Unbelievable

[spikefan]

I just spent way too much time with a post that somehow vanished because I am an idiot and haven't had enough sleep. Let me get straight to the point in case I screw myself again. If you don't already have the lovely and talented treacle_a on your flist, or for whatever reason you haven't read her post-NFA fic, "Mortal Wounds", go read it at the

Comments

[lillianmorgan]

::hugs you sooooo much::
Not only for the very undeserved pimpin', but LJ ate some of my f-list postings yesterday around 6PM GMT so I missed this and herself_nyc's update ::flails::

[spikefan]

Undeserved?? Hardly! *hugs you back*

You have become my source for all things cool on LJ. I hope my pimpin' hasn't managed to embarrass you yet.

Damn LJ for being bad to you. *smacks LJ in the head*
I'm glad now that I posted those links.

[elisi]

I love 'Mortal Wounds' beyond all reason. It's so well written and... dark, I guess, which is not something very often done in fanfic. (Dark as opposed to angsty).

[spikefan]

The previous chapters of "Mortal Wounds" were so unrelentingly dark and painful that I almost abandoned it, and I'm glad I didn't. Fic like that reminds me how fortunate I am to have stumbled onto LJ and to have found such well-written and compelling fanfic--and great friends as well.

[kassto]

I remember reading Mortal Wounds back when she was first writing it, then it seemed to grind to a halt and I lost track of it. I loved it deeply. Think I'll print it out and read up to the latest.

What's your dissertation on?

[spikefan]

I'm in a cognitive neuroscience program leading to a doctoral degree in psychology. Generally, cognitive neuroscience involves examining the relationships between cognitive functions (such as learning, perception, memory and reasoning) and the workings of the brain.

Specifically, my research examines cognitive skill learning and the role attention plays in acquisition and performance.

Really specifically, my participants are learning to predict various outcomes based on factors that differ in their predictive value. As a real-world example, there are a number of factors that together predict rainy weather, some strongly predictive, such as high humidity, and others less strongly predictive, such as temperature. I'm trying to determine whether this type of learning can be disrupted by other ongoing processes that demand attention.

Probably more than you wanted to know, huh? ;)

[kassto]

All I can say is good for you for having the discipline to take your education to that level. Sounds like a hell of a lot of hard work so I hope you enjoy it!

Would your doctoral degree put you in academia or what other job could it lead to?

[spikefan]

Thanks--although I'm not sure I'm the paragon of self-discipline. It is a lot of work, but it beats working in hospital QA, which is what I was doing before.

I am hoping that I will get a teaching job at the state university level or at a liberal arts college. (Liberal arts college here in the US means a privately funded 4 year bachelor's degree program, not like the Canadian version of "college", which refers to vocational school, community college or other 2 year programs.)