Undergraduate Research Assistant positions

Principal Investigator: Dr. Jonathan Oakman

Graduate student: Sarena Daljeet

Lab: 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:

Sarena Daljeet is investigating how common factors (e.g., the therapeutic alliance, emotional processing) develop within and between sessions of psychotherapy.

Qualifications for the volunteering position:

• We are looking for motivated and conscientious students with an interest in clinical psychology
• Minimum 80% average in their completed psychology courses (preference is given to students who can demonstrate academic excellence)
• Excellent verbal ability, good interpersonal skills

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
• 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)

***As of May 2025, we are not currently recruiting.

How to Apply:
Please feel free to send a CV,unofficial transcript, and 1-2 academic writing samples (ideally recent and from a psychology course) to pirtlab@gmail.com. When we are looking to recruit, you may be contacted. While we would like to respond to all applicants, we receive a very large volume of applications and it is not always possible.

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Sam Johnson

Lab: Decision, Inference, and Cognitive Economics (DICE) Lab

Contact: Dr. Sam Johnson, samuel.johnson@uwaterloo.ca

Research areas: Our lab works at the intersection of cognitive science, behavioural economics, and philosophy. We study how people explain the world, how those explanations shape our choices, and how those choices influence society. Recent topics of interest include moral psychology, mental models of economic institutions, decision under uncertainty, and how people prioritize tasks. We mainly use experiments but increasingly incorporate other methods such as qualitative research, computational linguistics, economic modeling, and computer simulation €”in our work.

Duties: We aim for undergraduate research assistants to be involved in many aspects of the research process, potentially including:

• Brainstorming research ideas and designing experiments
• Creating experimental stimuli and programming experiments
• Testing participants and coding behaviour/responses
• Statistical and qualitative data analysis (we can train you in R or SPSS)
• Computer simulations
• Attending weekly lab meetings

Time commitment: 5 hours/week (minimum)

Qualifications:

• We are looking for passionate, reliable, and conscientious students with an interest in cognitive science, economics, or empirical philosophy
• Prior research experience is not necessary; we welcome applicants from any major or year of study
• Basic computer literacy is expected; it is desirable to either have or be willing to learn advanced computer skills (e.g., programming)
• Applicants should have at least an 80% average in their completed psychology courses.

Benefits:

• Learn about and contribute to the cutting edge of cognitive and behavioural science
• Find out what it is like to do graduate school in cognitive psychology
• Collaborate on projects with our team, spanning different fields, universities, and countries
• Try out different aspects of the research process
• Potentially co-author scientific publications (many former undergraduates are co-authors on journal articles or conference presentations)
• Learn critical research skills (e.g., programming, statistical analysis)
• Potential to develop your own research projects
• Highly dignified lab mascot

How to apply:

Please visit the DICE lab website for details on how to apply.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Krista Kelly

Lab: Vision and Neurodevelopment Lab

Contact: Dr. Krista Kelly, krista.kelly@uwaterloo.ca

Positions available starting Spring 2026:

• Research apprenticeships (Psych 264/464)
• Honors thesis students (Psych 499)

Research: The VAN lab is located at the School of Optometry and Vision Science. Using multiple techniques (psychophysics, standardized assessments, eye tracking, body tracking), we investigate the consequences of childhood eye conditions such as amblyopia (lazy eye) and strabismus (eye turn) on:

• Eye movements
• Reading
• Motor Skills

Duties:

• Create and test experiments
• Attend weekly lab meetings
• Recruit and schedule participants
• Assist grad students with in-lab studies and data collection
• Analyze eye movement and body movement data
• General lab maintenance

Time commitment: Approximately 5-10 hours per week, depending on position

Benefits:

• Participate in all aspects of research
• Gain experience in child vision assessment and eye movements
• Experience working in a research laboratory
• Learn critical research skills (programming, design, data collection and processing, statistics)
• Potential opportunity to apply for graduate positions
• Potentially co-author abstracts and manuscripts

Qualifications:

• Highly-motivated, organized, reliable
• Able to work in a team
• Strong interest in research, and vision, and child development
• Passionate about working with children
• Preference given to those in the psychology major/honours program
• Research experience not necessary but an asset

How to apply: Please send the following documents to Dr. Krista Kelly (krista.kelly@uwaterloo.ca) and indicate the position and term you are applying for:

1. Resume
2. Unofficial transcript

Principal Investigator: Professor Sara Hart

Lab: Hart Lab

Contact: Dr. Sean McCarron, sean.mccarron@uwaterloo.ca

Research Areas: Developmental science, reading and math development, reading assessment, cognitive psychology, behavioural genetics, metascience

Job Summary:

The Hart Lab is a developmental science group at the University of Waterloo in search of a motivated Research Assistant interested in the science of reading. This position involves running in-lab behavioural and psycholinguistic studies (e.g., reading comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, and print exposure tasks), managing survey data collected from the local community, and contributing to the development of a large-scale text corpus of comic books. The Research Assistant will work closely with senior researchers to collect, process, analyse, and organise data that supports ongoing research on reading, language, and lexical diversity. Training will be provided for all project-specific procedures.

Duties:

• Assist in the development of testing materials and coding of studies using Qualtrics
• Run in-lab psycholinguistic experiments with adult participants, following established protocols
• Administer standardised behavioural tasks related to reading, vocabulary, spelling, and print exposure
• Assist with community-based reading surveys, including distributing surveys, receiving responses, and preparing data for analysis
• Code, clean, and organize behavioural and survey data into structured databases
• Conduct basic statistical analyses and data summaries using R (with guidance as needed)
• Contribute to the creation of a “comic book corpus” by digitizing graphic novels and managing text data
• Extract text from scanned materials using OCR tools and identify and correct errors using scripted and manual methods
• Participate in regular research team meetings to discuss findings and progress

Qualifications:              

• Strong understanding of psychological research methods and statistics
• Familiarity with experimental research methods and data collection in behavioural sciences
• Experience using R for data handling and basic analysis (training provided for project-specific tasks)
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative team
• Excellent time management and ability to meet deadlines

Assets:

• Experience with Python or other scripting languages
• Experience with Qualtrics
• Familiarity with OCR tools or text-based data processing
• Interest in reading research, psycholinguistics, or corpus linguistics
• Experience working on community-based research projects

Time Commitment: 6-8 hours per week on average, with a minimum of 5 hours per week.

To Apply:

Please send the following documents to Dr. Sean McCarron (sean.mccarron@uwaterloo.ca):

1. Resume/CV
2. Unofficial transcript
3. Term Schedule

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Igor Grossmann

Lab: Wisdom and Culture Lab

Contact: 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: Research Assistants 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 (heart rate and respiration devices) would be an asset.

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

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Hilary Bergsieker

Lab: Diversity and Intergroup Relations Lab

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?

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

Time Commitment: 6-8 hours per week on average, with a minimum of 5 hours per week.

How 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.

Faculty Supervisor: Neil Hester

Lab: Impressions Lab

Research Areas: person perception; stereotyping and prejudice; social cognition; perceptions of clothing and bodies

Benefits: Hands-on experience with various social psychological research methods, as well as ongoing education on current research in person perception and social cognition. (Learn how research works in a way that you can't through classes!)

Time Commitment: 4-6 hours per week

How to Apply: See specific instructions in the top section of the landing page of the Impressions Lab website.