Advertisements for Research Assistant (RA) positions in the Psychology Department other than research awards

Volunteer RA – Winter 2022, Spring 2022

Principal Investigator: Dr. Heather Henderson

Lab Website: www.uwaterloo.ca/social-development-lab/

Contact: sdl@uwaterloo.ca

Research Area: shyness, interpersonal emotion dynamics, friendship formation, socioemotional development

Duties: We are looking for volunteers and/or Psych 264 student who are eager to assist with a variety of tasks, including being trained to code observational and/or psychophysiological data.

Qualifications: 

• We are looking for highly motivated and detail-oriented students with excellent work ethic with a strong interest in shyness and emotion processes
• Applicant should have at least an 80% average in their completed psychology courses.
• Prior research experience is an asset but not required.

Benefits:

• Excellent research opportunity for students interested in graduate studies in Psychology
• Opportunity to learn critical research skills (e.g., data quantification)
• Support and guidance available for grad school applications

Time commitment: Approximately 8 to 10 hours/week, one semester minimum

How to Apply: If you are interested in this position, please contact us via email at sdl@uwaterloo.ca with the materials below. Note, applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

1. Resume/CV
2. Unofficial transcript

Psychology 264 Position – Fall 2019

Developmental Psychology
Faculty Supervisors: Stephanie Denison, Katherine White

Web: https://uwaterloo.ca/infant-and-child-studies-group/

Research areas: Cognitive development and language development from early infancy to early childhood (0-6 years old).

Contact: Email our lab coordinator, at babylab@uwaterloo.ca

Duties: We are looking for psych 264 students who are eager to help out with a variety of lab tasks that may include recruiting participants from the community, assisting with in-lab studies, attending lab meetings, and assisting with additional general lab duties. You will work closely with our lab coordinator between the two labs, the Developmental Learning Lab and the Lab for Infant Development and Language.

Benefits: You will gain experience working and collaborating with local child-oriented groups in the community, in addition to working directly with infants and young children in the labs.

Time commitment: Approximately 8 hours per week

Qualifications:

- Reliable, detail-oriented, and highly-motivated students with a strong interest in developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, or language development
- Passionate about working with young children
- Preference given to students in the psychology major/honours program (prior research experience an asset, but not necessary)

Access to a vehicle is an asset.

To apply: Please send the following documents to our lab coordinator (babylab@uwaterloo.ca) and indicate the term you are applying for (e.g., Fall 2019):

1. Resume
2. Cover letter explaining your interest in this position and relevant skills
3. Your class schedule (even if it is still unofficial, with information regarding which class in your timetable you might replace with the 264)
4. Unofficial transcript

Contact:        

Dr. David Moscovitch  dmosco@uwaterloo.ca

Dr. Christine Purdon   christine.purdon@uwaterloo.ca

Affiliation: U Waterloo Dept of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research & Treatment

URL: http://uwaterloo.ca/anxiety-studies

Research Area: Clinical Psychology

Duties/Responsibilities: You will receive training and will subsequently oversee the operational coordination of Anxiety Studies (AS), which is an ongoing collaborative research venture between Dr. Moscovitch, Dr. Purdon, and their graduate students. Responsibilities includes phone screening and recruiting participants with anxiety and related clinical disorders from the surrounding community, coordinating scheduling of weekly interviews by AS researchers, managing databases, leading weekly team meetings, responding to team requests, and assisting with the organization and maintenance of study files. Please see the following article for additional information about the AS: Moscovitch et al. (2015). A model for recruiting clinical research participants with anxiety disorders in the absence of service provision: Visions, challenges, and norms within a Canadian context. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 203, 943-957.

Time Commitment: approximately 10 hours/week, but fewer during the initial 8-week training period

Start Date: June 1, 2022, but this is negotiable. There will be an initial 8-week training period that will be scheduled during the spring/summer, with independent responsibilities beginning in August.

Salary: $16/hr, paid through the University of Waterloo casual pay system.

