The Aresty Research Center for Undergraduates may
provide various forms of support for your student research.
Undergraduate Programs
Research Laboratories
Dr. John Abela
In order to obtain a copy of the application form through email, please contact abelalab@gmail.com
Dr. Abela will be joining the faculty of Rutgers in September of 2008, and is currently accepting applications for volunteer research assistant positions for 2008-2009 academic year. Applications are welcomed from students (returning or graduating) from any university, at any level, and major in any discipline.
Research assistants will have the opportunity to gain extensive clinical experience including (1) conducting semi-structured clinical interviews assessing psychological disorders (e.g., depression, eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, etc..) in children, adolescents, and their parents and (2) running cognitive-behavioral and positive psychology intervention with youth.
Research assistants will have the opportunity to gain extensive research experience through involvement in all phases of research currently being conducted in the lab including data management, data analysis, and manuscript preparation and presentation.
Research assistants will attend a weekly seminar on research and theory pertaining to the causes, treatment, and prevention of depression and related disorders.
Current studies being conducted include (1) a five-year, multi-wave longitudinal study examining genetic, cognitive, and interpersonal vulnerability to depression during childhood and adolescence, (2) a three-year, multi-wave longitudinal study examining culture, cognition, interpersonal relations stressors, and depression in adolescents in mainland China, and (3) a one-year longitudinal study examining the efficacy of an intensive positive psychology program aimed at fostering the development of character strengths and virtues in youth transitioning from elementary to middle school.
Dr. Jack
Aiello
445-2592
My program of research investigates the process by which people regulate and control their social interaction with others. With this common thread my primary emphases have been upon the role of nonverbal components of interaction (e.g., spatial behavior, eye contact) and upon the consequences that environmental stress (particularly crowding stress and work stress) exerts on this regulatory process.
The three current topics of this research program are:
1. Stress, health, and the workplace,
2. reactions to feedback, and
3. electronic performance monitoring.
Dr. Gretchen
Chapman
445-2640
Medical Decision Making Lab and Website
How do physicians and patients make decisions, and how do their decision processes differ from the best way that decisions could be made? My research focuses on decision biases and the psychological mechanisms that underlie them. Current studies address topics such as: why don't people do what is good for them, like accept free flu shots? How do people make decisions about risky outcomes, and why are they more risk-seeking in some situations than in others? How do people approach decisions when the outcomes are both risky and delayed?
Interested students should look at the medical decision making lab web page and then contact Dr. Chapman.
Dr. Richard
Contrada
445-3195
My students and I conduct research on psychosocial and emotional factors involved in the development and course of chronic physical diseases. We focus on coronary disease because it is a major killer and offers a useful model for understanding psychological factors and pathophysiological mechanisms that are broadly relevant to physical health. This work is guided by a framework that emphasizes personal attributes, such as emotional syndromes (anxiety, depressive symptoms), personality traits, religiousness, and ethnicity, and social-contextual factors, such as life stress and supportive social relationships.
Mechanisms that account for physical health effects of psychosocial factors emphasize processes involving stress and emotions. These are addressed at both psychological and biological levels. At a psychological level, the emphasis is on cognitive appraisal and coping processes that govern emotions and other responses to stressors and challenges. At a biological level, the emphasis is on autonomic and cardiovascular changes that may explain associations between stress/emotional processes and physical health and disease.
Among specific projects currently underway are:
(1) Adaptation to Heart Surgery: How do patients cope with the stress of undergoing heart surgery? Does the “brush with death” associated with surgery affect personality, social relations, and religious beliefs? Do psychosocial and emotional factors predict short-term recovery and long-term adaptation following heart surgery?
(2) Management of Heart Disease: Do heart patients have accurate beliefs about coronary disease and its treatment? Do these beliefs influence the performance of behaviors necessary to control coronary disease, such as taking medicine, exercising, and eating a healthy diet? Can interventions that alter patients’ beliefs improve the management of coronary disease?
(3) Psychophysiology of Threat: How do threats associated with academics, social relationships, self-concept, and physical health influence thought and emotion? How do they affect us physiologically? Do these physiological effects of threat increase the risk of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases?
