Please select a class below to view the listings for Research and Fieldwork
| Faculty Sponsor: | Abramson, Paul |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | David Lick |
| Room Number: | Franz 4552C |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | david.lick@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Mate selection and sexual attraction in the absence of visual cues |
| Description of Research Project: | Many theories of mate selection and sexual attraction are based on visual cues. For example, reproductive strategies, fecundity, and status are all purportedly assessed through the visual system. It is the presumed conduit through which humans process sexuality-related cues. However, other theories of sexuality focus on physiological sensations (e.g., pleasure). According to these theories, visual cues gain dominance through pairing with neurophysiological events. One strategy for resolving this debate is to study humans who have lost their visual system; that is, people who are blind. Our study is the first of its kind to utilize this strategy. Adult subjects who have been blind since birth, and those who have lost their sight post-puberty, will be examined so as to better understand the ontology of their sexuality and sexual orientation. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants will work closely with a faculty member and a graduate student on all aspects of the study design. First, we need to collect a sizable sample of blind adults who are willing to participate in the study. Afterwards, we will need assistance constructing survey measures, collecting data, and analyzing data. Students with an interest in attending graduate school are especially encouraged to apply, as are those with an interest in human sexuality. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Adelman, Howard |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Perry Nelson |
| Room Number: | A631 Franz |
| Phone Number: | 825-3634 |
| Email: | nelson@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | School Mental Health Project/Center for Mental Health in Schools |
| Description of Research Project: | The project pursues theory, research, practice and training related to addressing mental health and psychosocial concerns through school-based interventions. To these ends, the Center works closely with school districts, state agencies, and organizations and colleagues across the country, providing support, materials and technical assistance. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students will assist in Center operations, working on a variety of activities including: library research, materials preparation, and data management. No prior research experience is needed, just a willingness to learn. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Asarnow, Joan |
| Department: | Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences |
| Contact Name: | Minh-Chau Do |
| Room Number: | 300 Medical Plaza, Suite 1524 |
| Phone Number: | 818-794-4962 |
| Email: | teens@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Reducing Health Risk Behavior and Improving Adolescent Health |
| Description of Research Project: | The aim of our study is to evaluate interventions for reducing health risk behaviors in adolescents with depressive symptoms. Health risk behaviors, such as smoking, drug and alcohol use, and unhealthy diet and exercise patterns contribute to significant disability, morbidity and mortality. Effective interventions for reducing health risk behavior in adolescents are important for preventing negative health consequences and improving both health and mental health outcomes. We are exploring the use of cognitive-behavioral health education interventions aimed at reducing health risk behaviors and promoting and maintaining positive health behaviors. Prior experience working with children and adolescents is desirable, though not essential. Training will be provided. This is an excellent opportunity for students interested in applying to graduate or medical schools. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students will have the opportunity to learn and gain experience in research involving youth and adolescents. Students will assist in screening of potential subjects, preparation of study materials, and data entry/analysis. We require a 3 quarter commitment. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Baker, Eva |
| Department: | Education |
| Contact Name: | Rebecca Buschang |
| Room Number: | |
| Phone Number: | 310-794-9174 |
| Email: | Buschang@cse.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Impact of Training on Content Knoweledge and Skills of Science Teachers |
| Description of Research Project: | If you are interested in learning about science teacher education or want to get experience with multiple phases of a research study this project might be of interest to you. The study examines the impact of short term science teacher training on content knowledge and skills related to judgments made about student understanding of natural selection. Teachers (approximately 75) will go through an online component and an in person component of training at UCLA about teaching natural selection. Teachers will also be pre and posttested. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Winter quarter only. Students who assist with this project will help with data collection in January and some data entry on specific days in January. They will also assist with coding of participant responses. Saturday/MLK Day availability a plus for data collection portion of study in January. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Bearden, Carrie |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Maria Jalbrzikowski |
| Room Number: | CHS B8-169 |
| Phone Number: | 310-936-7864 |
| Email: | mjalbrzikowski@gmail.com |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Neuroanatomic Predictors of Psychotic Symptoms in Adolescents and Young Adults with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome |
| Description of Research Project: | This research focuses on looking at specific neuroanatomic predictors that may contribute to psychotic symptoms in a neurogenetic disorder, 22q11.2 Microdeletion Syndrome (22qDS). 22qDS is a neurogenetic syndrome considered to be among one of the most common known genetic risk factors for the development of psychosis. Approximately 30% of adolescents and young adults that have 22qDS go on to develop a psychotic disorder. However, it is still unknown why only one third of the individuals with 22qDS develop a psychotic disorder and the others do not. The overall aim of this project is to identify quantitative, observable factors that indicate an increased risk for developing schizophrenia in 22qDS. Specifically, we will be looking at whether structural alteration in specific brain regions/networks accounts for variability in psychotic symptoms of 22qDS patients. We will be focusing on both structural magnetic resonance imaging (structural MRI), which examines gray matter brain structures, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which examines white matter structures. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Must be available to conduct research on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (6-8 hours a week). Must be able to attend a lab meeting from 12-1 PM on Tuesdays. Students would be involved in learning about the neuroanatomy of gray and white matter structures. Students would become proficient in making regions of interest (ROI) to identify specific neuroanatomic structures through programs used for brain analyses, such as FSL, MIPAV, or Multitracer. Students may also have the opportunity to learn Linux based commands and scripting. Other opportunities include attending lab meeting and conducting literature reviews. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Bearden, Carrie |
| Department: | Psychology/Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Maria Jalbrzikowski |
| Room Number: | CHS, B8-169 |
| Phone Number: | 310-825-3458 |
| Email: | mjalbrzikowski@gmail.com |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Social Cognition and Psychosocial Outcome in Adolescent-Onset Psychosis and Genetically and Clinically At-risk Youth |
| Description of Research Project: | This research project focuses on social cognition of individuals at ultra high risk for developing schizophrenia and adolescents who have already developed schizophrenia. This project looks two "high risk" groups: those who are "prodromal" and display a behavioral phenotype (i.e., attenuated positive symptoms) associated with conversion to schizophrenia and individuals who have genetic loci (i.e., 22q microdeletion syndrome) that may also lead to schizophrenia. The goal of this study is to examine whether social cognitive deficits in those experiencing clinical high risk symptoms are also seen in youth with genetically defined psychosis risk, and whether these impairments are qualitatively similar to those seen in adolescents with schizophrenia. Social cognition will be assessed using emotion identification and discrimination tasks and theory of mind tasks. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Psychology 196 students would be involved in helping to enter demographic, neuropsychological, and social cognition data. Students may also be asked to perform literature reviews and analyze data. There will be an opportunity to learn about neuropsychology, social cognition, and psychosocial outcome in these three clinical groups. Applicants should be able to attend a lab meeting from 12-1 PM on Tuesdays, make a two quarter commitment, and be able to volunteer for 6-7 hours a week. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Bearden, Carrie |
| Department: | Psychology/Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Maria Jalbrzikowski |
| Room Number: | CHS B8-169 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | mjalbrzikowski@gmail.com |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Neurocognition, Social Cognition, and Psychosocial Outcome in Youth at High Risk of Developing Psychosis |
| Description of Research Project: | This research project focuses on social cognition of individuals at ultra high risk for developing schizophrenia and adolescents who have already developed schizophrenia. This project looks two "high risk" groups: those who are "prodromal" and display a behavioral phenotype (i.e., attenuated positive symptoms) associated with conversion to schizophrenia and individuals who have genetic loci (i.e., 22q microdeletion syndrome) that may also lead to schizophrenia. We will be looking at thr ability of neurocognition and social cognition (i.e., emotion recognition, theory of mind tasks) to predict clinical symptomatology and/or real-world functioning. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Psychology 196 students would be involved in helping to enter demographic, neuropsychological,social cognition, functioning, and clinical symptomatology data. Students may also be asked to perform literature reviews and analyze data. If students are dedicated and show potential and motivation, there may also be a chance to learn how to use SPSS. There will be an opportunity to learn about neuropsychology (particularly scoring neuropsychological tests), social cognition, and psychosocial outcome in these three clinical groups. Applicants should be able to attend a lab meeting from 12-1 PM on Tuesdays, make a two quarter commitment, and be able to volunteer for 6-8 hours a week. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Bearden, Carrie E. |
| Department: | Psychiatry/Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Jennifer Ho /Carrie Bearden |
| Room Number: | Suite 1271, 300 MP ; B8-169 (lab) |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-2983 |
| Email: | cbearden@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://www.mrrc.npi.ucla.edu/mrrc/default.html |
| Title of Research: | NF1 as a Model for Therapeutic Neuroadaptation |
| Description of Research Project: | Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a valuable model for understanding mechanisms of cognitive disability, as it is a common genetic disorder (incidence 1:3000) that results from mutations in a single gene (Nf1) that encodes the neurofibromin protein. Specific learning disabilities are the most common neurological complication in children with this disease. The development of a mouse model of the disorder led to the key discovery that increased Ras activity is responsible for the learning deficits in NF1 (Costa et al. Nature Genet 2001). We have recently demonstrated that treatment with lovastatin, which acts as a potent inhibitor of Ras activity and is commonly used for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia, can reverse the biochemical, electrophysiological and cognitive deficits observed in a mouse model of NF1 (Li et al. Curr Biol. 2005). We now seek to extend these findings to studies in human subjects with NF1, to determine whether analogous changes in brain structure and function are observed following lovastatin treatment in humans. This research project is an exploratory treatment grant, which involves a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to study the effect of a 14-week lovastatin treatment on cognitive function of children and adolescents with NF1 using neurocognitive, behavioral, and neurophysiological outcome measures. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Psychology 196 students would be involved in helping to coordinate study visits for participants and their families, administering questionnaires to children with NF1 who are participating in the study, and data entry of neurocognitive and clinical data. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Bjork, Elizabeth |
| Department: | Psychology - Cognitive |
| Contact Name: | Colin Clark |
| Room Number: | 7626 |
| Phone Number: | 562-606-9379 |
| Email: | ctclark@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Becoming Sensitive to Generation |
| Description of Research Project: | What kinds of information do people use to guide their study? How and when does experience in one learning environment carry over into other situations? This project explores the processes by which people become better learners by focusing on the well-known (to psychologists) generation effect. Metacognitive and memory measures are taken in learning situations to determine the extent to which people are cognizant of different factors that may affect their memories, and whether this cognizance has an effect of its own. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants will be responsible for 1) running subjects, 2) coding and analyzing data, 3) attending weekly lab meetings, and 4) reading and understanding assigned research papers. In addition, RAs will complete a 5 page paper on a related topic. You'll be able to meet and work closely with other undergraduates, graduate researchers, and faculty. This lab is focused on the development of research skills, with the option for motivated RAs to design, run, and present on their own projects, with the ultimate goal of presenting at PURC (Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference). |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Bjork, Elizabeth |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Carole Yue |
| Room Number: | Franz 6573 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | caroleleigh@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Directed Forgetting |
| Description of Research Project: | Students constantly face the challenge of learning and remembering new information in addition to maintaining the knowledge already stored in memory. Instructions to forget certain information have been shown to have positive effects on new learning but at the expense of to-be-forgotten information. I am interested in how these "forget" instructions occur in classrooms and impact students. This project will explore how expectations of cumulative and non-cumulative exams give implicit forget instructions and affect student learning. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants will be responsible for approximately 5-6 hours in the lab, which will include 1) running subjects, 2) coding and analyzing data, 3) attending weekly lab meetings, and 4) reading and understanding assigned research papers. In addition, RAs will complete a 5 page paper on a related topic. You'll be able to meet and work closely with other undergraduates, graduate researchers, and faculty. This lab is focused on the development of research skills, with the option for motivated RAs to design, run, and present on their own projects, with the ultimate goal of presenting at PURC (Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference). |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Bjork, Elizabeth |
| Department: | Psychology -- Cognitive |
| Contact Name: | Colin Clark |
| Room Number: | Franz 7626 |
| Phone Number: | 562-606-9379 |
| Email: | ctclark@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://ucla.academia.edu/ColinClark |
| Title of Research: | The Role of Embodiment in Understanding Numbers |
| Description of Research Project: | Basic numeracy, or understanding what numbers are and how they function, is as essential to later success in mathematics as the ability to string letters together is to later literacy. While young children from lower-income families tend to lag in their development of numeracy, researchers have found that this can be remedied with a simple game. However, how does this game work? Specifically, what cognitive processes does it recruit to facilitate this greater understanding? This study evaluates a hypothesis, based on recent research in embodied cognition, that the movements children make in the game have a direct impact on their understanding. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants will be responsible for 1) running subjects at off-campus sites, 2) coding and analyzing data, 3) attending weekly lab meetings, and 4) reading and understanding assigned research papers. In addition, RAs will complete a 5 page paper on a related topic. You'll be able to meet and work closely with other undergraduates, graduate researchers, and faculty. This lab is focused on the development of research skills, with the option for motivated RAs to design, run, and present on their own projects, with the ultimate goal of presenting at PURC (Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference). |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Bjork, Robert |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Monica Birnbaum |
