Research Labs
The Department of Psychology is fortunate to have faculty who are world leaders in each of our areas of expertise: Social/Health, Developmental, Cognitive, and Neuroscience.
To learn more about individual faculty members’ research interests, current projects, and requirements for undergraduate research assistants, visit the laboratory websites below. All of the labs listed on this page actively recruit undergraduate research assistants.
一本道无码 has research at the core of its foundation. Many departments offer an interdisciplinary approach and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholar Development collects many on campus or off campus opportunities. Please check their website every semester for new or updated research options.
Note: There are several faculty members not listed here who are still actively engaged in research. If you are interested in working with one of them, the best approach is to read some of their publications and write them an email detailing your interest in their research. If you are a good fit, the PI may still be able to accommodate you.
Social/Health Research Laboratories
Lab Name |
Research Description |
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Data Driven Diversity Lab (D3)
Faculty PI:
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The mission of the Data-Driven Diversity Lab (D3 Lab) is reflected in its name: using data to understand and improve how different groups experience student success, thriving, and sense of belonging at 一本道无码. Our lab studies how underrepresented or marginalized groups fare as students in terms of well-being, academic performance, and perceptions of support and belonging. The D3 Lab has three goals:
Each semester, we accept a new cohort of students who are interested in getting involved in our research. To apply, please send a resume and statement of interest to Dr. Kody Manke. |
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Health and Human Performance Lab
Faculty PI:
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The research in the Health and Human Performance lab focuses broadly on understanding what makes people resilient under stress. Specifically, Dr. Creswell conducts community intervention studies, laboratory studies of stress and coping, and neuroimaging studies to understand how various stress management strategies alter coping and stress resilience. For example, he is currently working on studies that test how mindfulness meditation training impacts the brain, peripheral stress physiological responses, and stress-related disease outcomes in at-risk community samples. David also explores how the use of simple strategies (self-affirmation, rewarding activities, cognitive reappraisal) can buffer stress and improve problem-solving under pressure. David has made some recent research forays into other areas, such as in describing the role of unconscious processes in learning and decision making, developing new theory and research on behavioral priming, and in building a new field of health neuroscience. Student Research Assistants: Research assistants work in the lab nine hours per week and participate in our weekly lab meeting. If you are interested in getting involved, please visit the to find out more about current studies and to access the . |
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Behavioral Health Research Lab
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The Behavioral Health Research Lab’s work aims to understand the social, emotional, and genetic aspects of addictive behaviors. Currently, the lab is working to uncover the basic affective mechanisms of cigarette craving and alcohol use using experimental methodologies including in vivo smoking cue exposure paradigms and alcohol administration protocols. These allow observations of social and emotional processing under conditions that model real-world contexts (e.g. while participants are intoxicated or experiencing strong cravings). Ultimately, Dr. Creswell’s research aims to specify the mechanisms by which individuals fail to self-regulate and to identify individuals who are at risk to develop an addiction. Student Research Assistants Research Assistants typically work nine hours per week, which includes lab work and attendance at a weekly lab meeting. If you decide to apply, know that Research Assistants are expected to commit to working in the lab for a minimum of one year. Also, know that applicants must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.3 to be considered. If you are interested in getting involved, please download the Research Assistant Application on Dr. Creswell’s lab website, complete it, and email it to Greta Lyons. |
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Relationships Lab
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The Relationships Lab investigates the ways in which relationships (and the social interactions within them) can help or hinder all domains of human thriving. As a research assistant in this lab, you will assist in developing research materials and studies, learn how to be an experimenter and take participants through research procedures, and collect and interpret observational and physiological data. Research assistants who join the lab over the current academic year will assist with (1) an investigation of relationship influences on sleep quality and (2) understanding the impacts of social touch experiences. Students accepted to the Relationships Lab are inquisitive, organized, highly motivated, and in good academic standing (≥ 3.0 GPA). This is a minimum two-semester commitment, and new applicants must be able to work with us for at least 9 hours per week in their first semester (9 unit research training course), and at least 6 hours per week in subsequent semesters. Questions and applications (found on the lab website) should be sent to both Brooke Feeney and Yuxi Xie (graduate student). |
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Gender, Relationships, and Health Lab
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The Gender, Relationships, and Health Lab conducts research with college students, people from the community, and people who face various chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. We use a variety of methods, ranging from experimental research in the lab to on-line surveys, to ecological momentary assessment methods, to longitudinal field studies. Student Research Assistants Research Assistants are expected to work about 10 hours a week in the lab. The number of openings varies greatly from semester to semester. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Helgeson for details. |
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Stigma, Health Equity, and Resilience (SHER) Lab
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Are you looking to get involved in psychology research? The Stigma, Health Equity, and Resilience (SHER) Lab is looking for motivated and inquisitive undergraduate research assistants to begin this fall! Led by Dr. Michael Trujillo, the SHER Lab works to identify the social and health consequences of stigma, the ways that stigmatized groups are resilient in spite of stigma, and how we can promote health equity for those often ignored in society. Guided by minority stress theory and ecological models of health inequities, our work examines the underlying mechanisms that link stigma to these outcomes with a focus on physiological, affective, behavioral, and cognitive domains. We strive to provide an environment of growth for young researchers with a passion for engaging with marginalized communities and improving understanding of the role that stigma plays in their health. We encourage students of all backgrounds to join the lab - particularly those who self-identify or have close connections with marginalized communities!
