with frequent posts which are employer-friendly.

Seminars

Each Friday afternoon, Bangor invites an external speaker, usually on a biological topic, to present their research or field of work to students.

As well as this, numerous societies also host external speakers. As a committee member for Bangor Zoological Society, I was able to attend all of our talks from external speakers.

Zoological Society talk from Dominic Dyer

I would say that attending all these different talks has been the most enjoyable part of this module. Many of the talks have given me new information on species or topics I previously knew next to nothing about.

It difficult to pick my favourites as each one which I blogged has taught me something new and interesting. Most I attended were zoological based although there was one – do we control language or does language control us? – which wasn’t.

For this reason, I would have to say that I found this most interesting as it was a completely alien topic to me.

Without this module, I probably wouldn’t have attended many optional talks. However, through attending many this year, I’ll be ensuring that I continue attending any talks next year which I might find interesting.

Blogging

Writing these blogs in an informal manner has been a nice break from writing formal scientific reports and essays week in week out.

I have seen is as a nice way to relax and just write my feelings on a topic onto page without having to stress about being formal and adding a reference every line.

In the future, I look forward to continuing my blogs and looking back on them in years to come and reminiscing about my time writing them.

Final thoughts

On a whole, this module has been incredibly important and useful to me. Without it, I doubt I would have reviewed my CV or social media accounts. Both of which could have cost me in the future.

It has also provided opportunities to listen to a variety of external speakers talk about their field of work. As someone who’s not 100% on their career path yet, it’s nice to see that such a range of things appeal to me and there’s no shortage of opportunities.

Of course, some aspects have been more useful to myself than others but I have managed to take away something from each lecture or workshop.

With new skills, techniques and more employer-friendly media accounts,  I can worry less about heading into the real world of employability.

Bio Dragon’s Den

Have you ever dreamt of starting your own business? Have you ever thought about what kind of model you would have for it?

Up until the 29th March 2019, I had never really understood what is involved in the creation of a business. That all changed when I attended a ‘Dragon’s Den’ workshop held by Chris Walker at Bangor University.

Ideas brewing

At the start of the session, we were split into groups consisting of around 5 people. The task was to create a product or service which is sustainable, environmentally and climate crisis friendly.

This was done by creating a mini PechaKucha consisting of 10 slides. We also created a Crowdfunder video to advertise the product.

Our group began by discussing ideas before we settled on one we named ‘Flowers on Towers’. This was to be a service for urban buildings, mainly high-rise buildings, to create gardens on their roofs.

Once we had our idea, we could begin work on our business model. We had a canvas (shown above) to help with this. In order to make a business idea work, you need to think about each of the 9 key elements involved:

• Key Partners
• Key Activities
• Value Propositions
• Customer Relationships
• Customer Segments
• Key Resources
• Channels
• Cost Structure
• Revenue Streams

Business model canvas

One aim of our business was to allow people living in high rise flats in cities to feel like they can have access to a garden if they wanted to sit outside.

Beekeeping in urban areas

The main aim of the service was to help increase biodiversity of insects, such as bees, in urban areas. Other packages would be available to customers who preferred plants which would take in more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

One of our main revenue streams would involve a maintenance package in which customers would pay for the company to replace and maintain plants monthly.

Other Ideas

At the end of the workshop, each group had to present their ideas to others. Some ideas included:

• An app to identify bird songs
• Bags created from bacteria

Thoughts & my career

This workshop allowed me to see how much is involved when setting up a business. When brainstorming ideas, I realised just how difficult it is to create a business that hasn’t already been thought of in the past.

However, as time was limited, I didn’t get to take part in the creation of the video as I was creating our powerpoint. It would have been more interesting to be involved in every stage of the creation of our business idea, to have a better understanding of each stage.

Although it would be nice to start a business in the future, I don’t think it is something I personally would ever do.

Firstly, it involves having an idea which fills a void in the market; something I don’t currently have. It also requires a lot of planning to make sure you can fund such a venture,

Overall, creating a business also involves taking a risk and hoping people invest in your idea. When the idea is good enough and well thought out, the rewards can be limitless. However, taking such a gamble I don’t plan on doing.