| Room Number: | Franz 7626 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | monicasb@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Optimizing Inductive Learning |
| Description of Research Project: | Acquiring and utilizing category knowledge is a crucial problem-solving skill. Our surroundings must be organized into smaller units or concepts in order for us to make sense of them and interact with them appropriately. It is thus important for us to understand the process of how we learn categories, also called inductive learning, and study how this process can be made more efficient. Inductive learning occurs when we are exposed to members of a category (also called exemplars) rather than told explicitly what defines a category. We are interested in optimizing inductive learning by manipulating exemplar study schedules as well as by other creative manipulations. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants will have to opportunity to 1) work closely with undergraduate peers, graduate students, and faculty, 2) learn to create and program experiments, 3) learn to analyze data, 4) learn about relevant research topics by reading and discussing research articles. RA's will be expected to attend two weekly meetings (one with the graduate student and one with the whole lab) and weekly journal club meetings. At the end of the quarter, RAs will complete a 5 page paper on the relevant research topic. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Bjork, Robert or Alan Castel |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Michael Cohen |
| Room Number: | Franz 6573 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | mcohen1@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/people.html |
| Title of Research: | Exploring Metacognitive Study Strategies in Learning |
| Description of Research Project: | I am generally interested in how people judge what they know and how they make use of that information to guide learning (or to make other decisions). One current line of research looks at how item value (assigned in terms of arbitrary point values) interacts with other factors that affect learning. Another line of research looks at whether people can appreciate benefits of spaced practice, a study strategy that usually improves long-term memory. I am also beginning a project examining what areas of the brain are involved in helping people to better remember high value items, in both young and older adults. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Your primarily responsibilities will include (1) Running subjects for up to 5 hours per week, (2) Assisting with data coding and data entry, (3) Attending weekly lab meetings and journal club sessions (~2 hrs/week), and (4) Reading articles assigned for journal club sessions (1 per week). If you are participating for credit, you will also need to write a 5 page paper at the end of the quarter about a topic relevant to our research. Note that we ask for a 2 quarter commitment. For motivated students, there are also opportunities to discuss the research with graduate students, present in lab meetings, help design new experiments related to ongoing research (potentially as a 199 or honors project), and to present your research (likely at UCLA's Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference, PURC). There may also be opportunities to assist with fMRI research in the future. This is a great opportunity for students who are potentially interested in graduate school. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Blaisdell, Aaron |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | David Wolvek |
| Room Number: | |
| Phone Number: | 818-523-9233 |
| Email: | david.wolvek@anderson.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Project Critical |
| Description of Research Project: | Project Critical is an exciting research project investigating learning processes, information-technology, and intelligence. More specifically we are studying how people learn computer programming languages and if there are temporal factors mediating the process. Research methods from cognitive psychology, computer science, intelligence-studies, and linguistics will be employed. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Help recruit research participants, assist in gathering data, assist in analyzing and interpreting data, and research of relevant literature. If qualified, may help run studies. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Castel, Alan |
| Department: | Psychology - Cognitive |
| Contact Name: | Mike Friedman |
| Room Number: | Franz 6586 |
| Phone Number: | 818-326-5678 |
| Email: | m.friedman@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://castel.bol.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Effects of Metacognition and Value on Memory in Aging |
| Description of Research Project: | In many situations, it is necessary to not only know certain information, but how confident or ‘sure’ you are that the information is correct. Such information is critical for many scenarios, including courtroom testimonies. Another important skill to have is the ability to parse out what information is vital for later events, and what information is unnecessary. This is a critical skill for students to acquire, as it can lead to beneficial modifications of study habits for exams. A majority of the research we conduct in our lab examines these two features of human thought, and how they change across the life span from early adulthood to later adulthood. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | We typically require two quarter commitment. The research assistant will be taught to schedule, test, and collect participants data for both younger and older adults. There are opportunities for motivated students to help design future experiments in this project (for honor projects or 199s). Students interested in graduate school are strongly encouraged to apply, as our lab has many opportunities for individual achievement for committed students, as well as the chance to work closely with graduate students and faculty. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Chorpita, Bruce |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Matthew Fierstein |
| Room Number: | Franz 3243 |
| Phone Number: | (310) 825-9445 |
| Email: | mfierst@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://www.childfirst.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Child STEPs Treatment Project |
| Description of Research Project: | The Chorpita Lab is currently focused on research related to improving the effectiveness of mental health services delivered to children and adolescents in the Los Angeles County Mental Health System. This project reflects our primary interests in the development of innovative treatments for anxiety, depression, and conduct problems that are suited to the diverse and unique communities in which our youth live and receive services. Our current work focuses on training and assisting mental health practitioners in implementing treatments supported by scientific research and consequently improving outcomes for youth and families engaging in mental health services. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | The Chorpita Lab requires a 3 quarter commitment. Students are required to complete 9 hours of work each week, which is composed of a one hour weekly research meeting, data processing and entry, and assistance to post-docs and graduate students. In the past, students have helped with assessments of children and families, helped with therapist trainings in the community, and worked with graduate students on research projects (some of which have resulted in posters and publications). Interested students should contact the lab manager (Matthew Fierstein) stating interest in the lab and attaching any relavant materials (CV, etc.) to the email. We look forward to meeting you and learning about how you might make a meaningful contribution to our team! |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Craske, Michelle |
| Department: | Psychology (clinical) |
| Contact Name: | Betty Liao |
| Room Number: | Franz A181 |
| Phone Number: | 310-923-8488 |
| Email: | betty08@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Mechanisms of Fear Extinction and the Inhibitory Regulation of Fear |
| Description of Research Project: | Fear conditioning processes account for the development of various anxiety disorders. Impaired inhibitory regulation of autonomic reactivity is speculated to predict impaired conditioning learning. The study aims to directly assess the degree to which state anxiety interferes with fear learning and inhibitory processes. Implications from the study will inform scientists about the etiology of anxiety disorders and enhance exposure therapy for the treatment of anxiety disorders. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Possible tasks include designing experimental stimuli, creating protocols, recruiting and running subjects, operating physiology equipment, participating in weekly meetings, doing literature searches, and data management and analysis. Only individuals who can commit at least 2 quarters will be considered. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Craske, Michelle |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Natalie Castriotta |
| Room Number: | A-243C |
| Phone Number: | 858-442-7592 |
| Email: | ncastriotta@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Measuring Avoidance in Anxiety: A New Objective Task |
| Description of Research Project: | The present study aims to create an objective and behavioral measure of avoidance behavior that measures individuals’ decision-making processes and willingness to take risks in exchange for rewards. The task will ask participants to play a game where they will view images of objects they are fearful of in exchange for reward incentives or points. The participants may choose to play higher levels of the game that have more arousing images of their feared objects, in exchange for greater amounts of points. Giving an incentive not to avoid feared objects creates an approach-avoidance conflict for the participant that is similar to the conflicts they face in the real world when they decide whether to avoid that could be rewarding for them. The study also aims to use this task to differentiate groups anxious individuals based on their level of avoidance behavior so that changes avoidance level throughout anxiety treatment can be used as a measure of treatment success and a predictor of future functioning. This task will be computerized and is designed to be used by researchers and clinicians as a tool to more precisely test changes in avoidance before and after treatment. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | We are looking for enthusiastic and responsible students who are interested in learning more about anxiety disorders and their treatment! Research Assistants will aid the principal investigator in building new and different versions of the study game, recruiting and scheduling participants, running participants through the experiment, data management, possible literature reviews, and other aspects of study management depending on student interest such as reading and discussing relevant research papers. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Craske, Michelle |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Emily Mischel |
| Room Number: | A191 |
| Phone Number: | (310) 825-9312 |
| Email: | emilyrmischel@gmail.com |
| Website: | http://anxiety.psych.ucla.edu/yep.php |
| Title of Research: | Youth Emotion Project |
| Description of Research Project: | The primary aim of this NIMH funded longitudinal study is to examine common and specific risk factors for anxiety and mood disorders during the transition from late adolescence to early adulthood. More specifically, we are interested in investigating whether neuroticism is a nonspecific risk factor for most, if not all, anxiety and mood disorders, whether specific risk factors have unique predictive validity above and beyond neuroticism, and whether there are diathesis-stress interactions. We are also examining how early life adversity, genetics, and personality disorders may contribute to the onset and maintenance of psychopathology. The participants are given annual diagnostic and life stress interviews (in addition to several questionnaires) in order to help predict the development of emotional disorders. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students will have the opportunity to be involved in many aspects of the study. Research assistants are responsible for scheduling participants for assessments, preparing materials for participants, and entering data. Research assistants are encouraged to attend our weekly research discussion meetings. This is an excellent opportunity for students looking to start gaining research experience, as research assistants will learn many valuable research skills and have extensive exposure to data and experimental methods. Eight hours per week commitment. Prefer availability through the summer, but it’s not required. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Dean, Andrew |
| Department: | Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Sarah Wilson |
| Room Number: | C8-620 |
| Phone Number: | 310-825-5839 |
| Email: | acdean@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://www.semel.ucla.edu/profile/andrew-dean |
| Title of Research: | Methamphetamine dependence and neurocognition |
| Description of Research Project: | This project attempts to estimate cognitive decline associated with methamphetamine dependence, and correlate this decline with structural brain abnormalities. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Maintain a call log for potential research subjects. Conduct phone screening with potential research subjects. Conduct in-person interviews with research subjects and collect behavioral data. Contact secondary schools to collect academic information. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Del'Homme, Melissa |
| Department: | Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences |
| Contact Name: | Alex Huston-Carico |
| Room Number: | Medical Plaza 300, Suite 1534 |
| Phone Number: | 310-825-6527 |
| Email: | ahcarico@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Pediatric Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD, and Tourette’s |
| Description of Research Project: | Our lab currently runs multiple child treatment studies to study and treat a wide range of psychiatric disorders. These studies include treating aggressive behaviors in ADHD with a combination of parent training and medication treatment, trigeminal nerve stimulation to treat ADHD, and examining the efficacy of several medications on different symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders including repetitive and social withdrawal behaviors. The RA will have ample opportunity to interact with children ages 5-21 with Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD, and Tourette’s. Our lab offers a unique union of psychiatry and psychology for those students who are interested in learning about research in these fields! |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | We are looking for enthusiastic, hard-working students who are interested in learning about the research process and child psychiatric disorders! The RA will be trained to administer vital signs including heart rate, blood pressure, height and weight, and EKG. The RA will also help facilitate study participant blood draws, assist in preparing for and running study visits, data entry and management, as well as some administrative/clerical tasks. We would like a 2 quarter commitment from any interested students. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Dunkel Schetter, Chris |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Ashley Nevin |
| Room Number: | 5461AB |
| Phone Number: | 310 206 8116 |
| Email: | dunkel@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://health.psych.ucla.edu/CDS/ |
| Title of Research: | Assorted Studies on Stress, Social Support and Health |
| Description of Research Project: | The primary project for fall quarter is related to a national network study of stress, resilience and allostatic load in young parents. A subset of audiotapes from community interviews with women who gave birth a few months ago will be transcribed. This sample is diverse in georgraphic region,ethnicity, race and income/education. The interviews concern stress in family, partner, parenting, and neighborhood domains as well as positive features of these domains. After transcription, the data will be coded to score chronic stress and other variables for data analysis. A total of 200 audiotapes is available for transcription. Other projects this fall include projects on postpartum depression; couple interactions; and social support. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Transcribing audiotapes using headphones into transcripts, coding transcripts (winter quarter), library research, reading and synthesizing research studies. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Eisenberger, Naomi |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Tristen Inagaki |
| Room Number: | 5567 |
| Phone Number: | 310-794-0057 |
| Email: | t.inagaki@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | An fMRI Study of Tactile Stimuli as a Safety Signal |
