by: Devin McSween
On May 27th, I had the opportunity to travel to Boston, Massachusetts, to present a poster at the Association for Psychological Science’s 29th annual convention based on research I conducted with Dr. Anthony Bishara and Christian Conley. I was awarded the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Student Travel Award which made this amazing opportunity possible.
Traveling to the APS convention marked my first trip to Boston, and though I was only there for a day, the immediate charm of the city made me wish I could have stayed longer. I arrived at the convention early in the morning and had time to sit in on a few talks before our poster presentation in the afternoon. The talks I attended were about current research in the field of industrial/organizational psychology – a field of study particularly interesting to me as I hope to pursue Industrial/Organizational psychology in graduate school. After the talks, I helped set up our poster in the poster presentation room, where nearly 100 other presenters were setting up their posters among the narrow rows. A few interested students and professors stopped at our poster and I had the opportunity to give a brief overview of our research, explain the significance of our findings, and even answer a few follow up questions that they still had. I spent the rest of my day at the convention looking at other students’ poster presentations and listening to them as they explained their research.
Attending the APS annual convention was truly an amazing experience. Not only did I get to hear industrial/organizational psychologists present their work, inspiring me with ideas for my own future research, but I was able to present my own work. I left the convention feeling proud of my research and my ability to present research in front of fellow students, researchers, and professionals. I look forward to continuing research in the field of psychology and for more poster presentations to come. I am very grateful for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences for making my trip to the APS convention possible.
Left to right: Christian Conley, Devin McSween, and Dr. Anthony Bishara