Research Opportunity in the DSCN Lab at UMD

The Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience (DSCN) lab (directed by Dr. Elizabeth Redcay) is looking for bright, detail-oriented undergraduate students to assist with multiple behavioral and fMRI studies investigating social cognition in children and adults. RAs in the DSCN lab will gain hands-on experience with neuroimaging, behavioral, and developmental methods, which can increase the value of one’s graduate school application. Class credit will also be made available to those interested and qualified. Initially, RAs will be involved in participant recruitment and data entry. Contingent upon performance, RAs will have the opportunity to become involved in more advanced research tasks in the lab.

Responsibilities

Initial Responsibilities:

-      Participant recruitment: calling and scheduling participants over the phone and via e-mail

-      Data entry: entering experimental data into Microsoft Excel and SPSS

-      Data coding: coding participant questionnaires, standardized assessments, and participant videos

-      Data organization: compiling and filing datasets; day-to-day lab maintenance

Advanced Tasks (Performance contingent)

-      Stimuli creation: preparing stimulus materials (i.e., creating and editing videos)

-      Data collection (behavioral and fMRI): setting-up and running behavioral studies; assisting with the acquisition of fMRI data at the Maryland Neuroimaging Center (located a couple blocks off the College Park campus)

-      Opportunity to perform data processing and analysis (i.e., on fMRI, DTI, and behavioral data)

All Semesters

-      Participating in weekly lab meetings (one hour)

Required skills

-      Academic background in psychology, neuroscience, or computer science

-      Minimum GPA of 3.3

-      Experience working with children

-      Strong communication skills

-      Moderate comfort level working with Mac computers and their applications

In addition to these skills, the ideal applicant should also be...

-      Detail-oriented

-      A great problem-solver

-      Keenly interested in social development and developmental neuroscience

-      Able to work independently

-      A motivated and self-directed learner

-      Child friendly!

Commitment Length

-      2 semesters preferred

How to Apply

If interested, please e-mail the following to dscn.umd@gmail.com

1)        A copy of your resume/CV

2)        Your unofficial transcript

3)        DSCN RA APPLICATION

More information about the lab is available online at our website: http://www.dscn.umd.edu/.