| Description of Research Project: | During times of need, having loved ones around can help ease the negative consequences of stress and distress. For example, previous research shows that having friends, family members, or romantic partners around during painful procedures can significantly reduce the pain experience. Similarly, the presence of loved ones during potentially threatening experiences can actually reduce the body’s natural threat response. Building on these findings, this study will explore the effect of physical touch from a loved one on the mind and body during a threatening experience. Participants will have their brain's scanned as they view negative images. They will then either hold the arm of a loved one, hold the arm of a research assistant, or hold another object. After the scan, participants will provide saliva samples to be used for genetic analyses. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Dedicated undergraduates interested in social neuroscience and/or health psychology. We are seeking highly motivated, professional, organized, and reliable students to help recruit and run participants. Ideally, the student is interested in going to graduate school in psychology, or doing some aspect of research in the future. This study will require at least a three-quarter commitment (one quarter of which will be spent getting safety certified at the imaging scanner) of 8 hours per week minimum. Male research assistants especially needed. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Eisenberger, Naomi |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Keely Muscatell |
| Room Number: | Franz 5437B |
| Phone Number: | 310.267.5196 |
| Email: | kmuscatell@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://web.mac.com/naomieisenberger/san/Naomi_Eisenberger_SAN.html |
| Title of Research: | Brain and Body Responses to First Impressions |
| Description of Research Project: | This project is a multi-disciplinary study examining how the brain and body respond to a social stressor. We are investigating how the immune system, stress axis, and genome change in response to stress, and if we can use the brain to help us determine who will show the biggest changes in these stress response systems. We are also interested in how individual characteristics, such as personality, self-esteem, social support, and socioeconomic status may influence neural and bodily responses to stress. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants must be available on either Tuesdays OR Thursdays from 12:30-4:00 to help run subjects, and must be willing to commit to working in the lab for Winter and Spring quarters. RAs will assist with subject running, including having participants give saliva samples and complete questionnaires. They will also help with data entry and cleaning, and session prep. Opportunities for greater involvement (data analysis, conference presentations, etc.) are open for discussion. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Eisenberger, Naomi |
| Department: | Psychology-Social |
| Contact Name: | Tristen Inagaki |
| Room Number: | Franz Hall 5567 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | t.inagaki@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://web.mac.com/naomieisenberger/san/People.html |
| Title of Research: | Relationships and Health |
| Description of Research Project: | Research has consistently demonstrated the importance of social ties for health. Typically, research has looked at social support’s beneficial effects on health when a recipient receives support. However, new research suggests that the act of giving support may be just as, if not more, important than receiving support. This study will examine the health effects of giving social support to a loved one in need. Couples will come to the lab to complete one of two challenging tasks and will then support each other. We will take saliva samples from these participants at multiple times points to later measure cortisol secretion, a hormone involved in stress and immune measures. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Undergraduates interested in social and/or health psychology. We are seeking highly motivated, professional, organized, and reliable students to help recruit and run participants. Ideally, the student is interested in going to graduate school in psychology, or doing some aspect of research in the future. This study will require at least a two-quarter commitment of 8 hours per week minimum. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Eisenberger, Naomi |
| Department: | Psychology - Social |
| Contact Name: | Janine Dutcher |
| Room Number: | Franz 5628 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | jdutcher@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Social Support and Threat |
| Description of Research Project: | We are interested in how social relationships, important values and emotions affect the way individuals address threat. More specifically, can a simple writing task have profound effects on how humans evaluate and manage threat and stress? This will be a two-part study with a behavioral component and eventually and neuroimaging component. Students interested in neuroimaging are encouraged to apply. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Student will be involved in multiple levels of the research process including interacting with participants, data collection, data entry and processing, and data analysis. Student will receive training for each of your responsibilities, and will learn about these various stages of research. Student will be asked to contribute eight hours per week to the project. Student must be organized, reliable and motivated. Minimum GPA required is 3.5. Must have taken 100B and be willing to commit to two quarters of research. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Evan, Elana E. |
| Department: | Pediatrics |
| Contact Name: | Elana E. Evan, PhD |
| Room Number: | 22-464 MDCC |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-1771 |
| Email: | eevan@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://www.uclahealth.org/cccp |
| Title of Research: | Biobehavioral Research in Children with Life-threatening Illnesses |
| Description of Research Project: | The Children's Comfort Care Program at the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital is home to an active biobehavioral research lab focusing on the care of children with serious illnesses. These are just a few examples of a variety of exciting, open projects with volunteer opportunities: • Pediatric Symptom Communication Study: The goal of this study is to understand children's experiences of physical, emotional, and psychological symptoms during serious illness and determine the extent to which parents and children agree about the symptom experience • Communication Intervention: Help facilitate the implementation of a communication intervention for children with serious illnesses and their parents • Healthcare Provider Education: Assist during educational presentations and the distribution of information materials to healthcare staff who work with seriously ill children; provide support to track progress and efficacy of educational interventions for healthcare providers |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | RESEARCH ASSISTANTS will be needed to: code qualitative interviews conduct literature reviews enter data assist in data management participate in related research and program development tasks ELIGIBILITY: completed Ψ100B or an equivalent research methods course must be responsible & detail-oriented submit a resume must work well independently & with a team volunteer at least 8-10 hrs/wk |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Fiske, Alan |
| Department: | Anthropology |
| Contact Name: | Alan Fiske |
| Room Number: | Haines 324b |
| Phone Number: | 310 265-9193 |
| Email: | afiske@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/fiske/ |
| Title of Research: | Flash animations to depict social relationships |
| Description of Research Project: | I have an exciting research opportunity for one or two undergraduates who are proficient with Macromedia Flash and interested in pioneering new methods for exploring how people perceive social relations. We have completed 17 studies on how people in very diverse cultures perceive simple spatial arrays of circles. People consistently and readily interpret particular spatial configurations as depiciting specific types of elementary social relationships. Now we want to test hypotheses about the social interpretations of moving circles. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | The student(s) responsibility will be to program simple Flash animations to depict basic forms of social relationships. Then the programmers and other researchers will pilot-test the animations to see how people interpret them. The animations will consist of circles moving in fairly simple scripted ways. We anticipate trying out 20 or 30 animations, eliminating some based on pilot testing, revising others, and so on until we have a set that work well. Solid experience programming in Flash is a prerequisite. Ideally, student programmers will continue with this research for 2 or 3 quarters. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Fox, Craig R. |
| Department: | Psychology & Anderson School of Management |
| Contact Name: | Emily Barkley-Levenson |
| Room Number: | Franz Hall 6573 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | ebarkley@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://fox-lab.org |
| Title of Research: | Research in Decision-Making |
| Description of Research Project: | Seeking two bright, energetic students to assist with research on decision making under risk and uncertainty. Projects include investigations of decisive versus indecisive behavior, likelihood judgment and risk-taking, strategic decision making from experience, communication of uncertain beliefs, and decision neuroscience. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Responsibilities include data collection and entry, assistance generating stimulus materials, data coding, online research. Preference for candidates open to making a full-year commitment. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Frankel, Fred |
| Department: | Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences |
| Contact Name: | Clare Gorospe |
| Room Number: | 300 Med Plaza |
| Phone Number: | 310-825-0142 |
| Email: | socialskillsUCLA@gmail.com |
| Website: | http://www.semel.ucla.edu/socialskills |
| Title of Research: | Social Skills Training for Children and Teens |
| Description of Research Project: | Our project seeks to assess effectiveness of parent assisted social skills training with children and teens (7-18 years of age) who have established deficits in making and/or keeping friends (including children and teens with Autism Spectrum Disorders or ADHD). Each week we instruct them on important elements of socialization (i.e., conversational skills; peer entry and exiting strategies; handling teasing, bullying, and rejection; changing bad reputations; choosing peers wisely; handling arguments and disagreements; and having appropriate get-togethers with peers). Separate parent and child/teen sessions are conducted concurrently for each week. Parents are taught how to assist their children in making and keeping friends by providing performance feedback through coaching during weekly in vivo socialization homework assignments. Kids are taught important social skills through didactic instruction, role-plays, and behavioral rehearsal during real play activities. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | The RA is needed to assist with our social skills interventions on Wednesday evenings. Research assistants will assist with preparing materials for intervention, conducting research fidelity during the group, assisting with behavior management, and providing performance feedback to children and teens through coaching during real play activities. In addition during the week the RA will assist with completing initial intake assessments with families—including helphelping administer/score assessments and keeping an up to date research database. We require a 2 quarter commitment. Must be available a couple of afternoons during the week as well as Wednesdays 4:30pm-8:00pm. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Freeman, Stephanny |
| Department: | Child Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Freeman, Stephanny |
| Room Number: | Semel Institute 78-222 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | SFreeman@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | |
| Description of Research Project: | The Early Childhood Partial Hospitalization Program is a short-term integrated day treatment program for young children who have been diagnosed with, or may have, autism, developmental disabilities, and behavior disorders. The program uses a comprehensive assessment plan including cognitive, academic, speech, and language, and behavioral observations upon admission. We then implement therapies individualized to the childs needs and carry out outcome assessments. The data collected is analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the interventions done during the child’s stay in the program. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students will be responsible for checking and entering data from these assessments taken at admission and discharge. You will be permitted to observe these assessments as well! As an assistant, you must be able to work independently and have some computer skills (we can train on statistical software). There will be opportunities available to volunteer in the classrooms with the children as well! If you do choose to volunteer in the classrooms, this time will be in addition to the 7 hours per week required weekly towards research for the 10-week quarter (minimum 72 hours required over the 6-week summer session). An optional seminar will be offered as well. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Fuligni, Andrew |
| Department: | Psychology/Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Melissa Chan |
| Room Number: | 1001 Westwood Blvd. |
| Phone Number: | 310-794-3642 |
| Email: | mchan28@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | The UCLA Study of Adolescents' Daily Lives |
| Description of Research Project: | A study of adolescents from Asian, Latin American, and immigrant backgrounds in which adolescents are asked to complete diary checklists every day for a period of two weeks. The focus is on how adolescents from different backgrounds balance the different demands from family, school, and peers in their daily lives. These adolescents will be followed two and four years after high school graduation. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students will assist with data coding, interview transcriptions, data entry, and tracking adolescents. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Fuligni, Andrew J. |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Cari Gillen-O'Neel |
| Room Number: | Franz 2327 |
| Phone Number: | 562-715-1673 |
| Email: | cari.gillenoneel@gmail.com |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Study of the Development of Implicit Social Cognition |
| Description of Research Project: | Ingroup bias is one type of intergroup attitude in which people prefer social groups (e.g., gender or ethnic groups) of which they are members over social groups to which they do not belong. Ingroup bias is either driven by ingroup positivity (holding more positive attitudes towards the ingroup than towards an outgroup), outgroup negativity (holding more negative attitudes towards the outgroup than towards the ingroup), or a combination of both. For many years, research on ingroup bias relied on explicit measures, measures in which participants directly reported their positive and negative attitudes towards their own and other groups. Recently, research has increasingly employed implicit measures, measures in which participants’ attitudes are inferred by their behavior. Given that implicit measures do not rely on self-reports, they can detect attitudes that people cannot or will not report (i.e., attitudes that people are either unaware of holding or attitudes that people do not like to admit holding; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998). Thus, implicit measures are particularly useful for assessing intergroup attitudes and bias, which may be subject to social desirability pressures, especially as the social climate of intergroup relations has changed over the last few decades. To date, however, research on implicit ingroup bias has relied almost entirely on a measure that cannot distinguish between ingroup positivity and outgroup negativity. Among adults, such a distinction may not be critical (Nosek & Banaji, 2001). Among children, however, intergroup attitudes are still developing, and ingroup positivity may have a completely different developmental trajectory than outgroup negativity. This is certainly the case when intergroup attitudes are measured explicitly; ingroup positivity develops relatively early, whereas outgroup negativity develops later, if at all (Aboud, 2003; Cameron, Alvarez, Ruble, & Fuligni, 2001). The present study seeks to examine the developmental trajectories of implicit ingroup positivity seperately from implicit outgroup negativity. Children (ages 6 to 10) and adults (for comparison) will participate. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | I am looking for RAs interested in working 7-10 hours/week for research credit. Initially, we will work on developing the studies (e.g., organizing references, making consent forms, designing the survey materials, etc). By the end of the quarter, we will actually recruit participants and run a pilot study. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Galvan, Adriana |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Eliza Congdon |