(4) Brain-heart interactions: The brain and the heart are two of our most important bodily organs. How do they influence one another? Can measurement of the brain’s electrical activity (EEG) help us to understand cognitive and emotional processes and attributes that influence cardiovascular functioning?
Students in our lab gain experience conducting experimental, field, and medical research involving techniques for acquiring and analyzing psychological, biomedical, and physiological data. Although these are by no means requirements, preference will be given to students with skills/knowledge in biology, computers, electronics, and/or statistics, who plans to attend graduate school or medical school, and who are willing to make a one-year commitment or more to work with our group. We welcome students from a variety of fields, including psychology, biological sciences, and engineering. Many of our former students are now physicians, clinical psychologists, and medical researchers.
Dr. Maurice
Elias
445-2444
Research opportunities are mainly in the area of children, adolescents, and families, particularly as they relate to the schools and to the processes involved in how people cope with and think through everyday and difficult situations they encounter. Available experiences typically involve some of the following: administering and scoring assessments to children, data processing and analysis, participant observation in classroom and playground settings, development of curriculum activities, preparation and administration of surveys by mail or telephone, and review and compilation of relevant multidisciplinary literature.
There are no specific requirements, but writing skills, computer skills, work experience, and related course work are considered in matching students to projects. Our research occurs in various communities, and we are especially interested in students wishing to work in school-based prevention of substance abuse, antisocial and violent behavior, promotion of social competence, health, emotional intelligence and responsible citizenship; child advocacy and mental health policy; identity development in Jewish youth and urban school settings, including Head Start. Research opportunities may at times can be combined with internship placements.
Dr. Jacob
Feldman
445-6158
My research concerns perceptual organization, grouping, visual similarity, shape representation, object categorization, and other aspects of human visual cognition.
Dr.
Charles Gallistel
445-8100
Research on the behavioral genetics of memory in mice in Dr. Gallistel's lab. Opportunity to take part in all phases of the experimental process. Undergraduates working in the lab are responsible for daily running of the mice in automated experimental procedures, data analysis, and the writing of a paper describing what we are doing and why. We are developing highly automated procedures for screening mice for the effects of genetic variation and genetic manipulation on the molecular mechanism of memory. Students with some computer programming experience are particularly welcome. Work-study students also sought. Opportunity for paid full-time employment during the summer.
Dr. Rochel
Gelman
445-6154
Cognitive Development & Learning Lab
Our group is interested in early cognitive development, especially with respect to areas of knowledge that are acquired on the fly, without formal instruction, e.g. knowledge about causality, arithmetic, language and some scientific concepts. We also work on coming to understand the nonverbal arithmetic abilities that adults share with children and animals and why adults find learning about abstract mathematical concepts so difficult. Interested students have an opportunity to work on one of several projects over a period of time. We also work on the relation between the language of number and seemingly related features of natural language. Experience with Macintosh computers is required. Preference will be given to students who are able to make a commitment for two semesters and have solid backgrounds in linguistics, mathematics, computers and/or science; or have computer graphics and animation skills. In order to participate in preschool or school-based research, students need to have at least two mornings available. Facility with Spanish is of particular relevance to our preschool work.
Dr. Arnold
Glass
445-2417
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Automatic Language Processing
This is a computer program that assigns syntactic descriptions to sentences and derives inferences from those descriptions. Students would be involved
Pre-requisites: Native speaker of English or Programming ability in C. -
Human Sentence Processing
We do experiments that investigate how people understand language. Students who wish to work as laboratory assistants will learn how to use Superlab to design and run experiments that are run on microcomputers and to use SPSS to analyze the results. -
Recognition and Recall of Pictures and Words
We do experiments that investigate how well people remember things they have seen and heard. Students will prepare materials, test subjects, and tabulate data.
Prerequisites: Familiarity with computer system. Knowledge of EXCEL particularly helpful.
Dr. Sandra
Harris / Dr. Jan Handelman
932-3017
Behavioral and educational research conducted with children and adults with autism. Areas of research include evaluating the effectiveness of treatment procedures, assessing family functioning, and influencing social behavior in autism.
Participation includes ten hours per week of involvement in varied research activities: collection, coding, and analysis of data, systematic observation of instructional sessions and naturalistic interactions, and literature reviews.