If interested, complete the . Please contact lab manager, Will Crouch, if you have any additional questions. |
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Lifespan Stress and Health Lab
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Stress is an inevitable experience- we have all experienced stress. But when stress becomes too severe (e.g., exposure to violence) or chronic (e.g., poverty), it can increase risk for a number of diseases, including cardiovascular, respiratory, and autoimmune diseases. Our goal is to answer two questions: (1) how does stress get under the skin to impact biology? (2) What factors may break the stress-disease association. The lab is seeking undergraduate research assistants interested in gaining hands-on skills for conducting health psychology research—e.g., conducting interviews, designing surveys, performing cell cultures, and assaying for biomarkers. Research assistants are expected to work about 10 hours a week in the lab, and a minimum of two semesters commitment is required. To apply, please navigate to “our team” page, and click on the application link under the “future research assistant” section. |
Developmental Research Laboratories
Name |
Research Description |
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Cognitive Development Lab
Faculty PI:
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Our research group is interested in understanding various aspects of cognitive development, including the development of attention and development of category knowledge (such as knowledge about ‘animals’ or ‘musical instruments’). A new line of research in the lab is seeking to better understand the development of social (e.g., racial) categories and how we can change children’s understanding of social categories through activities such as shared book reading. We study these questions by presenting children (and occasionally adults) with thinking games. These games are designed in such a way that people’s responses help us understand how young children think and how their thinking changes with experience. We use behavioral and eye tracking methods in our studies. to learn more about our studies. Student Research Assistants: We ask for a commitment of at least 2 semesters at 6-9 hours per week. We usually have about 2 open positions each semester. Student research assistants will have an opportunity to contribute to all aspects of our studies, including data collection at the Children’s School, data analysis, and presentation of research results. Interested students should visit the lab website and complete the application. |
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Infant Cognition Lab
Faculty PI:
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The main focus of Dr. Rakison’s research is infant perception and cognition, with a focus on the origins of knowledge and the mechanisms that underpin learning in the first years of life. He uses infant-appropriate behavioral methodologies that are relatively straightforward for undergraduates to learn and implement – such as habituation - and computational modeling to examine a number of early developmental phenomena including categorization, induction, causality, the development of animacy concepts, and fear learning. Key issues under debate addressed by this research include the relative role of general or specialized mechanisms in early learning, the relative role of surface features versus less perceptually available ones in concept formation, the influence of action on perceptual and cognitive development, whether constraints on learning are acquired and/or innate, the and the extent to which behavior is generated on-line or is based on prior representations. Student Research Assistants: Research in the lab is a two-semester commitment and is open only to Freshman, Sophomores, and rising Juniors. Openings are typically available, and students choose the hours they wish to work in the lab. There are no class prerequisites, and majors from any school are welcome to apply. To find out more, contact Dr. Rakison, Ricky WonJoon Choi (graduate student): or Sunny Bok. |
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Infant Language and Learning Lab
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The Infant Language and Learning Lab is focused on understanding how infants and adults learn language. We work with infants between 4 and 24 months, children between 3 and 5 years, and adults, looking to see how individuals learn at different ages. Research assistants will have an opportunity to work with some or all of these participant groups, and to learn how to run experiments with infants who are just learning to produce and comprehend language. In addition, research assistants will have an opportunity to generate stimuli including artificial languages, visual and musical analogs of language, and age-appropriate materials assessing language comprehension. Student Research Assistants: Research assistants should be reliable, independent, and willing to commit to working in the lab for two consecutive semesters. If you are interested, please reach out to Dr. Erik Thiessen. |
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Kid Neuro Lab