| Room Number: | Franz Hall 7437 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | econgdon@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | The Neural Correlates of Impulsivity and Risky Decision Making |
| Description of Research Project: | This study is designed to 1) pilot a series of experimental paradigms and 2) scan these tasks in a sample of healthy adult participants. The topic of this project concerns the relationship between individual differences in impulsivity and the relation to risky decision making processes. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Scheduling undergraduate student participants; administering questionnaires and experiments programmed in Matlab to participants; data entry and basic data analysis; and assisting with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans (which requires safety certification). There is the potential to help program additional tasks or future data analysis. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Glasner-Edwards, Suzette |
| Department: | Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Suzette Glasner-Edwards |
| Room Number: | Integrated Substance Abuse Programs |
| Phone Number: | 310-267-5206 |
| Email: | sglasner@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://www.uclaisap.org/ |
| Title of Research: | Evaluating Substance Abuse Treatment Outcomes |
| Description of Research Project: | In a series of clinical research projects, we are (1) developing new psychosocial and pharmacological treatments for substance abusers with concurrent mental illness; and (2) investigating clinical outcomes of patients enrolled in these, and other substance abuse treatment programs throughout California. In conducting these studies, we work closely with a variety of community substance abuse treatment programs in Los Angeles county as well as the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students will be involved in various aspects of the project, including data collection in substance abusing adults and youth ages 12-20, preparation of materials for submission to Institutional Review Boards of the Human Subjects Protection Committee of UCLA and the California state government, data entry and management, conducting literature searches, performing treatment program site visits, attending weekly staff meetings, scheduling of interviews with treatment providers, providing research support for presentations and papers, and assisting the Principal Investigator and Project Director in maintaining quality control in data collection.. These projects are ongoing and there are opportunities for extended involvement throughout the year. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Goff, Phillip Atiba |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Trevor Friedman |
| Room Number: | Franz 3323 |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-3438 |
| Email: | psjl.ucla@gmail.com |
| Website: | http://cple.psych.ucla.edu |
| Title of Research: | Policing and Social Justice Laboratory |
| Description of Research Project: | PSJL is a Social Psychology lab which deals with real, applied issues of social inequalities, with a focus on equity concerns in law enforcement (e.g., racial profiling, immigration policy reform, youth offenders, etc.). We hold weekly lab discussion sessions, provide research training, and allow for hands on research experience both in and out of lab. To see the types of work we do, go to: http://cple.psych.ucla.edu |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | If selected for PSJL, you will be asked to commit 8 or more hours per week to helping with PSJL related research projects. You must commit at least two quarters consecutively. You would gain valuable experience in all aspects of conducting research (e.g., developing research ideas and hypotheses, running participants, entering/coding data, analyzing/interpreting results, etc.). For some studies, you would even get an opportunity to travel either domestically or internationally to collect data on sight. Finally, you’ll get a chance to make new friends with people who are as engaged and interested in social issues as you! |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Holyoak, Keith |
| Department: | Psychology (Cognitive Area) |
| Contact Name: | Michael Vendetti |
| Room Number: | 7549 |
| Phone Number: | 860-538-7345 |
| Email: | michael.vendetti@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://reasoninglab.psych.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Analogical Reasoning and Induced Stress |
| Description of Research Project: | The overall goal of this project is to gain a better understanding of the behavioral implications of inducing state anxiety on healthy participants. Specifically, the effect that this induced state has on the central executive construct of working memory, as investigated through an analogical reasoning task. Interactions of state condition, level of relational complexity, and level of interference are of primary interest. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students will be instructed and involved in several phases of research, including literature search, experimental design, running of participants, and data analysis. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Holyoak, Keith |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Tage Rai |
| Room Number: | 6564 |
| Phone Number: | 404-313-3139 |
| Email: | trai1@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Moral Cognition |
| Description of Research Project: | RAs will assist in projects aimed toward understanding moral judgment and action, particularly in regard to evaluations of fairness. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Responsibilities will include running participants, working as confederates, entering and analyzing data, etc. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Huo, Yuen |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Yuen Huo and/or Natalia Flores |
| Room Number: | 4427 Franz Hall |
| Phone Number: | 310-794-5305 |
| Email: | huo@psych.ucla.edu and/or natalia.flores@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://huo.bol.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Social identity and Psychological Well-Being |
| Description of Research Project: | Social identities (attachment to group memberships) are an important part of individuals’ sense of self. In the SOCIAL RELATIONS LAB (SRL), we are conducting a series of experiments to understand how people respond to positive and negative social evaluations of self-relevant identities. How do social evaluations affect one’s sense of emotional and physical well-being? What are some possible psychological mechanisms that can protect against the impact of negative feedback? |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | RA responsibilities We are looking to assemble a team of energetic undergraduate researchers to assist with all phases of a series of lab-based experiments. Responsibilities may include: 1) providing feedback on the study stimuli; 2) pilot testing study questions; 3) recruiting study participants; and 4) running the experiment. RAs are invited and encouraged to attend weekly meetings of the UCLA Social Relations Lab. For more information, please visit the lab’s website: http://huo.bol.ucla.edu/. Because of the training involved, we strongly encourage a minimum of a two-quarter commitment. If you are interested in working with us on this project, please visit our lab webpage to download an RA application. Once the application is completed please email it to Professor Yuen Huo and/or doctoral candidate, Natalia Flores. We will contact you as soon as possible. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Jentsch, David |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Jentsch, David |
| Room Number: | 8441B Franz Hall |
| Phone Number: | 825-8258 |
| Email: | jentsch@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Molecular Mechanisms of Cognition |
| Description of Research Project: | My laboratory is pursuing a greater understanding of mechanisms that control higher order cognitive processes, including attention, working memory and executive control. People affected by psychotic and addictive disorders exhibit substantial impairments in these cognitive domains because of molecular adaptations within discrete brain regions. We want to understand what molecular machinery is required for cognition, how molecular adaptations lead to the expression of cognitive deficits in patient populations and how drugs that act on these mechanisms may serve to enhance cognition. Using animal (mostly mouse) models, we are investigating these molecular mechanisms, hoping that our efforts will prove useful for understanding (and ultimately, treating) the behavioral deficits in patients. On-going projects in the laboratory involve studying attentional and cognitive function in mutant mice that carry schizophrenia-risk genes or other genetic abnormalities within specific neurotransmitter pathways. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Rodent behavioral testing; solution preparation and animal injection; data management and analysis. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Jesse Rissman |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Natalie De Shetler |
| Room Number: | 8547 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | ngdeshetler@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://rissmanlab.psych.ucla.edu |
| Title of Research: | Examining how neural reactivation of past experiences supports memory-based predictions |
| Description of Research Project: | I am looking for a volunteer research assistant to help with designing and conducting a new research project. The project will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to decode the categorical content of memory and specify the brain areas involved in detecting when the environment mismatches one's memory-based expectations. I'm currently looking for an RA to assist with the behavioral components of the study, but the RA would likely have the opportunity to assist with fMRI data collection as the study progresses. The position is available starting immediately, and Psych 196 credit will be available next quarter. The position is perfect for someone interested in going to grad school, as you will have the opportunity to be involved with multiple stages of a cognitive neuroscience research project. Interested students should send a cover letter and CV to Natalie De Shetler at ngdeshetler@ucla.edu |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Editing and reformatting visual stimuli, organization of stimulus lists, scheduling subjects, conducting behavioral testing sessions, data entry and organization. Experience with Matlab and Adobe Photoshop or similar preferable, but not required. I am looking for an RA that can commit for at least 3 quarters, and put in ~8-10hr/wk. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Juvonen, Jaana |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Alyson Nakagawa |
| Room Number: | 2322 Franz Hall |
| Phone Number: | (808) 542-5801 |
| Email: | nakagawa.MSDP@gmail.com |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | The UCLA Middle School Diversity Project |
| Description of Research Project: | The purpose of this research is to test a set of interrelated hypotheses about the psychosocial benefits of racial/ethnic diversity in urban middle schools. It is hypothesized that greater diversity can benefit students’ mental health, intergroup attitudes, and school adaptation via three mechanisms: (1) decreases in perceived vulnerability, (2) the formation and maintenance of cross-ethnic friendships; and (3) the development of complex social identities. These hypotheses will be examined in a 3-year longitudinal study of approximately 7,200 6th grade students as they enter one of the 24 urban middle schools in southern California. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | We are looking for a team of ethnically diverse students who can commit to 8 hrs/week and are available for at least 2 morning and/or 2 afternoon sessions of data collection. Students are also required to attend weekly lab meetings. The main responsibility will be to collect psychosocial, behavioral, and academic data from ethnically diverse 6th grade students in Los Angeles area public schools. Other tasks include preparation for data collection, subject recruitment and retention, and data entry. Opportunities for continued involvement on the project (i.e., beyond one quarter) are available. Please contact the Project Manager if interested. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Kasari, Connie |
| Department: | Education |
| Contact Name: | Amanda Gulsrud |
| Room Number: | NPI&H 78-239 |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-1268 |
| Email: | AGulsrud@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Optimizing Social and Communication Outcomes for Children with Autism |
| Description of Research Project: | Two different research projects are currently being conducted. The first project is a school-based social skills intervention study targeting children with autism in first- fifth grades. This is a randomized intervention trial examining the effectiveness of several different social skill intervention models for elementary school-aged children with autism. The second project examines caregiver-mediated interventions targeting social and communication outcomes for toddlers with autism. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Both research positions consist of coding behavioral observations and date entry. The student may also observe and learn about assessments during the intervention visits. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Kellman, Phil |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Gennady Erlikhman |
| Room Number: | Franz 2349 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | gennady@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | 3D shape perception and perceptual organization |
| Description of Research Project: | Positions are open for several projects: 1) 3D shape perception: How do we put together fragments of objects in 3D to perceive a complete figure? For example, if you see a squirrel running through branches, you're perceptual experience is of a whole animal, not of moving squirrel bits even though you only see parts of the squirrel at any given time. We are testing a mathematical model based on contour integration and interpolation that predicts the conditions under which object fragments can be unified. 2) Expertise in fingerprint matching: Most fingerprint identification is still performed by experts and not machines. We are interested in learning how people become experts and what information is important and extracted from fingerprints. This is one example of a complicated perceptual learning and organization problem that humans do extremely well, but that we know very little about. 3) Spatio-temporal boundary formation: Many people are familiar with the classic Kanizsa triangle illusion where a white triangle is perceived on a white background surrounded by 3 "pac-men" figures, even though the boundaries of the triangle are not specified. While there has been much work investigating the conditions of illusory contour formation, most models fall short of a complete account. In our experiment, in an array of randomly placed black dots on a white background, a shape can be specified by a particular sequence of dot flashes. This is an interesting case because the dots have no edges (unlike the pac-men), but a contour is still perceived. By investigating the dynamics of this special illusion, we hope to shed some light on the more general process of illusory contour perception. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | For all projects, students will be expected to run subjects, collect data and maintain the database. If students are familiar with or interested in learning Matlab, they can assist in analyzing the data, planning and even coding future experiments. RAs will be asked to read a few papers to familiarize themselves with the research. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Kellman, Philip |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Clara Sao |
| Room Number: | 2349 Franz |
| Phone Number: | (310) 825-4202 |
| Email: | csao@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://kellmanlab.psych.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Adaptive Learning Technology in Chemistry |
| Description of Research Project: | Computer-based learning activities offer great potential to adapt the flow of learning events to optimize progress for each individual. Can adaptive learning algorithms that dynamically sequence learning items result in improved efficiency for factual learning and pattern recognition? The current study is concerned with community college students learning basic chemical nomenclature and will examine if adaptive sequencing based on accuracy, speed, and retirement criteria, produce learning outcomes superior to traditional classroom methods. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants would help in the collection of data by grading assessments, data entry, and general office work for at least 5 hours per week and will have the opportunity to participate in all aspects of research, including literature search, study design, experimental design, and data analysis. Successful completion of chemistry 14A-C or 20A is preferred but not required. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Kellman, Philip J. |
| Department: | Psychology - Cognitive Science |
| Contact Name: | Everett Mettler |
| Room Number: | Franz Hall 6530 or 2349 |
| Phone Number: | 310/825-4202 |
| Email: | mettler@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://kellmanlab.psych.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Perceptual Learning: Teaching with Computers |
