Psyc 4990 is a class in which
students work directly with a faculty member or graduate student concerning a
specific research project. Duties may include, but are not limited to, tasks
such as literature reviews, running subjects, or scoring questionnaires. Listed
below are the projects for the upcoming semester. You may enroll in Psych 4990
for 1 to 3 credit hours; a maximum of 6 credit hours may count toward degree
requirements. Psyc 4990 projects are competitive and the number of positions
available are limited. The process for enrolling in a 4990 project is as
follows:
THE PROCESS FOR ENROLLING
IN A PSYC 3990 IS AS FOLLOWS:
2. Make an appointment to interview with the
faculty member (professor's telephone numbers are listed with the projects) who
is conducting the research which interests you (research is described below).
Do not leave the form in the professor's mailbox. It is your responsibility to
contact the professor and set up an appointment time.
3. Bring your completed Psych 3990/4990
application form to your interview.
4. If you are accepted into the project, ask
your supervising faculty member to sign the clearance form (at the bottom of
the application), detach it, and return the signed clearance form to Silvia
Daggy or Kevin Seymore in 102 N. Murray.
5. Your advisor will complete an enrollment
memo that you need to take personally to the Registrar office in room 324
Student Union.
6. Verify your class schedule on SIS and make
sure you are enrolled in the class for the appropriate amount of hours.
Psyc 4990 Research Assistant (RA) opportunities
Dr. Matt Alderson: is looking for 2-3
students to assist in research focusing on working memory, behavioral
inhibition, and self-regulation in children and college students with ADHD.
Examples of student responsibilities include running participants, coding
behavioral observations, library work, and data entry. Highly motivated and
tenacious students may be included on future poster presentations at regional,
national, and/or international conferences. Applications from students
interested in pursuing future graduate training will be given special
consideration. Interested students must be available to attend a one hour
weekly research meeting in addition to working 8 hours per week.
Dr. Ed Burkley is looking for 2-3 students to assist in research focusing on motivation, achieving goals and/or persuasion. Students' duties will include running participants, administering questionnaires, entering data, and library work. Students should have good interpersonal skills, a strong interest in research, and should be responsible and self-motivated. Those interested must be available to attend a one hour weekly research meeting in addition to working 8 hours per week.
Dr. Melissa Burkley is looking for 2-3 students to assist in research focusing on stereotypes, prejudice, and diversity issues. Students' duties will include running participants, administering questionnaires, entering data, and library work. Students should have good interpersonal skills, a strong interest in research, and should be responsible and self-motivated. Those interested must be available to attend a one hour weekly research meeting in addition to working 8 hours per week.
Dr. Jared Dempsey: The Clinical Neuroscience
Laboratory
is looking for 2-3 students interested in researching drugs, alcohol, and
anxiety. Current projects involve measuring emotional response physiologically
(electromyography, electrogastrography, electrocardiogram, skin conductance
response) and through traditional psychological means. Emotional responses to
drug images are being investigated as a potential gauge of treatment
effectiveness among alcohol and nicotine dependent individuals. A secondary
study involves an investigation related to social anxiety and smoking. Students
will be trained in conducting psychophysiological assessment, running
participants, and typical laboratory duties (e.g., data analysis, data entry,
literature reviews). Interested students must be available to attend a one hour
weekly research meeting in addition to working 8 hours per week.
***Please note***: laboratory procedures
involve showing participants graphic photographs (both erotic and violent) to
induce different emotional states. If you are offended by these types of
photographs it may be best to consider alternative research experiences. However,
alternative laboratory research projects may be available. For more information
on current projects and laboratory in general, please visit www.cnslab.org.
Dr. Doug Hershey: Studies in the Retirement
Planning Research Laboratory involve the examination of retirement preparation
practices and other aspects of adult development and successful aging. Needs 2
to 3 students. Students will be involved in many different types of activities
including data collection, data analysis, and interpretation of findings.
Ideally, students should have completed a course in experimental psychology and
a course in statistics. Weekly meetings are required, and a time commitment of
approximately 6-8 hours per week is expected.
Shelia Kennison's lab has an ongoing need for
undergraduate laboratory assistants in summer and fall. Option one: Outstanding
students will be encouraged to work on projects that they develop with the
supervision of Dr. Kennison in one-on-one meetings. This option is ideal for
students with interests in going to graduate school. Typically, student
projects have been submitted for the Wentz Research Award Competition. Dr.
