PhD Interview just questions Flashcards
Why have you applied to do a PhD in York? What is it about working with X that
appeals to you? - (3)
I am very keen to do a neuroscience PhD at the University of York as it is renowned
for being one of the top 10 universities in the UK and well known for its world-
leading research, housing cutting-edge neuroimaging methods such as two 3 Tesla
fMRI systems as well as having the ability to work with experts in the field of
neuroscience research.
I am already assisting on a project with Professor Andrews, and I very much enjoy
working with him. I have found him to be very supportive and encouraging.
His expertise in face recognition using advanced methods like MVPA aligns with my
research interests.
What skills and attributes do you have that make you suitable for a PhD in this
area of research?
- As I mentioned, I am already involved in working on a similar project in which I
have gained experience on analysis of behavioural data where I acted as a
second coder and some hands-on experience in fMRI data analysis using FSL. - I have a completed a module called ‘Neuroimaging of Vision’ taught by Professor
Andrews. This module covers the brain mechanism including face perception. In
addition, I have also done a module on Principles of Cognitive Neuroscience,
which covers how fMRI works and advanced data analysis methods like inter-
subject correlation and MVPA. Both these modules form the foundation of my
preparation for the PhD. - Over the years, I have also acquired programming skills using R, MATLAB, which I
used in my undergraduate dissertation. I have also a working knowledge of
Python which I used during my GCSE. These programming skills are needed for
fMRI data analysis.
Can you tell us (in simple terms) about a research project that you have been
involved in – what were you investigating and what did you find? - (5)
My final dissertation project at Newcastle University was called ‘Prediction of
Speech-In-Noise Performance Using Non-Speech Stimuli’ under the supervision of
Professor Tim Griffiths.
Speech-in-noise perception is basically how well people can hear speech in
background noise. For example, in a pub how well we can hear a friend wile lot of people are talking in the background (This is also called the cocktail party effect). Now the question how to measure the speech-in -noise performance? The typical test use a sample of speech (like a word or sentence) within noise added to it. The task is to recognize the word/sentence.
The speech content is typically recorded in specific language (e.g. English) and thus the tests can not be used with participants who are not fluent in that language.
To address this limitation a non-speech stimulus called Figure-Ground was
developed. This stimulus consisted of a pattern of coherent tones , which is the
figure a background of non-coherent tones. After hearing two figure-ground stimuli,
participants were asked if the two patterns were same or different.
We then investigated if the performance on the Figure-Ground stimulus was
correlated with performance on conventional speech -in-noise test. We found that
that this was indeed the case. (Typical correlations around 0.4 to 0.5)
What issue you would like to address during your PhD? - (12)
- The main question that I am trying to address is how conceptual knowledge helps in
face recognition and where in the brain this knowledge is represented. - Some previous work has also addressed this question but there are a number of
limitations. - The main being that the paradigm used lacks ecological validity
a. Static facial stimuli are associated with artificial conceptual information such
name/occupation etc.
b. This does not happen in real life where perceptual and conceptual
information is not separated.
c. In real life, we see faces in many different contexts and from this we
accumulate conceptual knowledge. - To overcome this limitation, task-free naturalistic paradigms have been developed
where participants are watching a engaging movie in a MRI scanner. - The naturalistic viewing paradigm is nice from the ecological perspective, but the
problem is how to separate the conceptual from perceptual. - A recently collected behavioural data using naturalistic paradigm has shown that
conceptual information helps in recognition of faces after a delay period. - In this paradigm, there are two groups of participants. One group watches a movie in its
original order and the other watches a scrambled version of the movie. - The idea is that the Original group will be able to construct a narrative where as the
scramble group will not be able to. - After watching the movie, subjects perform a face recognition task to identify actors in
the movie. - Interestingly, immediately after watching the movie, performance of both the original
and scrambled version did not differ indicating that both groups are using perceptual
features for face recognition. - However, after a delay of 4-week, the original group performns better than scrambled
indicating use of conceptual knowledge in face recognition after delay. - In this current we will use MVPA and ISC to identify the brain network for conceptual
information representation and how the perceptual and conceptual network interacts
using dynamic causal modelling.
What do you see yourself doing in 5 years? - (2)
In the next five years, I envision myself having completed a PhD and working a
research lab doing my independent research.
My long-term plan is to make a career
in research and teaching in a University. This PhD program will be a foundation for
this aspiration.
- Do you have any questions
With the studentships at York, I understand that PhD students are required to
teach some classes and teaching is something I am really interested in doing,
what are some of the classes the PhD students teach at the University of York.