| Description of Research Project: | How do learners get better at searching, organizing and interpreting their visual world? Do the same processes that underlie perception of movement in sport, discovery in art, facility with puzzles and other forms of visual expertise also underly such practical skills as fluency in mathematics or proficiency in medical diagnosis? The current study is concerned with basic research in perceptual learning and object recognition. In addition we attempt to isolate and train visual skills using computer software that dynamically adapts to a learner's mental state. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants would help in the collection of data by running subjects at least 5 hours per week. Opportunities would be provided for assistants to collaborate in the generation of new experiments, analysis of data, and independent research. Experience with programming is a plus, but not required. Psych 120A&B are highly recommended. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Kellman, Philip J. |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | KP Thai |
| Room Number: | 6530 or 2349 |
| Phone Number: | 310/825-4202 |
| Email: | kpthai@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://kellmanlab.psych.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Perceptual learning in real-world contexts |
| Description of Research Project: | How do we learn to discover and encode abstract relations in complex, real-life domains, such as math, science and language? What are the effects of this kind of abstract perceptual learning on basic information processing? We will explore these questions in a series of studies. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants will have the opportunity to participate in all aspects of research, including literature search, study design, running participants, and data analysis. There is a minimum commitment of 2 quarters. For the current project, research assistants with knowledge of Chinese characters are preferred. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Knowlton, Barbara |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Jessica Walker |
| Room Number: | Franz Hall 6570 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | jwalkere@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Causal Learning: Implicit or Explicit? |
| Description of Research Project: | Identifying implicit and explicit elements of causal learning. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Create experimental stimuli, program experiments, and run participants for a behavioral learning study. There will be opportunities to get more involved with the research if interested. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Langley, Audra |
| Department: | UCLA Semel institute |
| Contact Name: | Jennifer Zelaya |
| Room Number: | |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | jzelaya@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Intervention for Elementary School Children Exposed to Traumatic Events |
| Description of Research Project: | The study includes several phases throughout a five-year span. We are currently in phase 3 where we are pilot testing the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of the CBT intervention for elementary school students exposed to traumatic events as delivered by school staff. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants will help with various aspects of the study including data entry, coding of audiotapes, and preparing study materials for participants. No prior research experience is necessary, just a willingness to learn. Being detail oriented and timely is a must. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Lau, Anna |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Alison Hu |
| Room Number: | 1243A |
| Phone Number: | 310 206 5294 |
| Email: | laulab@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://laulab.psych.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Adjustment in Immigrant and Minority Families |
| Description of Research Project: | Studies run by this lab are geared toward understanding the experience of Asian American families. The LIFe study is primarily concerned with the maintenance of the heritage language within Chinese immigrant families. The DCAT study looks into the parenting practices of troubled Chinese families through providing a treatment program- The Incredible Years Series. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students who seek to understand the ins and outs of conducting research are welcome! This lab provides a diverse range of responsibilities through which to get your feet wet. Not only would the day to day lab tasks, such as data entry, be part of the repertoire, you will also be exposed to behavioral coding, conducting interviews, and even childcare. This lab is especially inclined to accept Chinese-speaking students. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Lau, Anna |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Alison Hu |
| Room Number: | 1243a Franz |
| Phone Number: | (310) 206-5363 |
| Email: | laulab@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://laulab.psych.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Language in Immigrant Families (LiFe) Study |
| Description of Research Project: | This study focuses on the process by which children in immigrant families retain or lose their ability to communicate in their native or heritage language (HL). In particular, we study how HL loss may be related to parent-child relationships. We will interview and follow a sample of children of Chinese-American immigrant parents. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students may be involved in various activities appropriate to their interests and level of experience. Duties may include: interviewing and interacting with parents and children, data entry, basic data management and analysis, library research, attending weekly lab meetings. We are currently seeking students with an interest in culture and families. Bilingualism (Mandarin, Cantonese) is preferred but not necessary. Students with means for off-campus transportation are highly preferred. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Lau, Anna |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Jenny Y. Louie, M.A. |
| Room Number: | A260C Franz |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | j.y.louie@gmail.com |
| Website: | http://laulab.psych.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Understanding Cultural Differences in Affect in Early Childhood |
| Description of Research Project: | This study focuses on the process by which children learn to value some emotions over others. In particular, we study how children’s emotion regulation in everyday activities may be related to parents’ values about emotion. A sample of European American and Asian American children from UCLA preschools will participate in positive and negative emotion eliciting tasks and their parents will complete questionnaires. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students may be involved in various activities appropriate to their interests and level of experience. Duties may include: interacting with children, data entry, basic data management and analysis, library research, attending weekly lab meetings. We are currently seeking European American and Asian American students (preferably bilingual in Mandarin or Cantonese) with an interest in culture and families. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Lau, Anna |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Stella Tsang-Li |
| Room Number: | 1243A |
| Phone Number: | 310 206 5294 |
| Email: | laulab@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://laulab.psych.ucla.edu/ |
| Title of Research: | Meeting the Needs of Asian American Students at CAPS (CAPS) Study |
| Description of Research Project: | This study attempts to better understand Asian American college students at UCLA's Counseling & Psychological Services(CAPS)in order to design and expand mental health services tailored for the needs of Asian American students. This study is a join collaborative effort between Psychology Department and CAPS.A sample of Asian American students at UCLA will be interviewed. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students may be involved in various activities appropriate to their interests and level of experience. Duties may include: coding videotapes of interview, transcription, data entry, library research, attending weekly lab meetings. This research experience would be appropriate for students with an interest in culture, families, and mental health treatments. Students who are experienced in research are preferred. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Lau, Anna |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Stella Tsang-Li |
| Room Number: | 1243A |
| Phone Number: | 310 206 5294 |
| Email: | laulab@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://laulab.psych.ucla.edu |
| Title of Research: | Adaptation of evidence based parent training in SF's Community Behavioral Health Services (SF IY) Study |
| Description of Research Project: | The goal of this collaborative study is to produce greater understanding of the types of practices which are appropriate cultural adaptions of evidence-based parenting interventions for Asian American, Latino American, and African American families in publicly-funded community mental health services. The findings from this study will be used to provide clinicians with a clearer idea of the types of adaptations being used across diverse cultural groups, appropriate rationales for future changes to the curriculum. Participants will include up to 30 clinicians recruited from agencies of the San Francisco Department of Public Health Community Behavioral Health Services. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students may be involved in various activities appropriate to their interests and level of experience. Duties may include: coding the interview videotapes, data entry, transcriptions, basic data management and analysis, library research, attending weekly lab meetings. We are currently seeking students with research experience and an interest in culture and families . Bilingualism (Spanish or Mandarin/Cantonese ) is highly preferred. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Lau, Anna |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Stella Tsang-Li |
| Room Number: | 1243A |
| Phone Number: | 310 206 5294 |
| Email: | laulab@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://laulab.psych.ucla.edu |
| Title of Research: | Cambodain American Youth and Families in Long Beach, CA |
| Description of Research Project: | The goal of this study is to study the transmission of trauma from first generation Cambodian refugee parents to their children. This study will be conducted in conjunction with staff from the Long Beach-based non-profit organization, Khmer Girls in Action(KGA). We are interested in identifying the family processes that contribute to intergenerationl transmission of trauma among Cambodian adolescent between ages of 13 to 19 years. A sample of 48 Cambodian will be participate in this study. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students may be involved in various activities appropriate to their interests and level of experience. Duties may include: coding videotapes of interviews, transcriptions, data entry, library research, attending weekly lab meetings. This research experience would be appropriate for students with an interest in culture, families, and mental health treatments. Students who have experience in research are preferred. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Lau, Anna |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Shu-wen Wang |
| Room Number: | 2258D Franz Hall |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | shuwenwang@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Social Support, Values, and Health Study |
| Description of Research Project: | RAs wanted for Spring Quarter Experiment on Social Support, Values, and Health! I'm an advanced graduate student in Clinical Psychology in Anna Lau's lab. I'm recruiting 3-4 RAs to join my team for an experiment looking at social support, values, and health. The RAship provides an interesting experience with experimental and health psychology methods that includes administering a fun stress task, running participants through the experimental protocol, and coding and organizing data. This is a great introductory training experience for students interested in grad school, and I provide mentoring on grad-school related concerns. We are a very friendly, fun, and cohesive team! The RAship is for Spring Quarter, but there are future opportunities to work on other experiments on social support over the summer as well. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | RAs MUST: Be able to commit 8 hours per week to the RAship (either volunteer-basis or for 196/199 units) Be White/European American/Caucasian (for experiment-related purposes) Have significant afternoon availability to be considered for the team --- students who have at least 2 afternoons available each week are preferred. Be responsible, detail-oriented, hard-working, and pleasant to work with. Interested students should email their degree progress report and a resume/CV to shuwenwang@ucla.edu. We will schedule a brief interview so that we can determine if this will be a good fit. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Lau, Anna S. |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Alison Hu |
| Room Number: | 1243A Franz |
| Phone Number: | (310) 206-5363 |
| Email: | laulab@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Developing Culturally Appropriate Treatments for Asian American Families |
| Description of Research Project: | As communities become more diverse, it has become increasingly important to understand how our evidence-based mental health treatments can be adapted to meet the needs of individuals from culturally distinct backgrounds. The objective of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of a parent education program that has been tailored to meet the unique needs of an immigrant community. This treatment is based on an evidence based program, but has been augmented to address risk factors for disrupted parent-child relations in immigrant Chinese American families. Trained clinicians will be implementing the program in community clinics and schools. 40 Chinese American families will be assigned to immediate and waitlist control treatment groups. Treatment outcomes will be evaluated using pre-, post-, and follow-up assessments of parenting, parent-child interactions, and parent and child adjustment. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students may be involved in various activities appropriate to their interests and level of experience. Duties may include: conducting interviews with participating parents and children, child care during parenting groups, coding videotapes of parenting groups, data entry, library research, attending weekly lab meetings. This research experience would be appropriate for students with an interest in culture, families, and mental health treatments. Students who are bilingual in either Mandarin or Cantonese Chinese, and students with access to a car are preferred. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Lieberman, Matt |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Stephanie Vezich |
| Room Number: | 5567 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | isvezich@ucla.edu |
| Website: | scn.ucla.edu |
| Title of Research: | Information DJs: How buzz spreads among individuals |
| Description of Research Project: | This study is a behavioral experiment that examines how information spreads from person to person. In particular, we will examine how knowing that someone is interested in a particular topic affects how you encode, remember, and communicate information about that topic. For instance, when reading a news article, we of course pay special attention to the details that we personally find interesting. However, we may also key in on parts that we know our friends could be interested in, motivating us to remember these details so that we may later tell our friends, be it in person, via phone or text, or online. We are interested in investigating these social motivations to remember and share information. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | We are looking for a highly interested student who is organized, motivated, and reliable. Ideally, the student is interested in going to graduate school in psychology or doing research in the future. This study will require a quarter commitment of 6-8 hours per week minimum. The research assistant will run experiments and interact with research participants, as well as enter, check, and analyze data. Depending on the students interest and duration of involvement, it may be possible to become involved in brain scanning (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and data analysis procedures, as well as additional research projects. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Liu, Zili |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Zili Liu |
| Room Number: | Franz Tower 7619 |
| Phone Number: | 310 267-4683 |
| Email: | zili@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Visual motion perception with patients and control participants |
| Description of Research Project: | The purpose of this project is two-fold: 1) To investigate how basic motion perception is accomplished by the visual brain. 2) To understand how motion is (mis)perceived by patients of mal debarquement syndrome and their age-matched controls. Mal debarquement syndrome refers to a motion dizziness sensation as if one has just returned to land after a stormy boat trip. This syndrome is little understood, and we are teaming up with UCLA medical scientists to study motion perception behavior and, in the future, with brain imaging (fMRI). |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Scheduling via www and conducting behavioral motion perceptual experiments with undergraduate student participants. Helping conduct behavioral motion perceptual experiments with patients and their age-matched controls. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Liu, Zili |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Dr. Zili Liu |