Hunting for Monkeys: How humans change primate behaviour in remote locations.

On 22/02/2019, Sarah Papworth of Royal Holloway University presented a talk about primates at Bangor University. Sarah has previously carried out research on primates in Uganda and South America.

Human Interaction

Primates in the tropics were once studied because they are in remote locations, away from human influence. However, humans have always populated the tropics and primates have always interacted with them.

Primates and humans interact due to several seasons, including:

• Hunting – For food, pets or hunting other animals
• Ecotourism
• Research

Anti-predator response

Sarah explains the Risk Disturbance Hypothesis which suggests that primates respond in a similar way to humans, cars and sounds as they do to predators.

Woolly Monkey

Woolly Monkey (Lagothrix poeppigii)

These are the most hunted species in Amazon due to their large size and fat tails. Sarah’s PhD looked into their response to humans in Ecuador. She done this by mimicking three types of people:

• HUNTER – Armed with blowpipe, looking up into trees
• GATHERER – Looking at the ground for plant material (Hunters often accompany gatherers).
• RESEARCHER – Looking up with binoculars

Her results shown that monkeys would hide in response to hunters and researchers – both of which are usually looking up. However, calling decreased in response to hunters. You’d expect them to call to their group as a warning? Maybe it’s because they don’t want hunters to know their location.

Tourism

Sarah explains how tourism can effect populations in different ways:

Human Shield hypothesis – Human presence protects monkeys from predators.

Distracted Predator response- Humans distract prey from checking for predators.

The final research topic discussed was on the effects of human voice playback on pygmy marmoset behaviour. It found an increase in alert posture and louder playback made them run away – a result not consistent with response theories.

Why does this all matter? 

The aforementioned studies show humans have an effect on primate behaviour. Sarah explains this could have an effect on the survival of species due to things like reduction in feeding.

The distracted predator response also could also effect the populations of prey and consequently wildlife viewing opportunities in tourist areas.

Thoughts & my career

The final point made by Sarah is that there is no overarching theory which explains all responses. Species react in different ways. She certainly made this clear by including numerous examples of research.

As someone who has an interest in primatology, hearing all the previous research into primate responses was incredibly interesting. The cognitive abilities of non-human primates never fails to amaze me and this seminar, especially the research into woolly  monkeys, only added to this amazement.

The famous primatologist Jane Goodall 

Several questions were asked afterwards but most notably was “does response differ towards poachers and rangers, both of which carry guns?” Sarah had no answer to this and said it would be a good topic to study in the future.

Research into primates is something which interests me so who knows, maybe I could be the one to answer that question one day?

Business Plan

During my Science & Employability module at Bangor University, Chris Walker presented some tips on creating business plans and biology based innovation.

He first asked us what our favourite product or service was. He followed this up by asking why we valued it and how it solved a problem.

This allowed us to get into the frame of mind required when creating your own business model. What is the product focusing on? What are the major concerns? What will people want from your product/service?

Innovation 

There are 3 types of innovation:

Iterative- Making small changes to existing models, services or products.

Radical- Making large changes to existing models, services or products.

Disruptive – Huge changes to existing models, services or products. These are usually game changers.

UESTCA

Chris asked to think of a biology based innovative idea and think of the following things:

User- Who is the target audience?

Environment- Where is the idea based?

Scenarios- Will your idea be conserving, beekeeping, farming etc?

Technology- What is involved?

Competition- What’s currently out there to compete with your idea?

Aesthetics- What will your idea look, smell, taste, sound like?

Business model canvas

Now that the questions above have been answered, you can now start to construct a business model.

There are nine segments involved in a business plan, each one playing it’s part in ensuring business runs smoothly and successfully.

