This semester saw the launch of Omega Psi, the first cognitive science honors society at Hopkins.
Amanda Glasser, senior, and Stephanie Amalfe, junior, are co-chairs of the new society, which aims to educate the public about cognitive science and support undergraduates in the field.
“We focus on bringing together cognitive science undergraduates, increasing awareness of and inspiring interest in the field by way of lecture series and other campus events, and providing network opportunities among undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and alumni,” Glasser said.
The new society will be joining the ranks of Nu Rho Psi and Psi Chi, the neuroscience and psychology honor societies at Hopkins.
However, the co-chairs were adamant that cognitive science is distinct, and accordingly deserves its own society.
“This is not Psi Chi, this is not Nu Rho Psi. Cognitive science is its own field,” Glasser said.
Glasser’s passion for cognitive science led her to approach Dr. Michael McCluskey, a professor in the department, about the possibility of starting a new society.
McCluskey and Dr. Colin Wilson are currently the faculty advisors, guiding the club as it grows.
And it is indeed growing. There is currently no national undergraduate cognitive science society, so Glasser and Amalfe plan to create one.
Hopkins is one of only a handful of schools with a cognitive science department, and even fewer with an undergraduate society dedicated to the field.
Glasser and Amalfe hope to not only establish a cognitive science society at Hopkins, but also work with existing societies at other universities to create an established society at the national level.
“Getting it recognized at the international level would be an immense honor, and an immense opportunity for people to get involved in this new field of study,” Amalfe said.
To that end, Glasser and Amalfe plan to reach out to other schools, as well as to the Cognitive Science Society (CSS), a national professional organization that holds conferences and publishes journals.
According to Glasser, the CSS also funded the University of Connecticut Cognitive Science Club.
She hoped that the new society at Hopkins may become affiliated with the CSS as well.
Reaching out to other undergraduate cognitive science groups nationwide is actually a requirement for the new society to advance beyond club status and become a true honor society in the eyes of the university.
“The school will not allow us to be an honors society unless we prove to them that we are making a concerted effort to reach out to other schools and that other schools are interested in joining us in creating a national honors society,” Glasser said.
“Right now we’re technically just a club, or student organization,” she added.
Several society members are involved in the process of recruiting national support, and they planned to send out notices to other universities within the next week. Within Hopkins however, Amalfe was eager to get the word out about what cognitive science actually is.
“A lot of people don’t even know what the cognitive science major is. They don’t know what the subject involves, and it’s a shame, “ she said.
“[Cognitive science is] neuroscience, it’s psychology, it’s linguistics, computer science, philosophy and all these things kind of come together to a theory of what our brain and mind are and how they relate to each other.”
The society is already on its feet with fifteen members, mostly cognitive science majors. However, psychology and neuroscience majors were also represented, and there is no restriction on membership.
The co-chairs hope membership will grow with upcoming events.
Scheduled for March 11 is “Creativity and the Brain,” a lecture by Charles Limb, the first in a series hosted by the society. Limb is an otolaryngologist, surgeon and researcher at Johns Hopkins, as well as professor of music at the Peabody Conservatory.
“What he does is take musicians, put them in the fMRI scanner while they’re improvising on a special non-ferromagnetic keyboard, and look at what areas of the brain are activated and deactivated while improvising,” Glasser said.
In addition to organizing lectures and other events, the society will enable its members to network with other undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and alumni to find research positions and get a sense of career options after graduation.
The society is currently planning a mixer with the cognitive science department. Amalfe believes the professors in the department are a draw to prospective majors.
“The professors are very, very good. It’s like you’ll read a paper in class and you’ll realize ‘Oh, it’s his paper.
He’s in our department. It’s a respected individual within the cognitive science community and the neuroscience community.’
They’re so friendly and so kind, they’re always willing to help out, and I think that’s definitely something that will attract people to the department in general,” she said. “It definitely did for me.”
Like other honor societies on campus, the cognitive science society will incorporate community service.
Members will volunteer at the Snyder Center for Aphasia Life Enhancement (SCALE), a non-profit organization dedicated to serving people with aphasia, a disorder often caused by stroke that impairs speech production and/or comprehension.
“Any honors society should have a community service component,” Glasser asserted, “This is a way to really impact people’s lives in a way that has to do with cognitive science.”
Volunteers from Hopkins will have the opportunity to help a person who struggles with aphasia to gain the tools to communicate through reading classes, special technology and development of personal projects over time.
Glasser, who has volunteered at the center before, explained that most people with aphasia who would otherwise feel insecure venturing out into society are empowered by the program.
“They get this empowerment that they never really had . . .” she said, “Literally, on a day-to-day basis, people don’t have a voice, they can’t communicate what they’re feeling all the time.”
Long relegated to the tails of neuroscience and psychology, undergraduates in cognitive science at Hopkins are making their presence heard, on and off campus.
“We find it is a shame on campus that . . . no one really knows what our major is,” Amalfe said, adding, “When you actually ask [cognitive science majors] about what it is, we can’t stop talking about it. Everyone within this society really does have a passion for what we do.”
When it comes to the brain, the members of Omega Psi put their hearts in it.