Qualifications: Applicants should be conscientious students with strong grades who possess:

• Experience and comfort with basic data management in SPSS and Excel
• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail
• Exceptional initiative and independent work skills
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills
• Exceptional problem-solving skills
• Leadership potential
• After receiving adequate training, ability to manage clinically sensitive situations and information

Preference will be given to those interested in applying to graduate school in clinical psychology and who are willing to make a 1-2 year commitment to this position.

Note: The AS Coordinator will work in a hybrid manner using both in-person and virtual systems. A dedicated Anxiety Studies on-campus office will be provided, which will be the Coordinator’s primary hub. There will also likely be opportunities to work virtually from home, depending on COVID-related restrictions and AS members’ needs.

Application Deadline: Fri May 13, 2022, after which we will begin reviewing applications immediately. We will contact our top shortlisted candidates to arrange interviews.
 
How to apply: Please forward your application package by email to both Dr. Moscovitch (dmosco@uwaterloo.ca) and Dr. Purdon (christine.purdon@uwaterloo.ca). Your application package should consist of: a) a cover letter explaining what interests you about the position, your career goals and what strengths you bring to the position; b) a current CV/resume; c) an unofficial copy of your transcript (from Quest); d) names/contact info for 2 references. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Paid Internship

Dr. Maureen Drysdale (St. Jerome's University)

Contact: Maureen Drysdale (mdrysdal@uwaterloo.ca) 

Research Area: mental health & wellbeing; educational, developmental, &/or clinical psychology; school-to-school and/or school-to-work transitions

Duties include:

Participant recruitment, literature searching and literature review writing, data entry and management, coding data, preparing materials for studies.

Qualifications:

• Applicants should be interested in psychology and mental health research; be organized, reliable, conscientious, and detail-oriented, with at least an 80% average in completed psychology or AHS courses.
• Experience writing a literature review in health or social sciences is recommended.
•  Prior research experience and experience with statistical software packages (such as SPSS) are assets but not required.

Benefits:

• Learn how to conduct complex psychological and health related research, and work directly with faculty.

How to apply:

Please contact Dr. Maureen Drysdale via email mdrysdal@uwaterloo.ca no later than January 15, 2018 with the following materials:

1. Resume/CV

2. Brief cover letter (please specify any research or technical experience)

3. Unofficial transcript (copied/printed from Quest is fine)

4. Attach a 1000-word sample from a literature review that you have written.

For more information about the lab please visit: https://www.sju.ca/mhswtlab

Principal Investigator: Dr. Jonathan Oakman
Graduate students: Alex Milovanov, Katie Finch, Sarena Daljeet, Carla Rumeo
Lab website: https://uwaterloo.ca/psychological-intervention-research-team/
Contact: pirtlab@gmail.com

Our research team studies the change process in psychotherapy, addressing a number of research questions using a range of research methods. We are interested in the relation of

• client characteristics
• therapist characteristics
• features of the therapist-client relationship
• properties of the psychological intervention itself

to both the process of a psychological intervention and its eventual outcome. Through our research we are seeking to improve the efficacy and acceptability of psychological interventions to those seeking help for mental health problems.

Some of the current projects in the lab:
 

Katie is investigating the use of imagery-based techniques to reduce music performance anxiety. She is interested in the ways musicians habitually use imagery, as well as how it might be most effectively employed to alleviate anxiety. Additionally, Katie is investigating the prevalence and impact of musicians' experiences of negative intrusive imagery and how this might be related to music performance anxiety.

Alex is investigating how common therapeutic factors (e.g., therapist’s empathy and perceived expertise) interact with each other and lead to better outcomes in psychotherapy and alternative treatments (e.g., acupuncture, homeopathy).

Sarena is investing how common factors (e.g., emotional processing) develop within and between sessions of psychotherapy and subsequently lead to better outcomes.

Carla is examining whether therapists perceive important differences in the development of therapeutic processes (such as the therapeutic alliance and emotional closeness) when comparing their experiences providing online mediated therapy (i.e. video chat platforms) and face to face therapy.