1. Customer segments – This is your target audience, a group of people who require something in the market.
2. Value propositions – Why are people going to choose you? Are you cheaper? Quicker? Do you have better customer service or design?
3. Channels – How are you going to reach customers? This can have 5 phases: Awareness, Evaluation, Purchase, Delivery and After Sales.
4. Customer relationships – What type of relationships will you have with customers? Will it be automated or personal?
5. Revenue streams- How will you be generating money? Will prices be fixed? Will you have offers? Can have two forms of streams: Transaction (one-time) and recurring.
6. Key resources – These allow companies to offer products and services, maintain relationships with customers and earn revenue. Can be physical, intellectual, human or financial.
7. Key activities – Involves three sections: Production (making a product in large quantities), problem solving (new solutions to customer problems) and platform/network  (how you will promote your platform and manage it).
8. Partnerships – Who you will associate with.
9. Costs – Seeing what is going to be expensive in order to see what money is left over for the business.

Thoughts and career

Chris’ lectures have certainly given me a taste of what is needed in order to begin your own business. I find it frightening how much planning must go into a business before it gets up and running. Even then, there is no guarantee it will be successful.

During the questions Chris asked us, I personally found it difficult to think of a business idea which fills a niche in the market. Maybe because it was an on the spot moment.

In the future, I have little intention to begin my own business, I think these lectures only confirmed that it is not the career path for me. Having said this, to someone with a good enough idea, these lectures certainly provide steps to help plan the business and pave the way for the next million dollar idea.

Graduate CV’s – Standing out from the crowd

Do you know how long on average an employer takes to look at your CV? Just 8.8 seconds! Before the employer looks at your CV, they already know what to look for:

• Do you have the right qualifications and experience?
• Do you have the required skills and qualities?

With such a tight time frame to impress, it’s vital that your CV stands out like a sore thumb before it gets thrown aside.

As part of my Science & Employability module at Bangor Univesity, I attended a lecture from Clare Brass outlining everything to include in CV’s.

Layout

An example of a good CV

This is the first thing an employer will notice but it can vary depending on what career path you go down.

A graphic designer for example will have a CV very pleasing on the eye with colours and shapes. A scientist on the other hand will be more text heavy with evidence of their academic and previous employment.

However, nobody wants to read paragraphs of jargon. It’s important to keep paragraphs minimal and keep things sectioned.

Contents

It’s essential to include the following in your CV:

Personal Details- A brief description of yourself and your qualities.

Education & qualifications- Education, from secondary school, including how many A-C’s achieved. Can also include some modules studied at university.

Previous employment- Include name of establishment, years worked, job title followed by a brief description of roles involves.

Additional information- Any achievements, awards, interests, sports involvement, driving licence and volunteering can all be included in this section.

Referees- Provide the names of any references you wish to include along with the number and e-mail address.

Types of CV

There are different types of CV, most notably skills-based and an academic CV.

Skills-based– Enables people without relevant experience to communicate the skills they possess. Work experience should be included along with skills which coincide with those required for the field of work.

Academic- Contains more detail and academic achievements. Can include publications, attendance records, funding rewards, research experience and interests.

My Thoughts and future

Clare provided clear steps and instructions for everything a CV should contain. I was intrigued to discover that there are other types of CV’s available when you lack the work experience. This was extremely useful and something I think could be useful to know in the future.

When trying to cram as much information onto a CV as possible, it’s very easy to make it bulky and unattractive to the eye. Clare’s instructions allowed to chop mine down into sections which made it a lot easier to read.

Having step by step instructions, as well as templates to view, made it really easy for me to review my CV and edit the areas that needed improvement. Hopefully, Clare’s instructions have helped me improve my CV and made it look more appealing to future employers.

 

Wildlife Crime In North Wales

On 12.02.2019, Bangor Zoological Society welcomed Rob Taylor QPM from North Wales Police rural crime team.

Rob covered a range of wildlife related offences from organised badger baiting to poaching.

Badger baiting

A distressing topic I was unaware off, badger baiting involves retrieving badgers from setts and using them to train fighting dogs.

Rob explains how small breeds of dogs, usually stolen, are sent down holes to keep the badgers at bay whilst criminal’s dig down to retrieve it. Meanwhile, the trapped badger claws at the dog who often suffers gruesome injuries to the lower jaw.