Seminars and daily contact allow the student to share a variety of experiences with both the instructor and other students.
Open to juniors and seniors. Priority is given to students who have done field work at the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center. ENROLLMENT IS LIMITED.
Dr. Jeannette
Haviland-Jones
445-4639
There are occasional openings for advanced students in the human emotions laboratory. Students must be able to attend lab meetings and schedule several hours at a time for research. Please check the website. Present projects concern (l) emotional influences on chemical communication of emotion (2) influence of odors and environment on memory and cognitive process. and (3) emotion communication through olfaction/pheromones.
Dr. Judith
Hudson
445-3172
Planning Performance Across Different Tasks. This project investigates adults’ performance across a variety of planning tasks. We study the strategies people use in planning future, everyday activities, how they plan routes using street maps, how they solve logical problems and how well they negotiate mazes.
Parent-Child Talk About Future Events. In this investigation, we are studying how young children develop a concept of future time. Mothers and children from 4 to 6 years of age engage in conversations about future events and also complete a planning task together. Children are asked to complete a time understanding task and to plan a future activity on their own. We are interested in whether the language that parents use in talking about the future affects children’s understanding of future time. Previous work with preschool children desirable for this project
Dr. Lee
Jussim
445-2070
Current projects on which undergraduates could assist include:
Current projects on which undergraduates could assist include:
Identifying when, how, and how much stereotypes influence how
people perceive individuals from the stereotype group.
Research on self-fulfilling prophecies: How one person's originally false belief about another triggers a social interaction sequence such that the second person ends up confirming the originally falses (but now true) belief.
For more details about these projects, my requirements, and all sorts of other information about my research and teaching, go to my website.
Dr. Eileen
Kowler
445-2086
Eye Movements and Cognitive Processes
Movements of the eyes are needed to gather information from the visual world because we must look at objects in order to see them clearly. From this simple fact comes 3 questions, all of which are under study in our laboratory. First, what factors determine where the eye moves and how accurately and quickly it arrives at its intended destination? Second, which patterns of eye movements are most useful for gathering visual information? Third, what can we learn about cognitive processes by studying an observer's pattern of eye movements?
Opportunities exist for interested students to participate in ongoing projects or design new experiments. Students should have completed Psychology 301/302. Our work is heavily dependent on use of computers (PCs) so familiarity with a computer programming language is needed to be a full participant in projects.
Prerequisite: Interested students must send by either e-mail or campus mail (Psychology Building, Busch Campus) a brief description of their background relevant to the research, including a list of related courses taken and a brief description of long-range educational and career goals.
Dr. Alexander
Kusnecov
445-3473
The nervous and immune systems share a mutually interactive relationship, which promotes various forms of physiological and behavioral adaptations in the face of pathogenic challenges from viruses and bacteria. The focus of my lab is on understanding this relationship through (I) studies that determine the mechanisms by which stress affects immune function, and (ii) studies that examine the cognitive and emotional consequences of immune system activation. These studies involve animal models of immunological activation and/or stressor exposure. Interested students should therefore be prepared to learn and conduct research that involves sterotaxic surgery, behavioral testing, and collection and processing of brain and lymphoid tissue for histological and biological assessment. This would be appropriate for students wishing to progress towards graduate education in Biopsychology/Behavioral Neuroscience, as well as in areas of Health Psychology that focus on Psychoneuroimmunology.
Dr. Alan
Leslie
445-4959
Undergraduate Opportunities at the Cognitive Development Lab
The Cognitive Development Lab studies the development of mental capacities underlying our understanding of physical objects, number, causation, social agency, pretending, and reasoning about other people’s mental states. Research is carried out, as appropriate, with normally developing infants (6 to 12 mos.) and preschool (3 to 5 years) and autistic and mentally handicapped children (6 to 18 years). We are always seeking eager undergraduates for research opportunities in our lab.
For further information about our lab and its activities please visit our Web Site at http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~aleslie/undergra.html
Dr. Howard
Leventhal
932-7537/8413
Our group is currently involved in several different types of study of health behavior. The areas are as follows:
1. Life Span Changes in Health and Illness Behavior: Our studies of illness cognition examine changes in thinking about illness over the life span. We are examining these processes in cohorts ranging from early adulthood to the old, i.e., over 75. We are interested in defining changes in coping strategies such as motivation to avoid risk and motivation to conserve energy resources that affect emotionality, immune function and help-seeking from middle to older age.