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The Kid Neuro Lab aims to discover how early brain development impacts children's subsequent growth and development. Our lab uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and behavioral methods to examine children's representations of numbers, letters, and everyday objects. Our studies offer a window into the organization of conceptual information in the young child's mind and provide insight into the sources, functions, and specificity of cognitive processes in the brain. We work with children as young as 2 years old as well as adults of all ages. As an undergraduate RA in the Kid Neuro Lab you will have the chance to run behavioral and neuroimaging studies on these participant groups. We ask that research assistants commit to two semesters of work in our lab. If you have any questions, please feel free to email the Lab Manager. You can also check out our website for more information about what we do. |
Cognitive Research Laboratories
Name |
Research Description |
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The Auditory Lab
Faculty PI:
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Our research examines the human ability to use sound to understand what events are happening in the environment. Our perceptual experiments address whether there are acoustic cues that reveal attributes of sound events. We test discrimination of sounds, labeling of sounds, and even gestures. We have also examined how this knowledge influences which brain regions are recruited during the perception of sound events. Current questions are whether audition plays a significant role in the perception of multi-modal events and how listeners can learn to extract the information that echoes contain in order to navigate. Student Research Assistants: Understanding of acoustics or perception is desirable, and the willingness to learn to use Matlab. Appropriate for students with an interest in Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, HCI, signal processing, or audiology. For Research Programmers, experience in Matlab programming is a plus. Research assistants and programmers will be eligible to receive research credit. If interested, please email a resume to Laurie Heller. |
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The Memory Lab
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The research in our lab focuses on furthering our understanding of how information is acquired and retrieved for use in different situations, using a variety of methodologies. These include computational modeling, behavioral studies that measure accuracy and latency, psychopharmacological interventions (using midazolam that creates temporary anterograde amnesia), neuroimaging (both EEG and fMRI). Student Research Assistants: Experience in cognitive psychology and/or cognitive neuroscience is desirable. For Research Programmers, experience in Lisp is a plus. |
Neuroscience Laboratories
Name |
Research Description |
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Cognitive Axon Lab
Faculty PI:
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The CoAx lab uses a combination of behavioral testing, computational modeling and neuroimaging to explore how the architecture of sensorimotor pathways in the brain regulates action planning, learning and executive control. Research assistants typically help out with data collection and data management through a one-on-one mentorship with senior lab members (e.g., graduate students, postdocs). Student Research Assistants: Research Assistants are expected to commit to at least one year working in the lab, but a two-year commitment is preferred. Contact Dr. Verstynen to apply. |
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Concepts, Actions, Objects (CAOs) Lab
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The Concepts, Actions, Objects (CAOs) lab of Dr. Brad Mahon is recruiting undergraduate researchers for ongoing studies using MRI and behavioral tests to study how the human brain recovers from injury. Student researchers will work with human participants with neurological injury, and be involved in study design, implementation, data collection, data analysis and interpretation. The lab is also recruiting undergraduate software developers interested in working on the development of JAVA and Python based tools to support research studies. Research assistants are directly involved in data collection and analysis. Software engineers are involved in the development of research software solutions. The lab seeks to provide an engaging environment for mentored student research, and training toward future career goals (graduate school, medical school, industry). All lab members receive training and direct project and career mentorship. If you are interested in applying to the lab, please contact Dr. Brad Mahon with a short summary (1 paragraph) of your interests in research. |
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Computational Action Lab
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The Computational Action Lab’s mission is to understand how humans master a near-limitless repertoire of movements, from brewing coffee to parallel parking. An answer to this question will not only lead us to a more unified understanding of learning and memory but has the potential to optimize rehabilitation and improve human performance (e.g., athleticism and musicality). See more details on . We believe that crowd-sourced, large-scale kinematic data provides a new and exciting avenue for motor learning research. It offers a unique window into how individual differences predict one's ability to acquire, adapt, and retain motor skills. In this project, students will first build/validate a sensorimotor learning study online and deploy the experiment on a large scale. We will then build a machine learning model that predicts individual differences in sensorimotor performance. |