Once badgers are captured, their claws and teeth are horrifically removed so they don’t cause any real harm to the fighting dog; their only defence is their strength.

Raptor persecution

Rob shows pictures of raptors commonly killed, such as hen harriers and golden eagles. He shows pictures illustrating a common method used to poison these birds.

This involves tying a pigeon to a rock and placing poison on its back. The helpless pigeon is preyed upon by the raptor who unfortunately succumbs to the poison.

Worryingly, the poison used is extremely harmful to other wildlife, pets and children who may come across the deceased bird.

Collections

Rob told the audience of cases where he’d been called to houses suspected of possessing collections of endangered, protected species and animal products.

Collection of bird eggs

One case involved a man in possession of hundreds of eggs belonging to endangered species. Another case involved the collection of endangered taxidermic species, including the Scottish wildcat – a protected species extremely rare in Scotland.

I asked Rob what the police do with these collections. He explains that some are taken, with permission from the courts, and used for education on road shows or in schools.

Identifying crime

During the Q&A, Rob was asked what tips he would give people to identify crimes. For badger baiting, he told us to be aware of people wandering around common badger sites with small breeds of dogs and large hunting dogs.

Rob says an easy way to identify a raptor poisoning is dead flies on the body due to the effects of the poison.

My Thoughts

I found this talk extremely educational in learning what is unfortunately happening to some of our local wildlife. Although some pictures were distressing, it’s important to include them in a talk such as this as it gives you a realisation that the stories being told have actually occurred; they’re not just words out of someone’s mouth.

It was frustrating hearing about certain crimes, such as shooting cattle with crossbows. It left me wondering why people feel the need to commit petty crimes and harm defenceless animals.

I have toyed with the idea of joining the police force but always see my career more involved with animals. However, the rural crimes unit wasn’t something I was aware of. It’s something I find interesting and although there must be distressing times, I imagine it can be very rewarding.

Read more on wildlife crime: https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.uk/campaigns/animals-wild/wildlife-crime-in-uk

Follow the Rural crime team @NWPRuralCrime

Back from the Brink – ‘Success Stories In Conservation’

Malcom’s book

Bangor University Conservation Society held a talk on 31.01.2019 by Malcolm Smith who discussed some of the 15 species, featured in his book, which bounced back after being close to extinction.

Iberian Lynx

Malcom started with the most endangered feline species, once living in their thousands in Southwestern Europe.

Declines occurred due to pouching for skins, poisoning by farmers aiming to kill foxes and habitat loss. 100 were left in the wild in 2004.

The Spanish and Portuguese governments invested in breeding centres. Lynx are kept in compounds without contact with humans and are fed live rabbits to keep their natural hunting instinct.

Iberian Lynx breeding centre in Spain

Releases have taken place in Spain where hunters and farmers are now onside to prevent deaths of the Lynx. Current populations stand at around 400.

During the Q&A, someone asked:

1. If lands become deserted in South Spain due to climate change, how will it affect the Lynx?
2. It’s more depends on the effects on rabbits, as they make up 90% of the Lynxes diet.

Large Blue Butterfly

Malcolm described this as “a prime case needing to understand ecology before release”. This species went extinct in the UK in 1979 when a reduction in grazing left vegetation overgrown.

This led to a decline in red ants. This is important as red ants carry large blue caterpillars into their nest as they secrete pheromones, mimicking an ant pupa . Caterpillars are then fed by worker ants. The butterfly then emerges from the ants’ nest when ready.

Conservation efforts to maintain habitat has led to an increase in red ants. Alongside this, the reintroduction of the large blue has meant that the South-West of England now has the largest population of Large blues than anywhere in the world.

Other Species

Above are two species I found particularly interesting in a talk which involved several other species including:

• Manatees in USA who were once killed for meat or as result of bycatch and propeller collisions. Now increasing due to reduction in bycatch and boat speeds.

  

  Houbara bustard

 

• Houbara, hunted in Lanzarote and Middle-East, now back on the rise due to breeding centres and rise in tourism.