2. Illness Cognition: Studies of common sense views of illness: What are the categories and scripts that underlie the expectations people hold about symptom episodes, i.e., diagnostic cues, their causes (exposure, diet, sleep deprivation, stress, etc.), and the procedures they use to develop their expectations and control symptom episodes (self medication, rest, etc.). We will be looking at the contribution of emotional memory to different ways of representing chronic illness and re-examining the role of fear in the adoption of health promotive behaviors.
3. Self-appraisals. Self-assessments of health are quite strong predictors of mortality. People who say fair or poor in answering the question, "In general, would you say your health is (excellent to poor)?" are 2 to 5 times more likely to be decreased in the following years than people answering excellent or very good. This effect appears controlling for the individuals medical history. In short, individuals are able to assess the overall status of their physical selves. The questions we are asking, are; "How do people make these judgments?" "What information do they use?" “Do these self appraisals influence interpretation of symptoms or motivation to engage in protective health practices?
Prerequisite: (1) Experimental Lab (2) Quantitative Methods (830:200) (3) One course of social/personality /health (4) One course in Cognitive or BN.
Dr. Louis
Matzel
445-5940
Individuals differences in learning abilities in mammals. Neurophysiological, biochemical, and molecular substrates of neuroplasicity as it subserves memory storage, as well as the interaction of psychological processes with these brain substrates. Modern electrophysiological, neurochemical, and behavioral techniques are applied cooperatively to elucidate the mechanisms by which memories are stored in the brain, with a particular emphasis on the activity of single cells and synapses. Students are provided the opportunity and encouraged to develop skills in all of these areas, but are free to pursue any single line of inquiry.
Dr. Beth Epstein
Dr. Robert Woolfolk
445-0667; 445-2556
I currently am conducting a five year study of outpatient treatments for women who are married or in committed relationships and who have drinking problems. Women have been given the choice of individual or couple therapy. After they made that choice, they were randomly assigned to one of two forms of individual therapy, or one of two forms of couple therapy. Starting at the end of September, we only will be studying forms of couples therapy, so the choice part of the study will be completed. After an extensive baseline assessment of drinking, psychopathology, relationship function, and their social network, they enter a 12-session treatment program. Women are followed for a year after treatment to assess outcomes. Undergraduates have opportunities to learn about clinical research, assist in conducting assessments with the women, conduct telephone follow-up interviews with collaterals and assist with basic aspects of the research such as data entry and preparation of research materials.
Prerequisites: (1) Abnormal Psychology (830:340); (2) Quantitative Methods (830:200)
Dr. Marsha Bates
445-3559
Dr. Bates is the director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the Center of Alcohol Studies. The mission of the lab is to conduct integrated cognitive psychology and neuroscience research aimed at understanding alcohol and other drug effects on cognition and advancing the treatment of addictive behaviors. Undergraduate students have the opportunity to participate in several studies:
- Alcohol effects on memory and attention in social drinkers;
- Alcohol effects on psychophysiological arousal (heart rate, skin conductance);
- Differences in memory for positive and negative emotional stimuli and psychophysiological arousal in clinical samples diagnosed with substance use disorders compared to high school and college aged students;
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychological assessment of children diagnosed with autism spectrum and bipolar disorders compared to normally developing children.
Contact: Marsha E. Bates, Ph.D., Research Professor, Center of Alcohol Studies,
Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology at Rutgers University: 445-2000, Ext. 132.
Black Couples Research Project running Summer/Fall/and Spring
The purpose of this study is to understand how African Americans view and cope with racial factors such as oppression and racial stereotypes within their couple relationships. African American couples are being recruited from the community to complete questionnaires and participate in videotaped discussions regarding the role of racial issues in their lives, both as individuals and as a couple.
Students are currently needed to recruit the couples, administer the questionnaires, and videotape their interactions. Over the course of the study, students will also be needed to code videotaped interactions and enter data via SPSS. Students seeking advanced research opportunities can also choose the option of writing a 10-page research paper in an area related to the study topic (e.g. couple relationships, ethnic factors).
