Cyrus Shaoul's little web page.

I am currently in the 4th year of my graduate program in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta.

Jan 11th, 2010: Changed page font and color scheme.
Dec 8, 2009: Changed Page design completely.
Dec 6, 2009: Added "My Albertan Lexicon". Fixed links to HidDEx download.
Aug 1, 2008: Added Photography section.
June 26, 2007: Fixed errors in realtime weather info.
May 20, 2007: Updated CV.
Dec 22nd, 2006: Added the realtime weather info to the left sidebar.
Oct 28th, 2006: I just converted this site to use javascript and Ajax. If you find it is not working for you, please let me know!

Research Interests:

I have been investigating how the HAL model can help us understand lexical semantic memory, and lexical semantic processes. I am currently working on lexical bundles as well.

For more information on this project, and to download software such as HiDEx, or corpora, please Visit my lab's website.

CV: An up-to-date version of my CV is available in an easy-to-read PDF format. (Updated in Oct, 2008)

The content of the CV is contained below in text format:

Cyrus Shaoul
Department of Psychology                         Phone: 780-492-5843
BSP 210, University of Alberta                  Fax: 780-492-1768
Edmonton, AB                                        Email: cyrus.shaoul@ualberta.ca
CANADA T6G 2E9                                 http://www.ualberta.ca/~cshaoul/
                                      http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~westburylab/
Education
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB. M.Sc. in Psychology, expected Summmer 2007. Mas-
ters project: Investigations into the psychological relevance of an improved high-dimensional
model of semantic space.
Massachusetts Institue of Technology, Cambridge, MA. B.S. in Brain and Cognitive Science,
graduated in 1993.
Research
University of Alberta                                                                       Edmonton, AB
Research Assistant                                                                      Sept 2004-Present
Working with Professor Chris Westbury on investigating the HAL model of lexical seman-
tic memory.  Implemented a program called HiDEx (High Dimensional Explorer) to test
hypotheses about HAL parameters and semantic processing.
Teaching Experience
    • TA, Learning & Behaviour, 2007
     • Lab TA, Design & Analysis of Experiments in Psychology (4th year undergraduate
        class), University of Alberta, 2005
     • TA, Memory and Cognition (4th year undergraduate class), University of Alberta,
        2005, 2007
Employment
Digital Garage Inc.                                                                            Tokyo, Japan
CTO                                                                                                   1993-2001
Manager of technology for Internet search and other web applications.
Published Papers
Westbury, C., Hollis, G., & Shaoul, C. (2007) LINGUA: Language Independent of Neigh-
borhood Generator of the University of Alberta. Journal of the Mental Lexicon (in press).
Shaoul, C. & Westbury, C. (2006) Word frequency effects in high-dimensional co-occurrence
models: A new approach. Behavior Research Methods. 38:2, 190195
Non-refereed Contributions
Shaoul, C. & Westbury, C. (2007) Optimizing HAL parameter space for predicting lexical
access. Poster at the Royce Conference, March 2007, Poster at the Symposium on Language
                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                 
and Memory at Manitoba, Winnipeg, April 2007.
Shaoul, C. & Westbury, C. (2006) A anonymized multi-billion word USENET corpus (2005-
2007)
http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~westburylab/publications.html
Shaoul, C. & Westbury, C. (2006) An investigation into the effect of changing the parameters
of the HAL model. Poster at the Mental Lexicon Conference, Montreal, Oct, 2006.
Shaoul, C. & Westbury, C. (2006) Global Co-occurrence Density Predicts Both Lexical and
Semantic Decision RTs. CSBBCS conference presentation, Saskatoon, June , 2006.
Shaoul, C. & Westbury, C. (2006) An investigation into the effect of changing the parameters
of the HAL model. 2006 Mental Lexicon Conference Poster.
Westbury, C. Hollis, G. & Shaoul, C. (2006) LINGUA: The Language Independent of Neigh-
borhood Generator of the University of Alberta.
http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~westburylab/publications.html
Shaoul, C. & Westbury, C. (2006) USENET Orthographic Frequencies for the 40,481 words
in the English Lexicon Project.  (2005-2006) and USENET Orthographic Frequencies for
1,618,598 types. (2005-2006).
http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~westburylab/publications.html
Shaoul, C. & Westbury, C. (2006) Global Co-occurrence Density Predicts Both Lexical and
Semantic Decision RTs. Presentation given at the 2006 CSBBCS conference.
Shaoul, C. & Westbury, C. (2006) Global Co-occurrence Density Predicts Both Lexical and
Semantic Decision RTs.  Poster, 20th Royce Conference, University of Alberta, 17th of
March, 2006.
Shaoul, C. & Westbury, C. (2005) Towards a more psychologically relevant high dimensional
model of lexical semantics.  In Proceedings of Society for Computers in Psychology SCiP
2005 (Toronto, November, 2005).
Shaoul, C. & Westbury, C. (2005) Influence of Orthographic Frequency of Words on the
HAL Model of Semantic Space. 2005 Royce Conference Poster.
Awards
    • J Gordin Kaplan Graduate Student Award (Travel Grant), 2007
     • NSERC PGS-D Scholarship (3 year, $21,000 per year), 2007
     • Castellan Award, November, 2005 (Awarded to the outstanding student paper pre-
        sented at a SCiP conference)
     • Alberta Advanced Education Achievement Scholarship, awarded in December 2005
        by the Alberta Heritage Scholarship Fund.
                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                 
Service
    • Served as a reviewer for Psychonomic Society journal Behavior Research Methods
    • Graduate student member of the FGSR academic appeals committee.
     • A Graduate Student Association representative on the Faculty of Graduate Studies
        and Research Council
     • Chairman of the Psychoquium Committee
        (see: http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~psychoqu)
     • Worked with the Outreach office of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research on
        Community Outreach projects: * Supporting the Belgravia School Science Fair (1st-
        6th graders) (2004) * Read-In at the Oliver School (Kindergarden and 9th graders)
        (2005) * Guest Lecturer at the Ottwell School (7th graders) (2006) * Debate judge
        at the Kenilworth School (9th graders) (2006) * Read-In at Allendale and Belgravia
        Schools (2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th graders) (2006)
     • Webmaster of the Westbury Lab Web Site
Skills
    • Languages: English (native),fluent French and Japanese, some experience with Span-
        ish
     • Computer Skills: Python, C, C++, Perl, Java, Unix, Linux, MacOS X, LATE X, OpenMP
     • Scientific Software: R, SPSS, SYSTAT, Gnuplot, Excel
                                           Version 2.5, Modified on 2007/01/05
                                                                                                                                                                             