Qualifications for the volunteering position:

• We are looking for motivated and conscientious students with an interest in clinical psychology
• Prior research experience is not necessary (but is desired)
• Applicants should have at least an 80% average in their completed psychology courses.

Duties:

• Data collection, data coding, behaviour coding, data entry, recruitment and scheduling of participants, management of online studies, and preparation of study materials (e.g., building questionnaires using online survey software).

Optional, depending on students’ interests:

• Review research literature on topic of interest and present findings
• Participate in weekly research meetings/talks
• Develop and share research ideas
• Come up with original research ideas, collect data or use existing data to conduct statistical analyses, and present the findings (e.g., in the form of conference poster presentations, or publications).

Time commitment: 6–8 hours/week, one semester minimum (more than one semester preferable).

Benefits:

• Excellent research opportunity for students interested in graduate studies in Clinical Psychology
• Learn about psychotherapy process research (why do people improve in psychotherapy?), as well as about clinical psychology research more generally
• Opportunity to learn critical research skills (e.g., literature review, statistical analysis)

***As of December 2021, we are specifically recruiting for a project involving correcting computer-generated transcripts of psychotherapy sessions

This involves:

• Approximately 4-5 hours a week
• Preference is given to students majoring in psychology or a closely related field.
• Preference is given to students who can demonstrate academic excellence (min. 80% average in psychology courses),
• Upper-year students are also preferred as having taken additional psychology courses is helpful for understanding coding concepts.
• Preference is given to students who can demonstrate academic excellence (min. 85% average in psychology courses), excellent verbal ability, and good interpersonal skills.

How to Apply:
If you are interested in this position, please email an updated copy of your C.V., unofficial transcript, and a writing sample (ideally recent and from a psychology course) to pirtlab@gmail.com. If you have applied to the lab before, please send updated versions. While we would like to respond to all applicants, we receive a large volume of applications and it is not always possible. Applicants invited to apply will be asked to submit a brief application. Transcribers will be invited to start immediately or can defer until the next semester.

Cognition and Natural Behaviour Laboratory (https://uwaterloo.ca/cognition-and-natural-behaviour-laboratory/) 

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Evan Risko 
Contact: Dr. Evan Risko, efrisko@uwaterloo.ca

Research Area: cognitive psychology, embodied and embedded cognition, social cognition, natural behaviour, mind wandering, attention 

Duties: 

• Data collection, coding, recruitment and scheduling of participants, management of online studies
• Behaviour coding, data entry, and preparation of study materials
• Statistical analysis (training provided in SPSS, R)
• Attend weekly laboratory meetings

Time commitment: minimum 6 –8 hours/week 

Qualifications:

• We are looking for smart, reliable, and conscientious students with an interest in cognitive psychology, social cognition, or applied cognition
• Basic computer literacy is expected and advanced computer skills (e.g., programming) are desired
• Prior research experience is not necessary (but is desired) 
• Applicants should have at least an 80% average in their completed psychology courses.

Benefits:

• Fun
• Learn about human cognition, social cognition, and applied cognition
• Opportunity to participate in all aspects of research from research design to dissemination of results
• Learn critical research skills (e.g., programming, statistical analysis)
• Potential to develop your own research projects 

How to Apply: 
If you're interested in any of these positions, please email the following documents to Dr. Evan Risko (efrisko@uwaterloo.ca). 
1. Cover letter describing why you want to work in the Cognition and Natural Behaviour Laboratory
2. Resume/CV
3. Unofficial transcript

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Colin MacLeod
Contact: Torin Peter Young (tpyoung@uwaterloo.ca)

Research Areas 

Our lab examines human attention, learning, and memory. Our particular emphasis is on the fundamental processes that underlie associative learning as well as memory encoding and retrieval. 