A minimum commitment of five hours per week on the project is necessary, and 10 or more hours are recommended to obtain an optimal research experience.
Students will need to demonstrate skills in persuasion, public speaking, interpersonal interactions, assertiveness, and flexibility in dealing with the participants and the organizations from which they will be recruited.
Students will receive training in participant recruitment (including persuasion techniques), confidentiality, data and office management, and professional behavior. Students will also learn about the process of conducting day to day research, information about Black couples, and information about racial issues/perceptions relevant to research and practice. Such skills are invaluable to those who would like to go on to graduate school develop careers in research, and/or specialize in research or clinical work with African Americans.
For more information, contact Shalonda Kelly.
Dr. Timothy
Otto
445-0719
My research employs both neuropsychological and electrophysiological techniques to explore the neural mechanisms subserving learning and memory. These studies are conducted primarily within the anatomical framework of the rodent olfactory system. Neuropsychological studies entail a detailed analysis of the effects discrete brain lesions on various types of odor-guided learning. Complementary electrophysiological studies explore the extent to which synaptic plasticity within the olfactory pathways participate in memory storage; these studies involve an examination of potentially learning-related changes in the excitability of neurons within cortical and limbic regions using both acute and chronic preparations.
Prerequisite: Prefer students to have taken either psychobiology or physiological psychology and lab and conditioning and learning.
Dr. Zenon Pylyshyn
445-0638
Website
Our research studies the nature of visual attention and assesses
people's ability to split their visual attention and to track multiple
independently moving objects, displayed on a screen. In this laboratory
we have shown that people can normally track 4 moving objects even when
they are mixed in with four other identical moving objects that they are
to ignore. This basic Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) technique has proved
useful for exploring a range of questions concerning human visual information
processing. In addition to studies on visual attention, we are interested
in mental imagery and the empirical constraints on cognitive architecture.
See more information
about this internship.
Dr. Carolyn
Rovee-Collier
445-3364
The ontogeny of learning and memory in human infants
We are currently engaged in a number of studies on infant long-term memory. These include factors influencing memory retrieval during the first 2 years of life, with emphasis on what is learned and what is selectively remembered at different ages and how this affected by reminders (reactivation and reinstatement), and how infant’s memories are distorted or updated. We also are involved in studies of deferred imitation. All research is conducted in the infants' own homes, and requires blocks of time at the same time of day for 2 to 3 consecutive days (1 full day won’t do) and a car (mileage reimbursed). Call 445-4819 for more information or to schedule a visit to an infant with an experimenter. I am particularly interested in juniors and seniors who anticipate graduate study or advanced study in an allied health field.
Prerequisite: Prefer conditioning and learning, memory and attention, some developmental coursework, or an experimental lab.
Dr. Seymour Rosenberg
445-2440
Researching the archives on the history of psychology at Rutgers University.
Dr. Laurie
Rudman
445-3404
Social cognition, stereotypes, implicit attitude assessment.
The stigma, health, and close relationships lab seeks motivated students to conduct research in the following areas 1) the influence of gender and gender roles on close relationships and well-being & 2) race-related stigmatization. Please visit www.sanchezlab.com for extended description.
Participation includes one full day a week (8-10 hrs) of participation in the lab. Day of the week is assigned to each student based on availability. Students are trained to be experimenters/researchers and are involved in varied activities including data collection, coding, and literature reviews.
Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Priority is given to students who have previous research experience in psychology, students who contact the research team early in the selection process, and those who are willing to work the entire academic year. ENROLLMENT IS LIMITED.
Dr. Manish
Singh
445-8195
The way the world looks to us is a remarkable achievement of our visual system. Research in our lab is aimed at understanding how human brain constructs the objects and surfaces we see, embedded in a three-dimensional environment given only the two-dimensional arrays of light intensities projected onto our retinas.
Specific topics include:
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How does the visual system construct 3D shapes from the 2D images projected on our retinas? How does it represent and store descriptions of these shapes?
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How does the visual system construct percepts of continuous objects when portions of these objects are hidden behind other objects? How does it create "illusory figures" in image regions where there are no changes in light intensity?