| Room Number: | Franz 7619 |
| Phone Number: | 310-267-4683 |
| Email: | zili@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Visual Object Recognition |
| Description of Research Project: | This National Science Foundation sponsored research investigates how the brain encodes into memory visually perceived scenes and objects (e.g., faces). Counter-intuitive predictions, with promising pilot data, will be tested. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Responsibilities include scheduling experiments on experimentrix, conducting the experiments, and debriefing the participant after each experiment. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | London, Edythe |
| Department: | Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Sarah Wilson, M.A. |
| Room Number: | Semel Institute, C8-528 |
| Phone Number: | 310-794-9756 |
| Email: | sawilson@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Center for Addictive Behaviors, Student Research Assistant Project |
| Description of Research Project: | The mission of our lab is to discover fundamental mechanisms that link addictive disorders (cigarette smoking, drug abuse) and their behavioral correlates with neurochemical phenotypes and genotypes in healthy individuals and in those who suffer from neuropsychiatric diseases. For this purpose, noninvasive brain-imaging techniques, including positron emission tomography (PET), and structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are applied in studies of human subjects. The Laboratory’s work is comprised of research on the biological basis of addictive disorders, and the development of new probes for noninvasive imaging, including methods to visualize gene expression. The emphasis of this project is to understand how human research is conducted in a clinical setting. This includes participating in the recruitment and retention of research participants, opening and obtaining informed consent, determining study eligibility, data collection, entry, and management, and understanding good clinical research practices. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | • Assist with the management of subject recruitment and enrollment through various advertising methods including researching and coordinating advertisements for several studies. • Create weekly recruitment and study progress reports to senior, scientific staff • Conduct phone screenings for participant recruitment. • Explain protocol and review consent form with potential participants (engage participants in process of informed consent). • Complete intake screenings with potential participants. • Collect and test participant breath and urine samples. • Complete daily questionnaires and urine testing with inpatient subjects each morning and on some weekends. • Administer neurocognitive (i.e., WTAR, Shipley Hartford) assessments. • Schedule and coordinate study visits (i.e. intake screenings, SCID, cognitive testing, MRI and PET scanning sessions, etc.). • Schedule testing rooms for participant visits, including interfacing with GCRC for inpatient room reservations and UCLA Brain Mapping Center (BMC) for scanning sessions. • Conduct data entry and scoring for screening questionnaires, psychological measures, neurocognitive batteries, and breath and urine assays. • Maintain project subject enrollment and identification key, binders, and medical charts. • Maintain study materials necessary for all project visits. • Ensure tracking of completed study procedures and tailor recruitment to meet the needs of investigators and meet study goals in an efficient and timely manner. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Lu, Hongjing |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Alan Lee |
| Room Number: | Franz 6550 |
| Phone Number: | 3102064187 |
| Email: | alanlee@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://cvl.psych.ucla.edu/index.htm |
| Title of Research: | Motion Adaption |
| Description of Research Project: | This project aims to study how the human visual system processes motion information as we see different kinds of motion in the dynamic visual environment. Specifically, we are interested in how scattered motion signals are integrated in our visual system and how our visual system can be adapted to different kinds of motion signals. Combining psychophysical experiments with computational models, we hope to understand how different motion patterns are represented and processed in the human mind. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students will be involved in conducting experiments, data collection and organization. Students also have the opportunity to aid in the design of new experiments and the development of computational models. Students are encouraged to be involved in the new experiments for the preparation for the Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference (PURC) at UCLA. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Minor, Thomas |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Dr. Minor |
| Room Number: | 6451B FH |
| Phone Number: | 825-3611 |
| Email: | minor@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Major Depression |
| Description of Research Project: | Purine cytokine interactions in major depression on rodents. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | The student will be involved to all aspects of research, from stereotaxic surgery to behavioral testing. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Minor, Thomas |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Dr. Minor |
| Room Number: | 6451B FH |
| Phone Number: | 825-3611 |
| Email: | minor@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Stress Resilience |
| Description of Research Project: | This project examines whether stress resilience can be trained. Preliminary data indicates that repeated exposure to mild stress with interpolated rest dramatically increases the resistance to the damaging effects of traumatic stress. This project is determining the parameters of this type of stress resilience and related changes in anabolic hormones and neuropeptide Y. This project is excellent training for students interested in graduate school in neuroscience and psychobiology or medical school. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students are involved in all aspects of the project. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Mistry, Rashmita S. |
| Department: | Education |
| Contact Name: | Kirby Chow |
| Room Number: | |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | kirby.chow@gmail.com |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Homeless Children’s Educational Outcomes |
| Description of Research Project: | This study examines homeless children’s educational outcomes. In particular, we are interested in how families and schools can help protect children from some of the negative impacts of being homelessness. We will be recruiting children (ages 6-12) and their parents from two local family homeless shelters. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | We are recruiting students interested in volunteering and working with disadvantaged children and gaining strong research experience. Duties include: interacting with children and families at the shelters, piloting questionnaires, interviewing children and parents, basic data management, data entry, and attending weekly lab meetings. Students who are Spanish bilingual and who have access to a car are preferred. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Nelson, Linda |
| Department: | Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences |
| Contact Name: | David Crawford |
| Room Number: | C8-749 |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-8100 |
| Email: | lnelson@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Progression of Alzheimers disease in Down syndrome |
| Description of Research Project: | The research conducted at UCLA by Associate Professor Linda Nelson focuses on early detection of Alzheimer's disease in adults with Down syndrome. Using specially designed measures of memory and learning, together with PET FDDNP, Nelson and colleagues are developing the first in vivo method for measuring amyloid plaque and tau in the brain. Results of this research will help guide us towards the type and timing of treatment necessary to slow disease progression. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Under the guidance and supervision of Dr. Linda Nelson in the department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, students will be assisting Dr. Nelson by running adult subjects with Down syndrome in experiments that measure cognition. Tests include cognitive and psychological assessments on the state or presence of dementia. Training in methods and procedures, ethics, and scoring and analysis will be provided by Dr. Nelson before the subjects are tested. Students are encouraged to apply for funding to design and carry out independent research for presentation and/or publication. Must be sophomore or beginning junior, be willing to sign up for 4 credits per quarter, minimum 2 quarter commitment. Must be dependable, reliable, and have strong interpersonal skills. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | O'Connor, Mary J. |
| Department: | Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences |
| Contact Name: | Justin Quattlebaum, PhD |
| Room Number: | Semel Institute: #78-256 |
| Phone Number: | 310-825-8738 |
| Email: | jquattlebaum@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | A Brief Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Consumption in Youth Exposed to Alcohol Prenatally. |
| Description of Research Project: | Research description: The focus of this project is to reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol-related negative outcomes in teens with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) by providing a 6-week intervention that addresses ways to cope with stressors associated with alcohol misuse. Parents will attend weekly, educational 1-hour sessions that will run concurrently with adolescent group sessions. We expect that this intervention will provide an effective, acceptable, and cost-efficient model for the prevention of alcohol abuse and negative alcohol-related outcomes in teens with FASDs. Qualifications: Looking for motivated/committed students seeking exposure to multiple facets of the clinical research process. Must have completed some relevant coursework in psychology or related field; prior experience or interest in working with children or adolescents. Must be responsible, reliable, mature, and demonstrate the ability to produce excellent work. Junior/senior standing preferred. Must be in excellent academic standing. Proficiency with Microsoft Office preferred. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Responsibilities: Research Assistants are needed to assist with recruitment, assessment set-up, and intervention efforts. Also will assist in ensuring research fidelity during intervention sessions as well as survey administration, scoring, and data entry. In addition to providing an excellent opportunity to obtain valuable research knowledge and experience, there includes the possibility of a letter of recommendation for graduate schools. Hours per week: 6-8 hours, though flexible Weekly lab meeting attendance required (Weds. 11am) Two hours per week will be in the evening (approx 5:30pm – 7:30pm) for the intervention. Quarters recruiting: 2 quarter commitment required – currently seeking students available Winter 2011 – Spring 2011 Contact info: If you are interested, please email a copy of your CV/resume to: If you have any questions, email or call: Project Coordinator: Justin Quattlebaum, Ph.D. Phone 310.825.8738 Email jquattlebaum@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Faculty Sponsor: | O'Connor, Mary |
| Department: | Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Justin Quattlebaum |
| Room Number: | 77-368 |
| Phone Number: | 310-825-8738 |
| Email: | jquattlebaum@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Project Step Up |
| Description of Research Project: | Title of research: Project Step Up: A Brief Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Consumption in Youth Exposed to Alcohol Prenatally. Research description: The focus of this project is to reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol-related negative outcomes in teens with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) by providing a 6-week intervention that addresses ways to cope with stressors associated with alcohol misuse. Parents will attend weekly, educational 1-hour sessions that will run concurrently with adolescent group sessions. We expect that this intervention will provide an effective, acceptable, and cost-efficient model for the prevention of alcohol abuse and negative alcohol-related outcomes in teens with FASDs. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Qualifications: Looking for motivated/committed students seeking exposure to multiple facets of the clinical research process. Must have completed some relevant coursework in psychology or related field; prior experience or interest in working with children or adolescents. Must be responsible, reliable, mature, and demonstrate the ability to produce excellent work. Junior/senior standing preferred. Must be in excellent academic standing. Proficiency with Microsoft Office preferred. Responsibilities: Research Assistants are needed to assist with recruitment, assessment set-up, and intervention efforts. Also will assist in ensuring research fidelity during intervention sessions as well as survey administration, scoring, and data entry. In addition to providing an excellent opportunity to obtain valuable research knowledge and experience, there includes the possibility of a letter of recommendation for graduate schools. Hours per week: 6-8 hours, though flexible Weekly lab meeting attendance required Two hours per week will be in the evening (approx 5:30pm – 7:30pm) for the intervention. Quarters recruiting: 2 quarter commitment required – currently seeking students available Fall 2011 and Winter 2012 Contact info: If you are interested, please email a copy of your CV/resume to: If you have any questions, email or call: Project Coordinator: Justin Quattlebaum, Ph.D. Phone 310.825.8738 Email jquattlebaum@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Ornitz, Edward |
| Department: | Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences |
| Contact Name: | Catherine Hubbard, Ph.D. |
| Room Number: | 28-161 |
| Phone Number: | 310-825-6858 |
| Email: | cshubbard@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Affective modulation of pain and nociception |
| Description of Research Project: | Our lab is currently investigating how emotion alters the experience and brain responses to pain in both healthy controls and patients with chronic functional pain disorders. Studies involve psychophysiological measures such as the nociceptive flexion reflex, acoustic startle reflex, heart rate, breathing, skin conductance and hormone assays, as well as subjective reports of pain and stress. Students will help run subjects and score physiological responses. Motivated students will be given additional opportunities to participate in the analysis and write up of results. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Minimum commitment: 2 quarters. Minimum GPA: 3.0 Must be able to commit to a least 10 hours/week Duties: Data collection; running participants through experimental procedures; coding/scoring/analyzing data and attending weekly lab meetings. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Paley, Blair |
| Department: | Child and Adolescent Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Jolie Delja and Clare Gorospe |
| Room Number: | |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-5254 |
| Email: | seedsprogram@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Helping Infants and Toddlers with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure |
| Description of Research Project: | The SEEDS Program is a prevention and early intervention for infants and toddlers with prenatal alcohol exposure. The program aims to enhance these children’s ability to manage their emotions and behavior. Two components of the program are focused on the foster and adoptive parents of these children. A third component of the program, a music-based parent-child play group, will serve to promote positive parent-child interactions and is based on findings that exposure to singing and music can enhance self-regulation in young children. Improving parental sensitivity, increasing parental commitment, decreasing parental stress, enhancing the quality of the parent-child relationship, and ultimately, fostering the child’s capacity for self-regulation may all play a critical role in circumventing a cascade of negative developmental outcomes associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Qualifications: Motivated/committed students who have completed some relevant coursework in psychology or related field and are interested in learning about the research process. Must be responsible, mature, highly organized, demonstrate the ability to produce excellent work, and have a can-do attitude. Responsibilities: Research Assistants are needed to assist with assessment and intervention efforts, including: --preparing materials for assessments and intervention sessions --scoring and interpreting psychological assessments --coding parent-child interaction videos --transcribing parent interviews --helping to implement a community-based recruitment strategy --keeping an up-to-date research database The opportunity to assist with parent and child assessments and/or the group intervention may become available with experience. Hours per week: 6-8 hours Quarters recruiting: 2 quarter commitment required – currently seeking students available Winter 2012 through Spring 2012. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Peplau, Anne |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | S. Megan Mulet |