Duties

• Carrying out a variety of usually computer-based experiments, primarily investigating human attention, learning, and memory
• Data collection, coding, recruitment and scheduling of participants, management of online studies
• Behaviour coding, data entry, and preparation of study materials
• Some statistical analysis (training provided in Excel, SPSS, R)
• Other responsibilities dependent on your interests

Time commitment: minimum 6 –8 hours/week 

Qualifications

• We are looking for reliable, conscientious students with an interest in cognitive psychology, basic processes, and psychology of attention, learning, and memory
• Basic computer literacy is expected and advanced computer skills (e.g., programming) are desired
• Prior research experience is not necessary (but is desired)
• Applicants should enjoy working with others
• Applicants should have at least an 80% average in their completed psychology courses
• Applicants should be enthusiastic about research!

Benefits

• Develop skills and experience in working within a psychology lab
• Learn about research in human memory and cognition
• Opportunity to participate in all aspects of research from research design to dissemination of results
• Learn critical research skills (e.g., programming, statistical analysis)

How to apply

If you're interested in volunteering within our lab, please email the following documents to Torin Peter Young (tpyoung@uwaterloo.ca):

1. Cover letter describing why you are interested in joining the Memory, Attention, and Cognition Lab
2. Resume/CV
3. Unofficial transcript

Reasoning and Decision-Making Lab
Faculty Supervisors: Dr. Jonathan Fugelsang and Dr. Derek Koehler
Contact: Kaiden Stewart

Research Area: reasoning, decision-making, judgment, cognitive psychology.

Duties: 

• data collection, coding, and management
• managing the scheduling of participants
• online study administration
• helping with study materials and ethics applications
• some statistical analysis (beginner training will be provided)
• assisting the production of study ideas and design
• literature search
• attend weekly lab meetings (optional)

Time commitment: 3-5 hours/week (minimum)

Qualifications:

• we are looking for reliable, and conscientious students with an interest in cognitive psychology, especially decision-making
• basic computer literacy is expected and advanced computer skills (e.g., programming) are desired
• prior research experience is not necessary
• applicants should be able to demonstrate they can work well as part of a team
• applicants should demonstrate desire to get involved with research

Benefits:

• gain experience working in a real psychology laboratory
• learn about the current state of scientific knowledge about human cognition, specifically as it pertains to decision-making
• participate in all aspects of research
• learn critical research skills (e.g., programming, statistical analysis)
• refine your oral and written communication skills

How to Apply: 
If you're interested in any of these positions, please send the following to Kaiden Stewart:

1. Cover letter describing why you want to work in the Reasoning and Decision-Making Lab
2. Resume/CV
3. Unofficial transcript

Volunteer RA Position - Winter 2021

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Winny Shen

Contact: Dr. K. Yourie Kim (ky8kim@uwaterloo.ca)

Project Overview: Our research investigates gender differences in attributions for successes and failures. In other words, do men and women differ in what they believe are the cause of their achievements or failures? For example, are women more likely than men to attribute their success on a final exam to luck? Are men more likely than women to attribute their failure on a project to poor effort?

We aim to investigate these questions through a meta-analysis. That is, we will statistically summarize the results of previous research on this topic to arrive at an overall conclusion about gender differences on attributions for successes and failures.

RA duties may include:

• Downloading journal articles
• Screening and coding articles
• Attending weekly team meetings

Time commitment: 5 – 10 hours/week
This position is a volunteer RA position

Qualifications:

• Superior attention to detail
• Highly dependable
• Ability to organize tasks and work within defined timelines
• Good communication skills
• Ability to work well with others
• Strong interest in research

Benefits include:

• Gaining applied research experience
• Developing knowledge of gender-related issues
• Learning important research and applied skills, such as information and file management and ability to extract key information from complex articles and reports

To apply: If you're interested in this position, please send the following documents to K. Yourie Kim (ky8kim@uwaterloo.ca) either as a PDF or Word document:

• Resume
• Unofficial transcript

Vision and Attention Lab

Dr. Daniel Smilek

Research Area:

Behavioural and Cognitive correlates of Performance Anticipation and Mind Wandering in undergraduate students.

