Psychology Research
Labs
Many psychology professors and graduate students offer research
opportunities for undergraduates. If you are thinking about graduate
school or would just like to get a better understanding of experimental
psychology in a specific sub-area, you may want to consider joining a lab!
Before becoming involved with research, you should identify which
sub-area(s) interest you the most.
Here are some links to sites containing specific information about
different sub areas of psychology:
Research Labs Organized by Principal Investigator: http://psych.rutgers.edu/undergrad/research_opps.html
Research Labs Organized by Area:
See Below
Social, Personality, & Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Look into these labs if you enjoyed the following classes:
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Social Psychology
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Personality Psychology
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Motivation & Emotion
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Organizational & Personnel Psychology
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Prejudice & Conflict
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Psychology of Sex & Gender
Director: Jack Aiello
I/O psych, stress, spatial behavior,
social interaction, feedback
Director: Lee Jussim
Research
focuses on expectations, person perception, and social interaction;
self-fulfilling prophecies; stereotypes and prejudice.
Director: Laurie Rudman
Studying
social cognition, stereotypes, implicit attitude assessment.
The Racial &
Gender Identity Lab
Director: Diana Sanchez
Research on
racial identity, well-being, gender roles, body & sexuality.
Cognitive Psychology & Cognitive Science
Look into these labs if you enjoyed the following classes:
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Sensation & Perception
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Cognition
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Memory
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Conditioning & Learning
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Psychology of Language
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Principles of Cognitive Science
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The Psychology of Art
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Reasoning, Problem Solving, & Decision Making
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Linguistics
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Philosophy of Mind
Director: Alan Leslie
Studies the development of mental capacities underlying our
understanding of physical objects, number, causation, social agency,
pretending, and theory of mind.
Rutgers Early Learning
Project
Director: Carolyn Rovee-Collier
Research is on the ontogeny of learning and memory in human infants.
Director: Gretchen Chapman
How do
physicians and patients make decisions, and how do their decision processes
differ from the best way that decisions could be made?
Director:
Studies automatic language processing, recognition and recall of
pictures and words, all-or-none learning theory, and applied learning in the
classroom.
Cognitive
Development and Learning Lab
Director: Rochelle Gelman
Interested
in the acquisition of mathematical and scientific concepts, in adults and
children.
Cognitive
Neurscience Research
Director: Randy Gallistel
Research on
the behavioral genetics of memory in mice; spatial, temporal, and
numerical learning and reasoning in animals.
Director: Manish Singh
Computational
and psychophysical investigation of mid-level vision.
Director: Thomas Papathomas
Focused on
visual perception of motion, stereo (depth), and texture, and the development
of neurophysiologically computational models.
Director: Jacob Feldman
Research concerns perceptual organization, grouping, visual similarity,
shape representation, object categorization & human visual cognition.
Visual
Cognition (Eye Movements) Lab
Director: Eileen Kowler
Research on eye movements as related
to attention, visual perception, and cognitive control.
Director: Zenon Pylyshyn
Research
studies the nature of visual attention & assesses people's ability to split
their attention & to track multiple independently moving objects.
Director: Karin Stromswold
Research
investigates the cognitive and neural bases of language.
Behavioral Neuroscience & Biopsychology
Look into these labs if you enjoyed the following classes:
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Physiological Psychology
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Conditioning & Learning
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Behavioral Pharmacology
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Hormones & Behavior
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Neuropsychopharmacology
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Neuropsychology
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Neurobiology
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Cell Biology & Neuroscience
Director: David Vicario
Interested
in the sensorimotor processes involved in the
acquisition and production of learned behaviors in developing and adult
songbirds.
Director: Mark West
Studies the
activity of neurons that receive dopaminergic
synaptic input, during behaviors correlated with dopamine transmission.
Center
for Collaborative Neuroscience; Behavioral Neuroscience Lab
Director: Tracey Shors
Research on
the neurobiology of learning and memory, effects of stress and neuronal sex
differences on learning, and the role of neurogenesis
in the adult mammalian brain in learning.
Wagner Lab
Director: George Wagner
Study of schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease using animal models. Assessment of the neurochemical and
behavioral deficits following the administration of psychomotor stimulants.
Director: Judy Stern
Focus is on
the sensory, neural, and neurochemical bases of
maternal behavior and maternal aggression toward a strange intruder.
Director: Tim Otto
Research employs both neuropsychological and electrophysiological
techniques to explore the neural mechanisms subserving
learning and memory.
Matzel Lab
Director: Lou Matzel
Studies individual differences in learning abilities in mammals;
Biochemical, neurophysiological & molecular
substrates of neuroplasicity as it subserves memory storage.
Director: Alexander Kuznecov
Studies that determine the mechanisms by which
stress affects immune function, and studies that examine the cognitive and
emotional consequences of immune system activation.
Clinical & Developmental Psychology
Look into these labs if you enjoyed the following classes:
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Abnormal Psychology
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Infant & Child Development
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Adolescent Development
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Adult Development & Aging
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Atypical Development in Childhood & Adolescence
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Health Psychology
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Systems of Psychotherapy
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Community Psychology & Mental Health
Stress,
Adaptation, and Health Lab
Director: Richard Contrada
Our group
is concerned with 1) psychosocial factors that influence physical health and 2)
the mechanisms that explain these relationships
Social and
Emotional Learning Lab
Director: Maurice Elias
Research in the area of children, adolescents, and families, as they
relate to the schools and to the processes involved in how people cope with and
think through everyday and difficult situations they encounter.
McCarthy Lab
Director: Danielle McCarthy
Research on
cigarette smoking and smoking cessation treatments.
Identity and Emotion Research
Director: Jeannette Haviland-Jones
Research on
emotional influences on adolescent narrative productions and identity and
emotion.
Director: Jan Mohlman
Investigates
anxiety, cognition, aging, and the regulation of emotion
Institute for the Study
of Child Development
Director: Michael Lewis
Research on
the emotional development and the role of cognition, and cognition, attribution
and psychopathology.
Director: Judy Hudson
Interested
in memory development in young children, cognitive development, autobiographic
memory, children’s planning.
Behavioral
& Educational Research Concerning Autism
Director: Sandra Harris
Research
includes evaluating the effectiveness of treatment procedures, assessing family
functioning and influencing social behavior in autism.
For Additional Information on Research Funding and University Symposia go to:
http://aresty.rutgers.edu