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How does the visual system construct the percept of two or more layers in depth from a single pattern of light intensities (for example, when an object is viewed through a semi-transparent or translucent surface)?
Dr. Judith
Stern
445-2415
I am conducting a survey study on the dating relationships of Rutgers male and female undergraduates, with a focus on verbal, emotional, and physical abuse in relationships during college lasting two or months. At this point (June 2007) we do not have sufficient funds to pay an assistant. Credit for Research in Psychology can be arranged. I am collaborating on this project with colleagues at Sexual Assault Services and Crime Victims Assistance.
Dr. Karin
Stromswold
445-2448 (office); 445-4295 (lab)
The research in this lab investigates the cognitive and neural bases of language. Ongoing projects fall in five general areas.
1. Normal language acquisition. We study how typically-developing children acquire English and other languages. We also use mobile eye-trackers to study how children understand spoken language. Projects involve testing preschool- and school-aged children and performing transcript studies.
2. Abnormal language acquisition. Language acquisition by children with developmental language disorders is compared with language acquisition by normal children. Projects involve testing language-impaired children and transcribing and analyzing their speech.
3. Adult language processing. Computer-based and eye-tracking experiments are used to investigate how adults process spoken and written language processing.
4. Genetics of language. The language development of Monozygotic (identical) twins is compared with that of dizygotic (nonidentical) twins. Projects involve coding and analyzing spontaneous speech and test data from twins.
5. Perinatal factors & development. We are investigating how various prenatal and early postnatal factors affect language development. Projects involve testing children, and coding, entering and analyzing data.
Students who are native speakers of English, Hebrew, Korean, or Turkish are particularly welcomed to participate.
Dr. Arthur
Tomie
445-2423/445-3595
Research interests: Pavlovian conditioning of autoshaping; animal learning; models of drug abuse; models of excessive and compulsive responding; neuropharmacology of drug abuse.
Dr. David
Vicario
445-2907
Neurobiology of Vocal Learning
Songbirds use their songs and calls to communicate in social and
reproductive contexts. They learn to make these sounds through a process
of vocal imitation that has much in common with human speech acquisition.
Very few animals are capable of this form of behavioral learning. It involves
auditory discrimination, auditory memory and sensorimotor learning. We
can study the brain mechanisms of each of these processes, because the
relevant brain pathways have been identified in songbirds. Experiments
in the laboratory involve a range of techniques from behavioral observations
and sound processing to neurophysiology and neuroanatomy. Opportunities
exist for interested students to participate in ongoing projects if they
can make a significant time commitment.
Prerequisite: Physiological Psychology (Psych 313) or Comparative Psychology (Psych 315) are preferred, but may not be required. Facility with PC computers is very helpful. Interested students please send (vicario@rci.rutgers.edu) a brief description of background relevant to the research, including a list of related courses taken, and a statement of long-range educational and career goals.
Dr. George
Wagner
445-4660
Study of schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease using animal models. Assessment of the neurochemical and behavioral deficits following the administration of psychomotor stimulants.
Dr. Mark
West
445-2419
Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory
Single-neuron electrophysiological recordings in the basal ganglia of rats are used to study the cellular bases of dopamine-related behaviors: acquisition of instrumental behavior; incentive motivational properties of abused drugs such as cocaine; complex sensorimotor behavior in animal models of Parkinson's disease.
Prerequisite: General Psychology and Quantitative Methods and pre or coreq. of Physiological Psychology or equivalent course in biology/neurobiology.
Dr.
David Wilder
445-2408
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Effects of social categorization on intergroup relation; strategies for reducing intergroup bias
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Stereotype development and change
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Time; psychological perception of the flow of time - implications for conscious awareness.
Dr Robert
Woolfolk
445-2088
Research on Self Understanding and Self Evaluation
Our research examines such traditional topics as self-concept and self-esteem and their relation to questions in contemporary studies of social cognition. We are interested in how knowledge about the self is represented cognitively and how such knowledge structures are configured. We are also interested in the relationship of self-understanding and self-evaluation to areas in clinical psychology. Most specifically we are studying the connection of cognition about the self with depression and the personality disorders.