Duties:

• Attendance at laboratory meetings and trainings​
• Recruiting and scheduling participants
• Running experiments with undergraduates
• Data collection, entry, coding, and management
• Literature search
• General laboratory maintenance

Time commitment: Approximately 8-10 hours per week for PSYCH 264/464 course or 3 - 4 hours/week for volunteer position.

Qualifications:

• Applicants must be hard-working, reliable, organized, and proactive learners, enthusiastic about learning cognitive neuroscience research practices
• Must be comfortable working in a team environment
• Must have a current average of minimum 80% in Psychology courses

Benefits: You will gain a great deal of hands-on experience using Excel, Word, Power Point, SPSS as well as E-Prime, and Python programming. This position will also refine your communication and interaction skills. This position is good preparation for an Honours thesis or future career in academic research or industry research and development

How to apply: Please send an email to Emilie Caron (eecaron@uwaterloo.ca) stating why you would like this position. Attached to this email should be your resumé/CV, a Fall class schedule/plan, and a copy of your unofficial academic transcript from Quest.

Memory & Cognitive Neuroscience Lab

Dr. Myra Fernandes

Duties: Preparing materials and stimuli for experiments examining memory abilities and function in undergraduate students, senior citizens, individuals with compromised cognitive ability; recruiting and scheduling participants, running experiments with undergraduates, possibility of assessing cognitive function in senior citizens, data collection, data coding, data entry and management, creation of graphs, drafting ethics applications, literature searches, general lab maintenance duties, attendance at lab meetings

Time commitment: Approximately 8 – 10 hours per week for PSYCH 264/464 course or 3-4 hours/week for volunteer position

Qualifications:

• applicants must be reliable, organized, enthusiastic and hardworking
• must be comfortable working with people of all ages, and in a team environment
• must have a current average greater than 78% in Psychology courses

Benefits: You will gain a great deal of hands-on experience using Excel, Word, Power Point, SPSS and E-Prime, as well as refine your Oral and Written communication skills; good preparation for a future career in academic research or industry research & development. You will have the opportunity to attend our lab meetings and learn about current research projects and approaches in our memory lab.

How to apply: Please send an email to Dr. Myra Fernandes (mafernan@uwaterloo.ca) stating why you would like this position. Attached to this email should be your resume/cv, a Fall and/or Winter class schedule/plan, and a copy of your unofficial academic transcript from Quest.

Volunteer RA

Social Psychology
Dr. Igor Grossmann (https://uwaterloo.ca/wisdom-and-culture-lab/)
Contact: Wisdom and Culture Lab at (wcl@uwaterloo.ca)

Research Areas: UW Wisdom and Culture lab examines factors that enable people to think and act wisely: How can individuals and groups adaptively resolve social conflicts? What factors foster wise reasoning? How are mental processes situated within a larger cultural context?

Duties: The RA’s will be responsible for data collection and data analysis, participant recruitment running experiments, coding data, and preparing materials for studies,

Benefits: Learn about all phases of Wisdom and Culture psychological research, and belong to a lab group dedicated to working within the field of social psychology

Time commitment: Roughly 6-10 hours a week

Qualifications: Applicants should be enthusiastic, organized, conscientious, and comfortable interacting with participants, with at least a 75% average in completed psychology courses. Prior research experience, particularly with running social psychology experiments, and using physiological measurement equipment (heartrate and respiration devices) would be an asset.

To Apply: Please email the lab at wcl@uwaterloo.ca with your resume, unofficial transcript, Spring term schedule, and please specify any relevant research or technical experience.

Volunteer RA or Psych 264/464 

Dr. Ian McGregor, Experimental Science of Human Motivations and Relations

Contact: Abdo Elnakouri, Graduate Student (abdo.elnakouri@uwaterloo.ca)

Research Areas: Motivation, Meaning, Self-Regulation

Duties: Online study programming, literature reviews, data entry, data collection, coding, participant recruitment and scheduling. Duties are subject to change. Although prior experience is preferred, training will be provided.

Benefits: Valuable laboratory work experience and skill development. For especially dedicated students, possible opportunities for further research and references are available.

