Psychology and Linguistics Joint Major

Undergraduate Research

To arrange an independent study, students should first identify a general topic area of interest and second, identify a potential faculty member with whom they would like to work on that general topic. Students should contact a faculty member about arranging an independent study project towards the end of the semester BEFORE they plan to complete it. Students should keep in mind that faculty who agree to supervise an independent study project are agreeing to take on this additional obligation above their regular teaching load, so be respectful and appreciative when asking. Once a faculty member has agreed to supervise an independent study project, the faculty member and student will negotiate a project that both are interested in and that is a reasonable one for the student to complete within a semester’s time. Often faculty members already have projects ongoing in which students can become involved. Other times, faculty and students generate new project ideas together.

Some of the questions that students may choose to investigate in their independent study project include (and there are many others):

• What enables humans to produce and understand sentences that they have never heard before?
• What are the basic building blocks of human languages?
• How do children learn language?
• How do people use language in multilingual contexts?
• Are some varieties of language better than others?
• How can problems with cross-cultural communication be alleviated?
• How are patterns of thinking shaped by language?
• Why do languages change over time?
• How do meanings get attached to words?