This is Your BA » Cognitive Science

Cognitive science student takes guess work out of design

ccms_editor — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:16:56 +0000

by Nicole Findlay

Lindsey Fraser is helping to make everyday products a little less bewildering to use. The fourth-year cognitive science student has spent the summer interning at a local design firm.

In her position as a usability consultant at Akendi, a design consulting company, Fraser worked on everything from websites to workspaces, products to services. These otherwise diverse projects are linked by a common goal – to be user-friendly.

Fraser likes the variety she has encountered on the job. “I’ve written and edited reports for clients, researched academic findings, synthesized the results of our own user research and presented design recommendations directly to clients,” she said. “I do quite a bit of actual design work too.”

As part of her major in cognitive science, she has studied human perception, pattern recognition, and models of attention and memory. Understanding these systems and applying them in design can allow users to intuitively grasp how to operate products without cumbersome instruction manuals. Fraser compares the simplicity of the iPad to the impossibly complex VCRs of the past.

“I don’t think I would have understood the connection between the research, and the design process if I hadn’t had the opportunity to work in a place which so neatly ties them together,” said Fraser. “Co-op gave me a chance to work with a professional consulting firm with an international clientele; and I saw that cognitive science and psychology are incredibly versatile fields with many applications outside the lab.”

Carleton’s Co-op program provides students with an opportunity to develop work skills and acquire relevant industry experience by alternating work placements with periods of study. Co-op options are available to students of sociology, anthropology and cognitive science. For more information about Carleton’s co-op program visit http://www.carleton.ca/co-op

This year, the Departments of History and French have added a co-op option to their programs. For information about these options visit http://carleton.ca/co-op/news/french-history-co-op-information-sessions/

Cognitive science student takes guess work out of design

ccms_editor — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 14:17:26 +0000

by Nicole Findlay

Lindsey Fraser is helping to make everyday products a little less bewildering to use. The fourth-year cognitive science student has spent the summer interning at a local design firm.

Cognitive science student takes guess work out of design

ccms_editor — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 14:17:26 +0000

by Nicole Findlay

Lindsey Fraser is helping to make everyday products a little less bewildering to use. The fourth-year cognitive science student has spent the summer interning at a local design firm.

This year, the Departments of History and French have added a co-op option to their programs. For information about these options visit http://www2.carleton.ca/co-op/news/french-history-co-op-information-sessions/

Beyond imagining

ccms_editor — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:03:48 +0000

By Nicole Findlay

You’ll likely find Jonathan Gagné sitting at the edge of the Rideau River contemplating human imagination. Along with his supervisor Jim Davies, he is attempting to unravel the mysteries of how we can visualize all the things we do, especially when we have never seen some of these things.

If you are asked to imagine a purple elephant, nearly all of us can do so, yet few of us have ever seen one. What is happening in our minds that allow us to be able to do this? This very question is at the heart of the honours thesis in Cognitive Science, which Gagné is currently completing. His thesis presents an account of how humans could be accomplishing this feat.

Gagné’s undergraduate research work, high grades, and extra-curricular initiatives, has led him to win the highest NSERC graduate award, the Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, which is awarded to the top-ranked graduate students in the country. This award has even resulted in Gagné being scouted by universities across Canada, despite never applying. “I contribute much of my success to the outstanding Cognitive Science program. The program is very interesting, and the staff and faculty are kind and very helpful. If it were not for Dr. Davies giving me a chance to begin working on his research, I would not have the opportunities I have now. I unquestionably recommend this program to anyone with interests in the human mind,” said Gagné.

Gagné’s university involvement has gone beyond just research. He has philanthropic involvement with Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS, The American Heart Association, The Alzheimer’s Association, and the Shepherds of Good Hope. In the 2006 – 2007 academic year he was elected as the Constituency Representative for the Faculty of Arts and Social Science, where he represented and voiced the opinions of over 6800 students, on behalf of the Carleton University Student Association (CUSA). In his spare time, he is the captain of a football and a basketball team, and still makes time to practice his musical instrument.

“The well rounded cognitive science program is challenging and intriguing. It has developed me mentally, and has inspired me to take an active role on campus.”