	

Current TA Duties:

Winter 2010: PSCYCHO 414 (Intructor: P. Hurd, Title: Monte Carlo Methods and Bootstrapping)

Past TA Duties:

Myriad.

Photography I really like taking pictures. Here are some old ones. I will add more soon!

My Albertan Lexicon

Version 0.02, Dec 6th, 2009

I have been living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada since 2003, and have been married to an Albertan since 1998. This experience has given me some exposure to the Albertan language. I have been asked my many people to share my lexical knowledge, and so I have decided to create this little web page. Please send comments and suggestions to me at: BlahBlah@ualberta.ca (just click it! I promise that it will work!).

In semi-alphabetical order:

• bunny-hug: hooded sweatshirt (used mostly near the SK border)
• chesterfield: strangely, this is a piece of furniture.
• for : replace "in time for"
  1. Try to get home for 5. (= Try to get home by 5pm).
• cougar: predatory denizen of the local bar scene (female, aged 38+)
• the double-double: a drink with two creams and two sugars.
• elastic: a plain old rubber band.
• give her: (aka Giv'er) A phrase that is very broad in usage, but can be summed up as "doing something without restraint".
  1. When you hit the QEII, just giv'er. You'll be in Calgary for supper.
• Git 'r done: finish something off.
• glove box: glove compartment
• gonch: Male undergarments.
• ginch: See Gonch.
• gitch: See Gonch (used mostly in SK)
• gotch: See Gonch (used mostly in SK)
• gong show: any situation that is disorganized and chaotic.
  1. It was a total gong show at the Registry today.
• hydro: non-hydroelectrically produced electricity. (Does that make any sense?)
• homo milk: nothing to do with homosexuality or the milk consumed by homosexuals.
• keener: Someone who is overly studious and participatory.
• kitty-corner: Diagonally accross from.
  1. The bank? It's kitty-corner from the Timmie's.
• vehicle: Replaces "car", "SUV", "truck" and "van".
• to phone: to call on the telephone (as opposed to "to call".)
• skidoo: death trap.
• A suck: Someone who is overly sweet and accomodating. Someone who constantly trying to make a good impression. Also, someone who behaves in a needy manner.
  1. My brother is such a little suck. He is always begging us for rides.
• timmie's: Nickname for a popular chain by the name of Tim Horton's.
• tranche: a piece (of pie, for example)
• to write (a test): To take a test.
• You betcha!: You're welcome.

Office:	BioSci Bldg, Room P533
Lab:	The Westbury Lab. BioSci Building, Room120A See this web site for more info on what we do.
Office Phone:	780-492-5843
e-mail:	cyrus shaoul at ualberta (obfuscated to avoid harvesting.)

• My Lab's Web Site
• The Psychology Department
• The University of Alberta