 

• Humpbacks now doing well because of ban on whaling although Norway, Iceland and Japan have continued whaling.

 

My Thoughts

In a time of negative stories in the news and science, it was refreshing hearing positive stories of how humanity has righted some wrongs. It helps remind you that until a species is extinct, it’s never too late to help restore numbers.

I wasn’t aware that some species discussed, such as EU bison and Indian Vultures, were once near extinction. Maybe this is due to the lack of public awareness as they aren’t considered ‘cute and cuddly’ like Pandas.

If I go into a conservation career as planned, this talk was a reminder that although it might sometimes be tough, every bit of work could help the species.

Check species’ conservation status here: https://www.iucnredlist.org/

Global Trade in Wildlife and its impacts

On 30^th November 2018, Stuart Marsden, of Manchester Metropolitan University, presented a seminar at Bangor University.

Stuart discussed different wildlife trades and the topic of ‘sustainability’. At the end, he discusses his work involving bird trade in Java, Indonesia.

Best of a bad bunch

To begin, distressing images of several forms of animal trade were shown, including:

• Trophy Hunting
• Rhino horn
• Bear Dancing
• Primate experiments
• Timber
• Fur
• Tropical fish
• Bird of paradise headdresses
• Commercial fishing
• Bycatch

The audience were asked to pick two which they would continue and two which they would stop. It was clear that there was a diversity of opinions in the room which sparked a mini debate.

Sustainability

Stuart discussed each aforementioned trades and how we should be looking at sustainability before we think they’re cruel or favour one animal over another, just as the IUCN does.

The problem is, data to support harvest models is lacking, meaning we don’t know how many are being taken from the wild each year or how many are left.

E.G. the illegal trade of pangolins. An incredibly difficult species to locate; The only people with great knowledge of their location are the people capturing them.

Reaction and Reason

Sustainability pivots on ‘internal reactions’ of animals (Population Viability Analyses-PVA’s) and the reasons behind the trade. Stuart asks whether people capturing animals, usually locals of poor countries, should be demonised?

Instead, conservationists should work with these people. They are the ones that know the animals best. This would then provide alternate jobs for the locals whilst conserving endangered species.

 

Asian Songbird Crisis

In Javanese culture it is an obligation for a man to have one or several songbirds caged in their house. Some are entered singing competitions.

Asian Songbirds kept in cages

As a result, there’s a huge market and online trade with an extremely high mortality rate.

A four-day survey found 14,000 birds on sale in Singapore shops. This unsustainable trade has driven some species to local extinction. 

Read more on the Asian songbird crisis here:

 https://www.silentforest.eu/about/the-asian-songbird-crisis/

https://www.traffic.org/what-we-do/species/asian-songbirds/

Reducing Demand

Stuart finished by discussing three things he’s working on to reduce the demand for songbirds in Java:

1. Identifying patterns of ownership
2. Looking at motivations for owning the birds
3. Identifying ways to change behaviour and attitudes

Stuart Marsden’s Conservation Research Group: http://stuartmarsden.blogspot.com/

My Thoughts

The purpose of the debate was to show the diversity of people’s attitudes towards trade. For example, some agree with hunting in Africa as it provides income and controls populations. Others have opposite views. If one thing got banned, there would always be people asking why another thing hasn’t.

This talk made me view animal trade from the bigger picture. Although I may not agree with certain wildlife trades, the sustainability of it is key to ensuring a species isn’t driven to the brink of extinction.

In terms of my career and conservation, it’s made me realise that sometimes education is as effective as hands-on conservation.

 

Assessment Centre

Assessment centres can be used by employers to see a candidate’s true personality and competency skills through a series of assessments such as interviews, social events and group tasks.

For my science and employability module, Bangor University created a mock assessment centre to prepare us and develop skills for interview scenarios once we leave university. This involves two tasks:

Group exercise – Survival task

In groups of six, we were given a scenario where we had been involved in a plane crash in the mountains during winter. Before the plane burst into flames, we could grab 10 items (from a list of items on a sheet of paper). The group would then debate for 40 minutes on what to grab and why.

