Alyssa A.
Randez
Undergraduate in Psychology, University of Texas at San Antonio
San Antonio, TX 78240
Ph: (830) 741-0760; Email: Alyssa.randez@gmail.com
CAREER OBJECTIVE: Complete a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience and pursue a career in
academic research while investigating human decision making and cognitive control.
EDUCATION:
The University of Texas at San Antonio Expected graduation:
Psychology Major GPA: 4.0; Professional Writing Minor GPA: 3.53 May 2020
Overall university GPA: 3.85
Northwest Vista Community College Fall 2015- Spring 2017
Overall GPA: 3.93
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
● Undergraduate Research Assistant, RISE Research Training Program Summer 2019-
UTSA Center for Research and Training in the Sciences Present
- Attended weekly workshops cover life as a graduate student, data
organization, conference presentations.
- Attended a twice weekly scientific writing course that covered
research paper structure, personal statements, abstracts, and cvs.
- Performed at an end-of-program conference among other RISE
members
● Undergraduate Research Assistant, Dr. Thomas Coyle, PhD, UTSA Spring 2019 - Present
Department of Psychology (Described below in Research Projects)
● Undergraduate Research Assistant, Dr. Alicia Swan, PhD, UTSA Spring 2019
Department of Psychology (Described below in Research Projects)
● Supplemental Instruction Leader, Statistics for Psychology Majors, UTSA Fall 2018
Tomas Rivera Center for Student Success (Described below in Teaching
Experience)
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
● Undergraduate Summer Internship, Summer Research Opportunities Program Summer 2018
(SROP)
- Ran within the Big Ten Academic Alliance for aspiring undergraduate researchers to provide
exposure to a research lab setting while also providing workshops over life in graduate school,
GRE preparation, life as a professional within academia and industry, and networking tips.
- Interned under Dr. Shaun Vecera where we looked at how unconscious perceptions can affect
reaction time using a flanker task. Helped program and create flanker task within Matlab, and ran
participants for the pilot test that involved them discriminating between similar (e.g. X and K)
versus different (e.g. C and X) letters while pairing the second trial with white or asian faces and
comparing the first and third trials (sans faces) reaction times.
RESEARCH PROJECTS:
Randez – Page 2
Current:
● Title: Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) and the vigilance decrement
Mentor: Dr. Edward Golob, UTSA
Overview: Examined how attention affects performance overtime, and how electrical stimulation could
help stave off the effects of the vigilance decrement.
Methods: tACS, transcranial doppler (TCD), eye tracker, and matlab
Duties: Consented participants, performed hearing tests and prepped subjects for stimulation, used TCD to
find medial cerebral arteries, and trained subjects on vigilance task that required them to discriminate
between a shuffle and buzz noise via keyboard input while ignoring a third white noise for 40 minutes.
Submitting this project for a departmental thesis in Fall 2019.
● Title: The Predictive Power of Personality, Intelligence, and Divergent Thinking for Creative
Achievement
Mentor: Dr. Thomas Coyle; Masters student: Miguel Gonzalez, UTSA
Overview: Investigates how a participant’s cognitive ability predicts creative achievement by
mathematically and theoretically modelling relationship between creative cognitive abilities (i.e.
persistence versus flexible ideation) and the effects of intelligence and openness on creative achievement.
Methods: three Alternative Uses tasks (aka, Divergent Thinking tasks), the Inventory of Creative Activities
and Achievements, the Wonderlic, SAT/ACT scores, and the Big Five Inventory
Duties: Ran 10 participants per hour-long sessions involving various surveys
Past Research
● Title: Noise in the military: Hearing loss disability claims between 2003-2016
Mentor: Dr. Alicia Swan, UTSA
Overview: Investigated socio demographic trends within military service members (over 3 million case
files) who filed a hearing loss claims to the Veterans Affairs (VA) database between the fiscal years of
2003 and 2016. Also examined the effect of having secondary claims filed for tinnitus and enrollment in
the Defense Operational and Environmental Health Readiness - Hearing Conservation (DOEHRS-HC)
program affected both the numbers of claims being submitted as well as the percentages of those claims
being granted or denied.
Methods: descriptive analysis, logistic regression analysis, SPSS statistics software
Duties: Created excel sheets to organize data, created graphs and charts of data, wrote meta-analysis of
hearing loss and tinnitus disability effects within the military population, and presented data at two
conferences: COLFA and SURF
SCHOLARSHIPS, HONORS AND AWARDS:
● President’s List, UTSA Fall 2017
● Dean’s List, UTSA Spring 2018, Spring 2019
● Honor Roll, UTSA Fall 2018
● The College Academy of Undergraduate Research Associates (AURA), UTSA Spring 2019
● Admission to Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) program Summer 2019
● Admission to the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) Summer 2018
● Texas Public Education Grant (TPEG) Undergrad Resident Grant Fall 2019 -
Spring 2020
● Distinguished Transfer Student Grant, UTSA Fall 2017 - Spring 2019
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● UTSA Grant - Undergraduate Fall 2017 - Spring 2018
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
● Supplemental Instruction Leader, UTSA Tomas Rivera Center, Statistics for Fall 2018
Psychology Majors
- Facilitated student learning through group meetings 2-3 times a week for the
class statistics for psychology majors.
- Worked weekly with mentor, Dr. Frederic Previc, to keep track of student
progress and attended each class (2x weekly)
- Attended weekly training meetings
- Created and submitted lesson plans for each session
ADDITIONAL TRAINING AND WORKSHOPS:
Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) January
2019
SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:
● Does tACS on rIFG/rTPJ affect the vigilance decrement? Society for Advancement of October 2019
Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). Honolulu, HI,
October 2019 -- Abstract submitted and accepted for poster presentation
● Noise in the military: Hearing loss disability claims between 2003-2016. (Logistic June 2019
regression) San Antonio Military Health System (SAMHS) Universities Research
Forum (SURF). San Antonio, TX, May 2019 -- Poster Presentation
● Noise in the military: Hearing loss disability claims between 2003-2016 . (Descriptive
analysis) UTSA College of Liberal and Fine Arts. San Antonio, TX, March 2019 – March 2019
Poster Presentation
TALKS AND PRESENTATION:
● 3MT- Gave a three minute thesis style presentation for Enhancing Science, Technology, EnginEering, and
Math Educational Diversity (ESTEEMED) program students over electrical stimulation and attention.
● Research roundtable - Participated in a roundtable for visiting future college students to discuss life in the
lab.
● Transfer student roundtable - Participated in a roundtable for community college students who were
interested in transferring to a university.
REFERENCES:
Dr. Edward Golob edward.golob@utsa.edu Research Mentor, UTSA
Dr. Jeffrey Mock jeffrey.mock@utsa.edu Research Mentor, UTSA
Dr. Thomas Coyle thomas.coyle@utsa.edu Research Mentor, UTSA
Dr. Gail Taylor gail.taylor@utsa.edu RISE Director, UTSA
