In Grade 11 I studied AP Psychology and was introduced to the field of cognitive development. I was intrigued to learn how the parent-child relationship can have far-reaching impacts on the rest of the child’s life. I sought to understand this crucial relationship better. At the same time, my interest in computation collided with the advent of Large Language Models and a new opportunity dawned on me: what if I could use an LLM’s ability to understand human language to analyze and model a parent-child relationship? I was captivated by this idea and decided to pursue researching how computation can help us understand psychology. 

I first reached out to my sister and she introduced me to Chris Chi, a Computer Science Master’s student who worked in the field of cognitive development. Chris attended the Cognitive Development Society Conference two years prior and recommended that I aim to present my findings there. He shared his experience with the academic world, including tips when submitting to conferences, resources to use when conducting research, and how to be at my best when presenting my poster. He also gave me advice on the best symposiums to attend and how to create connections with the researchers at the conference.

Under his mentorship, I worked on this research project from November 2023 to February 2024. Using the CHILDES database, I collected 75 transcripts and created a customized ChatGPT-4 model to explore emotional dynamics in parent-child dyads, extracting themes, keywords, and qualitative analysis. Ultimately, I created a research poster and submitted it to the Cognitive Development Society for review—I was accepted to exhibit my poster at the 2024 CDS Conference in Pasadena. At the conference, I presented my poster to dozens of undergraduate researchers and professors. Currently, I am continuing my research on the interplay of computation and cognitive development to produce a full-fledged research paper in the coming semester.