Psychology 302: Research Apprenticeship

Overview

Research experience is essential if you are considering graduate school. The experience of conducting research is invaluable, and you will acquire useful tools and knowledge that you perhaps were not even expecting!

The research apprenticeship involves supervised research with a faculty member. You will assist a professor (in this case, me!) on a research project. Depending on the project, your responsibilities may include reviewing literature, planning experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and writing research reports. Students at our school often even attend national conferences to present this research!

The exact nature of the research project will depend on projects currently underway, as well as your own interests. Generally, my research projects involve studies of visual perception and cognition. My current work focuses on synesthesia. Past projects have examined false beliefs about visual perception, working memory limitations in reading, factors that influence whether people read and follow instructions, object and face recognition, perception of shadows, and perception of surface material properties (e.g. shininess).

Requirements

1. My permission. You will need to come talk to me before you can work in my lab. I'll want to know what classes you've taken, how you did in them, and most importantly how your interests fit in with the research I am doing.
2. Completion of at least 6 psychology credits. You should have completed Psy 205 and 206; one or more other relevant courses (321, 331, 422, 424, 430) are also recommended.
3. Good grades, particularly in Psy 205 and Psy 206. While I don't set a GPA cut-off, I am very unlikely to accept anyone with less than a B+ average.
4. Ability to work independently. I won't be looking over your shoulder every single minute. You will have tasks to complete, and I will expect you to be able to arrange your schedule so that they get done on time.
5. Feel comfortable working with computers. Most of my experiments involve presenting things on a computer. Since you may be asked to run these experiments, you need to feel confident about using computers.

You must be a responsible person. This course can be taken for 1-4 credits; you are expected to work about 3 hours/week for every credit hour (e.g. if you take the course for 3 credits, you are expected to commit about 9 hours of work per week). Please be sure you have enough time to devote to this apprenticeship!