Kennison has supervised 11 Wentz Research Project Awards. Students are
encouraged to present the results of their research at a conference and submit
the manuscript for publication at a journal. Dr. Kennison has routinely
publishes research articles with undergraduate co-authors.
Option two: Students will serve as research assistants
in ongoing research. Students will assist the research in a variety of ways,
including testing participants in computerized experiments. The experiments
focus on the processing of language by the brain, second language acquisition,
memory and language, social aspects of cognitive processing, and reading comprehension
in English and other languages. Students with interests in languages other than
English are encouraged to apply (e.g., Spanish, Japanese, French, German, &
Chinese). You do not need to be a psychology major to apply. For an interview,
please complete this form.
Dr. Kennison is looking for a 4990 for spring to work on a project on the topic of individual differences in dreams and dreaming. The student will help develop a new online study The 4990 must be able to work independently and be comfortable with computers and software. The project will result in a conference presentation and a manuscript. So students who anticipate applying to graduate school and who would need this type of experience for the CV are encouraged to apply. The time commitment is 9 hours a week, but it is flexible around your existing schedule. Contact Dr. Kennison at
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Dr. Larry Mullins: Child Health Psychology
Lab. In this lab, we are interested in investigating aspects of coping and
adjustment in children with chronic health conditions, including pediatric
cancer, sickle cell disease, asthma, and diabetes, among others. In particular,
we are interested in looking at how parents cope with the uncertainty of their
child’s illness, and we have developed interventions to assist their coping
efforts. Primary responsibilities of assistants will include the conducting
literature searches, development of databases (including library searches),
assistance with grant preparation, and assistance with recruiting and running
participants. At least sophomore standing and library skills are required.
Computer skills (including data entry, programming, web design, and/or
multimedia authoring) are also advantageous, but not required. Must be willing
to commit to weekly lab meetings; other time very flexible. Needs for Summer or
Fall of 2008: 3-4 students.
Dr. Melanie Page has two on-going projects. Both projects involve collecting data from children in the schools, thus you must have at least two 4-hr blocks of time available during the school day and one even longer block is ideal. For the FiSH project, we are collecting follow-up data for a large obesity prevention project. In addition to going out to the schools, you will help with various data cleaning and management projects in the lab. Please contact Taren Swindle for an interview if you are interested in this project. Her email is
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For the Signals project, we will again be out in the schools interviewing 3rd graders about their math and science interests. There might also be the possibility to help with parent focus groups in the evenings. There may also be some in the lab work as well. If you are interested in this project, please contact Stephanie Backof at
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for an interview. For both projects, you should have at least a 3.0 GPA. You should also be very responsible – it is vital we not cancel appointments with the schools, thus not showing up is not an option. For both projects you are expected to put in 126 hours across the semester (this is about 9 hours per week for 3 hours of credit).
Dr. Melanie Page is currently working with two colleagues in HDFS, one on a study of adolescents and another of mothers and their young children. In the first study students will run participants in the evenings and do videocoding. In the second, students will help with videocoding. Both projects are open to students using a piece of the data for their senior or honor's thesis. Conact Dr. Page at
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if interested.
Dr. Richard
Potts is
looking for 1-2 students to assist in research focusing on psychological issues
in mass media. Ongoing projects include: 1) validation of adults’ recall of
early television viewing and the relation of that viewing to adult
psychological characteristics; and 2) investigation of psychological
experiences occurring during videogame playing. Primary responsibilities of
students may include data collection from participants, simple data entry and
database management using SPSS. Students must be available to attend a 1-hour
weekly research meeting and be available to work approximately 2-8 hours per
week. Basic computer and library skills are required. Students should have a
high GPA, at least in psychology courses, and should have taken 3214
Quantitative Methods. All students should submit a letter of interest (via
email) and talk with me in person in a brief interview.
Dr. Stephanie Sweatt: is looking for 1-3
students interested in research focusing on personality pathology. Ongoing
projects involve comparison of the clinical utility of dimensional models of
personality disorder; assessment of personality disorders via self-report
inventories; and the relationship of personality traits to psychopathology and
domains of impairment. Primary responsibilities of students may include
recruiting and running participants, conducting literature searches, data
entry, and database development and management. Students interested in future
graduate training may be included in future poster presentations at regional or
national psychology conferences. Students must be available to attend a 1-hour
weekly research meeting and work approximately 8 hours per week. Computer and
library skills are required. All students will be required to submit a letter
of interest (via email) and complete a brief, in-person interview.
Undergraduate Program 