After the 10 items were chosen, we would discuss with another group what items each of us had chosen and would quiz each other on why we did and didn’t choose certain items.

Interviews

Each member of the group was giving a different role. There was one person being interviewed, three people interviewing (one question each), a scribe and a time keeper.

The interviewee had 5 minutes to answer three questions primarily based on their degree, dissertation, examples they had to work in a team or their organisation skills.

The interviewee would then leave the room and the group would discuss their strengths and areas of improvement. The interviewee would then return and be told how they done.

The rolls then shifted clockwise so each person had a chance to be interviewed.

My thoughts

During the group exercise, it was interesting to see how some people find some things useful and others not useful at all. I think this relates well to CVs and interviews when applying for a job because you might not believe something is useful whereas the interviewers count it as an important quality.

The process of picking items created a bond within the group as we would all debate on items and finally be able to justify a reason to pick certain items. This bond became evident when we faced questions from another group. If they didn’t agree with our choice, we would back each other up and explain the reason we chose each item.

It was useful carrying out interviews with people we weren’t necessarily friends with because they were honest and constructive in their criticism. Sometimes friends can be too honest or not honest at all.

The whole assessment centre was being observed by an assessor. I felt this made everyone cooperate more rather than relaxing and not contributing. However, it would be frustrating when I contributed a good argument when the assessor wasn’t there to witness it.

Overall, I feel the assessment centre really helped my identify areas to strengthen during interviews such as making more eye contact.

 

Do we control language or does language control us?

On Thursday 18^th October 2018, I attended a biological society talk at Bangor University, presented by Professor Guillaume Thierry; a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the university.

The talk aimed to show the audience how deceptive the brain can be using illusions and lies. Later, Thierry discussed bilingualism and how language can affect cultural norms.

Mind games

The first illusion was Adelson’s checker-shadow illusion, shown below.

Although appearing different, the two squares are the same colour. Thierry explained the brains knowledge on the effects of a shadow and how a chequered board works makes one square appear brighter.

Next, we were shown a video of a garden and told to focus on a cat. Throughout the video, unbeknown to myself, garden items were slowly changing colour.

The long duration of change and focusing on a separate object means the brain doesn’t notice any changes occurring.

Finally, Thierry installed doubt in the minds of everyone by instructing us to close our eyes and asking if the person next to them were there. Despite knowing they were, the brain creates a doubt that they’re not, prompting you to reach out and touch them.

Bilingualism

Thierry explained bilingualism before introducing us to some of his studies which involved eye tracking and event-related potentials (ERPs).

The first involved showing Chinese-English bilinguals a screen of 3 English words along with a chain of circles or squares. The next screen shown 4 words, one of which overlapped phonologically with the Chinese word for ‘circle’ or ‘square’.

Results shown bilinguals spend more time focusing on the words relating to circle or square, indicating they translate it back to their native language.

Next was an investigation where Chinese-English bilinguals and British individuals were asked what mothers would like post-partum and 4 options were shown: chicken soup, a rest, a shower or a carrot.

ERP results shown that when displayed in Chinese, bilinguals would choose chicken soup (Chinese tradition). However, when displayed in English, they focused more on a shower. This indicates that English language and culture has taken them away from their native norms.

My Thoughts

The first half of the seminar was interactive and interesting to see how easily the brain can be deceived despite being the most powerful organ in the body.

As a monolingual, I found it extremely impressive that bilinguals can translate an English word back to their native language due to the lexical similarity it has to an object they’ve just seen.

This seminar was deeply fascinating and prompted to read Thierry’s research. Despite gaining more knowledge on human neuroscience, I do not wish to pursue this as a career path.

However, throughout university I have discovered an interest in animal cognition, especially in primates. This seminar has only strengthened my interest. Looking through methods to measure ERP could be useful if I am lucky enough to conduct this kind of research in the future.

Below is some of Thierry’s interesting research:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027713001625?via%3Dihub

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Guillaume_Thierry/research

https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13415-016-0411-x