Qualifications: We are interested in students who are motivated, dedication, conscientiousness, and passionate about research. Computer skills are a must and programming experience is an asset. Strong ability/desire to read and comprehend scientific literature.

Applying: Please go to this survey and fill out the required information: https://psychologyuwaterloo.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_1NdDS7hl58e1GKh

Volunteer RA or Psych 264/464

Dr. Hilary Bergsieker

Contact: digrlab@uwaterloo.ca

Research Areas: Intergroup trust and conflict; reducing bias based on race, gender, religion, sexual identity, or disability; field experiments on diversity and inclusion in STEM fields.  We ask: What conditions help our conversations, collaborations, and friendships with people from different backgrounds succeed? What steps can individuals (and institutions) take to overcome prejudice and repair trust in intergroup interactions?

Researcher assistants gain experience with both standard and advanced social psychological and social networking methods. Professor Bergsieker works directly with undergraduate research assistants, engaging them in the research process and providing personalized mentorship.

The time commitment is ideally 6-8 hours per week on average, with a minimum of 5 hours per week.

To apply, please complete the online application linked below. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, but if possible, please apply before the second week of the term when you hope to join our lab. Individuals from underrepresented backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.

https://uwaterloo.ca/diversity-intergroup-relations-lab/joining-lab/undergraduate-ras

Volunteer RA or Psych 264/464 - Volunteer RA or PSYCH 264/464

Dr. Abigail Scholer, Self-Regulation and Motivation Lab

Contacts: Emily Britton (e2britto@uwaterloo.ca), Abdo Elnakouri (abdo.elnakouri@uwaterloo.ca), Candice Hubley (cmhubley@uwaterloo.ca), Erik Jansen (e2jansen@uwaterloo.ca), Jessica Ross (jrross@uwaterloo.ca), or Katie Bain (ksbain@uwaterloo.ca).

Research Areas: Motivation, Goals and Self-Regulation, Communication, and Lay Beliefs.

Duties:

Basic:

• Manage participant recruitment and study schedules 
• Conduct online surveys, field studies and behavioural experiments
• Perform qualitative analysis (e.g., picture coding and linguistic analysis)

Optional depending on students’ interests:

•  Attend research training workshops (e.g. literature management, Qualtrics, SPSS)
• Review literature
• Develop your own research ideas and design studies
• Participate in biweekly research meetings/talks

Time commitment: Ideally 8 - 10 hours per week

Qualifications: 

• We need passionate and persistent students
• Other qualities: responsible, eager to learn, able to work in team and is organized
• Preferences will be given to students in psychology major program, who can make a long term commitment in the lab and have a future plan to apply for graduate school

Benefits:

• Working closely with psychology researchers and gaining hands-on research experience
• Job and graduate school application references
• Opportunity to develop your own research projects and present at academic conferences

To apply:
Please go to the below link and fill out your information:

https://psychologyuwaterloo.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7ORhdEY3Ho8GsMR

Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for a casual information interview shortly. If you do not receive our reply in a few weeks, probably it is because the vacancies for RAs are filled (we set a quota to ensure the quality of training). And if so, the application will be considered for your subsequent available semester.

Volunteer RA or Psychology 264/464 Position

Social Psychology
Dr. Joanne Wood
Contact: Zora Chen (z439chen@edu.uwaterloo.ca).

Research Areas: Close relationships, personality, emotion regulation

Duties: Participant recruitment, running experiments, data entry and management, coding data, preparing materials for studies, managing online studies

Benefits: Learn about all phases of social psychological research, and belong to a lab group dedicated to discovering more about relationships

Time commitment: 5-10 hours a week depending on the position and task

Qualifications: Applicants should be enthusiastic, organized, reliable, conscientious, and comfortable working with people, with at least a 75% average in completed psychology courses. Prior research experience, particularly with running social psychology experiments, would be an asset.

To Apply: Please email (z439chen@uwaterloo.ca) with your resume, unofficial transcript, Fall term schedule, and cover letter (please specify any relevant research or technical experience).