SPARKing Representation in Cognitive Science

African American, Latina/o/e/x/, and Indigenous students and researchers are underrepresented in cognitive psychology and cognitive sciences. These fields of study generally focus on understanding how the mind represents and manipulates knowledge and how these mental representations and processes are realized in the brain. With its focus on understanding how humans perceive, think, and communicate, cognitive psychology and training in cognitive psychology and/or the cognitive sciences positions individuals for careers ranging from academia to industry, specializing in topics from artificial intelligence to business and marketing.

Cognitive fields are a centerpiece of future jobs growth; the aim in this proposal is to support the development of a diverse work force. The SPARK Society supports learners and researchers at all ranks (undergraduate, graduate, early career, senior scholars) with the overarching goal of creating a support infrastructure to help historically marginalized individuals excel in this field of study.

Support is provided in the form of group mentoring, peer-to-peer mentoring, and dissemination of informational resources across multiple platforms. Improving experiences of historically marginalized scholars helps create a more just society. The Spark Society partners with several national conferences for cognitive scientists, allowing for community building for historically marginalized scholars and providing mentoring wherever they are located.

This creates a sense of belonging and has the potential to reduce feelings of isolation that drive historically marginalized learners and researchers away from the field.

The mentorship model is supplemented by evaluative measures, including analyses of PhD programs. Understanding how changes in graduate program recruitment and requirements have impacted changes in the compositional diversity of cognitive science and cognitive psychology programs, and by developing clear methodologies to identify why historically marginalized scholars are largely absent from field-wide leadership, will allow for more targeted development of effective programs to support training in the field and create a space where leadership is an open and desirable avenue.

The research will focus on developing methodologies that allow for evaluation of graduate policy effectiveness in recruitment of historically marginalized students. Central to this aim is identification of relevant programs, coding of policy changes related to recruitment, and consideration of outcomes (i.e., program completion, job placement). Development of methodologies that assess the impact of policy change on graduate student diversity and identify drivers hindering diversity in leadership are important steps towards the long-term goals of creating a more diverse and inclusive field of study and accompanying workforce.

This project is also supported by the EDU Racial Equity in STEM Education program (EDU Racial Equity). The program supports projects that advance racial equity in STEM education and workforce development through research and practice.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.