| Room Number: | Franz 4441B |
| Phone Number: | 310-508-2798 |
| Email: | smmulet@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Nurturing Networks: Lessons from a gift economy at Burning Man |
| Description of Research Project: | Last summer over 40,000 people from 26 countries trekked to Nevada for the annual gathering called Burning Man. Each year participants work together to erect a temporary city on the dry, barren lakebed that is the Black Rock Desert. The giving of gifts is the main activity during the weeklong event, and nearly all interactions are conceptualized as gifts shared among participants. The goal of this interdisciplinary research project is to understand the role of this gift economy, as it is called, in the creation of the social networks maintained by participants over time and across great distances. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Currently the focus is on analyzing survey data collected during the past 5 years. Students will help to analyze existing data, help to identify themes, and formulate hypotheses. Students will assist in creating charts and graphs to illustrate patterns and trends, and will make suggestions for enhancing future surveys. Other research activities (e.g., network analysis, historical analysis) are also possible. Four units of credit will be earn by working a minimum of 7 hours per week and writing a 5-8 page paper. Students will enroll in Psych 196A and attend a one-hour weekly seminar. A basic course in statistics and knowledge of some statistical software is necessary. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Peplau, Anne |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Tage Rai |
| Room Number: | 6564 Franz Hall |
| Phone Number: | 404-313-3139 |
| Email: | trai1@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Creating Multimedia approaches to understanding relationship perception |
| Description of Research Project: | We examine how people perceive the relationships among objects in the world and how this maps onto their perceptions of the social relationships around them. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research opportunity for one or two undergraduates who are proficient with Macromedia Flash and interested in pioneering new methods for exploring social relations. The research consists of programming simple animations to depict basic forms of social relationships, and then pilot-testing the animations to see how people interpret them. The number of credits are flexible, depending on the time you commit. The experience would be particularly rewarding for undergraduates who could commit at least two quarters to it. If you are interested, please reply to trai1@ucla.edu and cc afiske@ucla.edu, indicating > What you can do and what you have done with Flash; > Your year in school (Jr, Sr?) and overall GPA; > Previous research experience; > The name, e-mail address or phone of at least one faculty member or job supervisor who can attest to your work habits, creativity, and intellect. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Piacentini, John |
| Department: | Child Psychiatry - UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior |
| Contact Name: | Monica Wu |
| Room Number: | 300 Medical Plaza, Suite 1315 |
| Phone Number: | 310-825-0122 |
| Email: | MSWu@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://www.semel.ucla.edu/caap |
| Title of Research: | UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program |
| Description of Research Project: | The UCLA Childhood OCD, Anxiety & Tic Disorders Program is a clinical research program that specializes in the evaluation and treatment of anxiety and related problems in children and adolescents. Our primary goal is to provide effective treatments for youngsters suffering from anxiety disorders, including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Selective Mutism (SM), Tic disorders, Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Separation Anxiety Disorder(SAD), and Trichotillomania. Currently, our program has several NIMH-funded multi-site research studies. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students will have the opportunity to work on treatment studies for children/adolescents (up to age of 18) diagnosed with various anxiety disorders. Students' primary responsibilities include data entry and management, scoring clinical measures, and administrative/clerical tasks. More direct, clinical interactions with children (e.g. administrating neurocognitive tasks, administering forms, and participating in exposure exercises in treatment) may become available with experience. Great opportunity for those interested in gaining research experience for graduate school, as well as for those interested in learning more about treatment-focused research. REQUIREMENTS: * Minimum of 2 quarters. * Minimum of 8-10 hours/week. * Must be able to work well independently, as well as in group. * Must be detail-oriented. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Ray, Lara |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Katy Lunny |
| Room Number: | A349 |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-6756 |
| Email: | katylunny@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://addictions.psych.ucla.edu |
| Title of Research: | Medication Development for Methamphetamine Dependence |
| Description of Research Project: | The proposed study will help develop medications for MA dependence by studying naltrexone (NTX) and its mechanisms of action and using genetic markers to predict who will respond best to this medication. We will enroll 50 non-treatment seeking individuals who meet criteria for MA dependence. Participants will complete two double-blinded, counterbalanced, within-subjects MA administration laboratory sessions, one after taking NTX (50 mg/day) and one after taking matched placebo for four days. We will also examine whether a genetic marker of the gene coding for the mu-opioid receptor (OPRM1) predicts who responds better to naltrexone in the laboratory. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | We are looking for students who are interested in addiction studies. Students will assist in many aspects of the project, including but not limited to: recruiting participants, phone screening, scheduling participants, running participant visits in the lab (including conducting interviews and administering computer tasks and questionnaires), and data entry. Students must be able to commit a minimum of 10 hours per week including a mandatory weekly lab meeting. Additionally, a three quarter commitment is required. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Ray, Lara |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Katy Lunny |
| Room Number: | A349 |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-6756 |
| Email: | katylunny@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://addictions.psych.ucla.edu |
| Title of Research: | Treatment Development for Heavy Drinking Smokers |
| Description of Research Project: | Heavy drinking smokers represent a treatment resistant group who are more likely to relapse into smoking during drinking episodes. This study seeks to test the singular and combined effects of varenicline and naltrexone on smoking urges among heavy-drinking smokers. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | We are looking for students who are interested in addiction studies. Students will assist in many aspects of the project, including but not limited to: recruiting participants, phone screening, scheduling participants, running participant visits in the lab (including conducting interviews and administering computer tasks and questionnaires), and data entry. Students must be able to commit a minimum of 10 hours per week including a mandatory weekly lab meeting. Additionally, a three quarter commitment is required. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Ray, Lara |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Katy Lunny |
| Room Number: | A349 |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-6756 |
| Email: | katylunny@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://addictions.psych.ucla.edu |
| Title of Research: | Neuroimaging Markers of Medications for Smoking Cessation |
| Description of Research Project: | This study will examine response to combined pharmacotherapies for heavy drinking smokers by testing brain-based measures of cigarette and alcohol craving. This study will help elucidate the effects of pharmacotherapies at the neural level of response and will combine tests of cue-induced craving for alcohol and smoking with neuroimaging methods. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | We are looking for students who are interested in addiction studies. Students will assist in many aspects of the project, including but not limited to: recruiting participants, phone screening, scheduling participants, running participant visits in the lab (including conducting interviews and administering computer tasks and questionnaires), and data entry. Students must be able to commit a minimum of 10 hours per week including a mandatory weekly lab meeting. Additionally, a three quarter commitment is required. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Robles, Theodore |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Heidi Kane |
| Room Number: | |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | kane@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Romantic Relationships and Health |
| Description of Research Project: | I am seeking research assistants to help with a laboratory research project involving couples. Although the perception of having some one available to provide social support is associated with a number of positive health benefits, benefits of receiving support are actually less clear. For example, the receipt of support has been associated with increased distress in both laboratory and daily dairy studies. The purpose of this study is to understand how couple members help each other cope with stressful tasks. I am interested in examining the effect of social support on physiological markers of stress reactivity (e.g., stress hormones, inflammation), psychological well-being and relationship functioning. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistant responsibilities will include screening and scheduling participants, running participants in the study, entering data and coding video and open-ended response data and helping out with other lab tasks as needed. Research assistants need to commit for 8 hours a week. Availability during the summer is preferred, but not required. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Sandhofer, Catherine |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Haley Vlach |
| Room Number: | Franz 2329 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | haleyvlach@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://babytalk.psych.ucla.edu/home.htm |
| Title of Research: | The Relationship Between Memory and Word Learning in Young Children |
| Description of Research Project: | This project examines the relationship between children's memory and word learning abilities. Participants are young children (2-5 years old) and adults. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants are responsible for 1) data collection, 2) creating stimuli, and 3) data analysis. Data Collection: This involves contacting parents and preschools, scheduling visits, and performing the experimental procedure (a memory game) with the subjects. Creating Stimuli: This involves making novel objects/toys for experiments. Data Analysis: This involves analyzing smaller portions of larger data sets. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Sandhofer, Catherine |
| Department: | Language and Cognitive Developmental Lab |
| Contact Name: | Mariel Kyger |
| Room Number: | Franz 2329 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | marielkyger@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://babytalk.psych.ucla.edu/home.htm |
| Title of Research: | Children's Language Acquisition |
| Description of Research Project: | This project will investigate how children from different backgrounds learn to speak English. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Organizing materials, data entry, creating stimuli, getting around with children, data collection, data analysis. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Sandhofer, Cathy |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Emily Thom |
| Room Number: | 2329 Franz |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-8286 |
| Email: | emilyt0623@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://babytalk.psych.ucla.edu/home.htm |
| Title of Research: | Patterns of children's word learning |
| Description of Research Project: | This project looks at young children's word learning. It is specifically interested what factors are influencing the development of rapid word learning and vocabulary growth in 16 to 24 month old children. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants working on this project will be responsible for coding existing data. They will also be involved in recruiting and running participants in our lab and in local preschools. They are also required to attend a weekly meeting to discuss the progress of the project and related issues. Students with experience working with kids, artistic skills (for stimuli making!), and their own form of transportation are preferred. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Shapiro, David |
| Department: | Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | David Shapiro |
| Room Number: | 38-153 Semel Institute |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-8826 |
| Email: | dshapiro@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Therapeutic Movement as a Complementary Treatment of Irritable Bowel Disease |
| Description of Research Project: | The objective of the study is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy of two forms of therapeutic movement, yoga and walking, as complementary treatments of individuals with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Volunteer participants will be randomly assigned to one or the other intervention. The sessions are held twice a week for 8 weeks. Both interventions have in common the following: activity-oriented, group sessions conducted by a professional and certified teacher/trainer, and time commitment. Assessments will be done pre- and post-intervention. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Assist in the research in the Psychophysiology Lab: recruit participants, phone screening. schedule appointments, administer and score questionnaires, assist in lab physiological recording, data entry and analysis, participate in lab meetings. For those who are interested, attend and observe movement sessions and administer mood questionnaires before and after each session. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Shapiro, David |
| Department: | Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | David Shapiro |
| Room Number: | 38-153 Semel Inst. |
| Phone Number: | 310-206-8826 |
| Email: | dshapiro@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://www.mentalhealth.ucla.edu/labs/psychophysiology/ |
| Title of Research: | Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Irritable Bowel Syndrome |
| Description of Research Project: | This research examines relationships between psychological and physiological measures of stress responses of women with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and diagnostic measures based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The study will examine mood and pain levels, cortisol levels, and physiological data such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood flow, and heart rate variability recorded in the Psychophysiology Laboratory. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Assist in the research activities in the Psychophysiology Lab in cooperation with TCM and medical staff, recruit subjects and schedule, administer and score questionnaires, assist in lab physiological recording, data entry and analysis, participate in lab meetings. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Shapiro, David |
| Department: | Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Ben Bendig |
| Room Number: | 6578 |
| Phone Number: | 714-488-6509 |
| Email: | bbendig@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Cognitive and Physiological Effects of Movement Meditation |
| Description of Research Project: | This project will involve measuring cognitive and physiological changes that happen owing to the practice of movement meditation (practices like yoga, Tai Chi, and qigong). In particular, the study will examine the effects of Falun Gong, a qigong practice. We will be employing various physiological measures, as well as cognitive measures to assess changes in attention and memory. The goal is to determine what acute effects there may be owing to practicing qigong, that is, what is different right after one has practiced meditation. We will also examine any baseline differences in experienced practitioners versus non-practitioners, and will look for relationships between physiological and cognitive changes. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants would be expected to help with running subjects, which would include setting up physiological equipment (to measure things such as heart rate, respiration, and skin conductance) and administering computer-based cognitive tasks. Assistants may also be asked to help in processing of data and data analysis. No previous experience will be necessary; training will be provided for all responsibilities. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Shapiro, David |
| Department: | Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences |
| Contact Name: | Bahiyyih Hardacre |
| Room Number: | 28-164 Semel Institute |
| Phone Number: | 310-465-9332 |
| Email: | bahiyyih@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | |
| Description of Research Project: | The project investigates relationships between physiological and behavioral responses during regular conversation and social engagement. The research is in collaboration with Professor John Schuman and graduate students in Applied Linguistics. Participants in 3-person groups will discuss various topics while their heart rate and skin conductance are being recorded. Their behaviors are video recorded and their interactions are coded and related to the physiological changes. The research is conducted in the Psychophysiology Laboratory at the Semel Institute. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Assist in the research in the Psychophysiology Lab: recruit participants, phone screening, schedule appointments, administer and score questionnaires, assist in lab physiological recording, data entry and analysis, participate in lab meetings. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Shapiro, Jenessa |
| Department: | Psychology - Social |
| Contact Name: | Shapiro, Jenessa |
| Room Number: | |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | jshapiro@psych.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Stigma, Prejudice, and Intergroup Relations |
| Description of Research Project: | Why are interactions with members of different groups sometimes awkward? What strategies do frequent and infrequent targets of prejudice employ to manage their self-presentation and to facilitate smoother intergroup interactions? How do concerns about negative stereotypes influence what we do and how we perform on stereotyped tasks? How do specific, tangible threats perceived to be posed by different stigmatized groups differentially bias people’s attention, memory, and judgments? In our SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY LAB we are interested in answering these questions and more. We conduct a number of research studies over the semester, all aimed at understanding stigma, prejudice, and discrimination |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Our SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY LAB is looking for motivated, curious, and enthusiastic research assistants. Research Assistants will learn firsthand about research and gain valuable experience for graduate school and the job market. You will participate in all aspects of the research process including assisting with the design of stimuli, recruiting and working with participants, collecting data, exploring the research literature, and participating in lab group discussions—all while learning about prejudice, stigma, stereotyping, and discrimination. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Sigman, Marian |
| Department: | Psychology & Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Mithi del Rosario |
| Room Number: | 67-456 NPI |
| Phone Number: | 310-825-3478 |
| Email: | mdelrosario@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Infants at Risk of Autism: A Longitudinal Study |
| Description of Research Project: | Infant siblings of children with autism are at increased risk for also developing this disorder. We are currently conducting a longitudinal study in which we are following a group of infant siblings of children with autism from 6 to 60 months of age. We hope to gain a better understanding of the early features of autism in infancy, as well as to examine whether those siblings of children with autism who are not affected with the disorder also experience developmental delays. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | The student will enter data, review assessment sessions and video clips, score assessments, edit and clip video data, and transcribe interviews. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Silva, Alcino |
| Department: | Neurobiology/Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Denise Cai |
| Room Number: | Gonda 2554 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | denisecai@gmail.com |
| Website: | http://www.silvalab.com |
| Title of Research: | Molecular and Cellular Cognition |
| Description of Research Project: | Our laboratory is studying learning, memory and its disorders, including cognitive deficits associated with aging, learning disabilities and schizophrenia. We are searching for molecular, cellular and circuit processes that underlie the encoding, allocation, storage and recall of information in the brain. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Rodent behavioral testing; solution preparation and animal injection; data management and analysis. Previous research experience is not necessary. A 2-quarter commitment is required. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Stanton, Annette |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Andrea Niles |
| Room Number: | 1171D |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | aniles@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Expressive writing and health: Why is writing beneficial? |
| Description of Research Project: | This project will begin Spring quarter, 2011. Research assistants will be expected to work on the project during Spring quarter and over the summer for approximately seven hours per week. On this project, you will be reading through participants written essays about stressful events in their lives and coding the essays for themes. We will hold weekly meetings in which we discuss the essays and themes that emerge. On this project, you will learn about coding qualitative data, an important component of psychology research. You will gain important research skills necessary for application to graduate programs in psychology. This project will be of particular interest for individuals interested in health or clinical psychology. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students will be expected to work on the project for spring quarter and summer of 2011. Students will be asked to contribute seven hours per week to the project (the majority of which can be done at home) and can earn credit for psychology 196a. Students must be organized, self-directed, and excited about psychology. Minimum GPA required is 3.6. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Tottenham, Nim Delafield |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Angela Johnson |
| Room Number: | Franz Hall, Middle Tower, Third Floo |
| Phone Number: | 213.840.1183 |
| Email: | ajjohnson@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://socialbraindev.psych.ucla.edu/Home.html |
| Title of Research: | Social Development and Emotion Processing in Young Adults who have experienced Foster Care |
| Description of Research Project: | The number of youth emancipating from foster care with emotional or behavioral problems continues to rise. Although the outcomes of such youths are not well characterized, it is clear that a history of suboptimal caregiving has long-term consequences for socio-emotional health. This study examines processes fundamental to emotional health, including emotion regulation and emotion understanding. Participants include young adults who have experienced foster care and a comparison group with typical parenting experiences matched for similar socio-economic and racial backgrounds and gender. The study examines the effects of early experiences on socio-emotional development using convergent methodology (behavioral, physiological, and eye-tracking) that allows for multiple levels of analysis. It is hypothesized that foster care rearing is a stressor on the developing child and this form of early stress will alter typical socio-emotional development in ways that impair optimal life functioning in adulthood (e.g., making a successful transition to independent living). In addition to contributing to the scientific understanding of the socio-emotional and behavioral correlates of early life stress specifically related to foster care experience, future applications may inform clinicians on how to better serve this population and influence policy-makers responsible for the institutional care of children. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Participant recruitment, data coding and management, assist in preparing for and working with study participants. Introduction to data analysis. Additional responsibilities will vary based on individual experience and interest. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Waterman, Jill |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Joanna Tol |
| Room Number: | 3220 FH |
| Phone Number: | (310)794-7743 |
| Email: | jtol@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | UCLA TIES Infant Mental Health Study |
| Description of Research Project: | The UCLA TIES for Families program seeks to follow the development of at-risk children after the first year of placement in prospective adoptive homes, and to evaluate the impact of TIES services in the first year after placement in helping families come together successfully. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Assemble research material packets and send them to participanting families. Record measures received as well as upcoming testing and feedback schedules via the research database. Process, score, enter and file raw data. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Wood, Jeff |
| Department: | Education |
| Contact Name: | Marilyn Van Dyke |
| Room Number: | |
| Phone Number: | (310) 882-0537 |
| Email: | mvvandyke@ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Behavioral Intervention for Anxiety in Children with Autism |
| Description of Research Project: | Children with autism are at a heightened risk of having concurrent anxiety disorders. Depite this, no research has examined interventions with this subpopulation. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of treating anxiety in children with high-functioning autism. This project has recently been approved through UCLA's IRB and will immediately begin recruitment. Children, their parents, and teachers will complete assessments regarding the children's anxiety and functioning, will be provided intervention, and be followed-up 3-months posttreatment. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Students will attend weekly training meetings to learn more about research methods, autism, anxiety disorders, and the main purpose of this project. Students' main responsibilities will include organizing incoming data, coding and inputting collected data, and clerical assistance. However, responsibilities will vary based on student interests, previous experience in research, and strengths. Variations in responsibilities may include interacting with the participants or administering assessments. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Wood, Jeffrey J. |
| Department: | Education |
| Contact Name: | Brian Galla |
| Room Number: | 2907 Math & Sciences Building |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | gallabrian@gmail.com |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Clarity in the Eye of the Storm: The Effects of Day-to-Day Stressors on Adolescents' Health and Well-being |
| Description of Research Project: | This research project will examine the emotional effects of day-to-day stressors in urban adolescents. For example, we will study whether emotional distress (e.g. anxiety, anger, etc.) and aggressive behaviors (e.g. yelling at someone, getting into a fight) are more likely to occur on days with a lot of hassles (e.g. teacher yells at me, friends tease me, I forget my homework, etc.). Furthermore, we will also study whether certain factors, like adolescents' coping strategies and executive functions (e.g. self-control), protect adolescents against the negative effects of daily stressors. Finally, we also want to see what impact daily stressors have on adolescents' academic achievement. As you can tell, we're really interested in understanding how stress puts adolescents at risk for certain mental health problems, as well as determining those qualities that can promote health in the midst of day-to-day hassles. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Student Research Assistants (RA) will be actively involved in all aspects of the current research project. RA's will receive extensive training on how to administer questionnaires, daily diaries, and computerized games of executive functions. Following training, RA's will work directly with adolescents during all phases of data collection. RA's will also be involved in managing and entering study data into statistical programs (like SPSS). We will hold weekly lab meetings to discuss the operations of the study, as well as topics of interest for students (like how to apply to graduate school). Since data collection will occur at an off-campus middle school, we will ask RA's to travel to the school at least once per week (arrangements can be made for students without cars, although access to a car would be extremely helpful). Please contact Mr. Galla for further information. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Zaidel, Eran |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Ming-Hong Tsai |
| Room Number: | A407 |
| Phone Number: | 310-779-4312 |
| Email: | mtsai@anderson.ucla.edu |
| Website: | N.A. |
| Title of Research: | Brain and Decision-Making Behavior |
| Description of Research Project: | In this study, we examine different hemispheric contributions to decision making. We use an auction task to assess competitive and cooperative behaviors. This research has practical implications for decision-makers, such as business leaders, consumers, and policy-makers. Research assistants will be trained on recruiting participants, conducting experiments, engaging in data analyses. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants help recruit participants, conduct experiments, and engage in data analyses. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Zaidel, Eran |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Ming-Hong Tsai |
| Room Number: | A407 |
| Phone Number: | 310-779-4312 |
| Email: | mtsai@anderson.ucla.edu |
| Website: | |
| Title of Research: | Brain and Decision-Making Behavior |
| Description of Research Project: | In this study we examine different hemispheric contributions to decision making. We use a simple auction task to assess competitive and cooperative behaviors. This research has implications for decision-makers, such as business leaders, consumers, and policy-makers. Research assistants will be trained on engaging in neuropsychological and decision-making experiments, recruiting participants, and doing data analysis. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistants will engage in neuropsychological and decision-making experiments, recruit participants, and/or do data analyses. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Zaidel, Eran |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Contact Name: | Caroline Crump |
| Room Number: | Franz A407 |
| Phone Number: | |
| Email: | ccrump@ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://www.zaidellab.org |
| Title of Research: | Cognition and Anxiety |
| Description of Research Project: | We are looking at the cognitive (i.e., attention and perceptual) changes that occur with high anxiety, and how these relate to differences between the two cerebral hemispheres. We hope to find reliable attention patterns and differences in visual perception which correlate with different levels of anxiety-- low, medium, and high. To test this, we collect data through both behavioral responses (reaction time and accuracy) and psychophysiological responses (EEG) and correlate these data with measures of anxiety. We typically collect data with participants from a nonclinical population. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | You will be responsible primarily for setting up the EEG cap/electrodes, preparing each participant for EEG data collection, ensuring participant comfort and clean data collection during the experiment, cleaning up afterwards, and pre-processing the data (offline referencing, baseline correction, artifact rejection, and epoching into ERP waveforms). This typically requires several weeks of training sessions, and because of this, we prefer students who can make a minimum 1-year (3 quarters) commitment to the research. |
| Faculty Sponsor: | Zima, Bonnie |
| Department: | Child and Adolescent Psychiatry |
| Contact Name: | Pamela Vona |
| Room Number: | 10920 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 300 |
| Phone Number: | 310-825-0495 |
| Email: | pvona@mednet.ucla.edu |
| Website: | http://www.hsrcenter.ucla.edu/pcc/ |
| Title of Research: | Partners in Care for Children |
| Description of Research Project: | This study represents an important step toward improving the quality of mental health care for low-income, predominantly minority children enrolled in managed care Medi-Cal programs. Specifically this project seeks to assess the effectiveness and quality of care for children diagnosed with ADHD. Data is collected from a variety of sources over a 12 month period including parents, teachers, and medical records. This study seeks to examine a variety factors that impact quality of care including; provider type and clinician characteristics. Additionally the study aims evaluate the outcomes at the child, family, environment and system levels. |
| Description of Student Responsibilities: | Research assistant will be responsible for the collection and data entry of school record data. Students will use our existing database to collect school record data for each study participant. (Parent waivers are on file) Once collected, the reaearch assistant will track and enter the school record data into an existing database. Reserach assistant will also be required to attend a weekly research team meeting to update the team on thier progress. |