Biopsychology | Clinical | Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
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Complete List

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Project Director:
Bud Gibson
Email: fpgibson@umich.edu
Overall Title of Project:
Dynamic decision making in Internet bargaining environments
Major area of Psychology in which these projects are located:
Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Major area of Psychology in which this project is located:
Decision making
Project Description:
The position will be here at the business school. No credit is offered, but competitive pay is available for 20+ hours per week. The successful candidate will: 1. Run Internet bargaining experiments in one of several business school computer labs. 2. Manage subjects who sign up over the Internet. 3. Engage in library research.
Time commitment requested:
20+ hours per week
Qualifications of student:
Students with prior experience as RAs or comparable are welcome to apply. ALL APPLICATIONS for this position should consist of the following: 1. A cover email sent to Professor Bud Gibson (fpgibson@umich.edu ) explaining the applicant's interest and qualifications for the position. 2. A **text** version of the resume (saved with the .txt extension as a text file from Word; see the "save as..." menu item) OR an acrobat (pdf) version of the same. 3. At least two recent references who can vouch for the applicant's work.

Credit Offered:	no	Money:	yes
Experience only:	no	Workstudy:	no

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Project Director:
Patricia Reuter-Lorenz
Email:
Alternate Contact:
Patricia Reuter-Lorenz
Email:parl@umich.edu, Phone:
Overall Title of Project:
Memory and Cognitive Training Across the Lifespan
Major area of Psychology in which these projects are located:
Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Major area of Psychology in which this project is located:
Cognitive and Affective Neuropsychology
Project Description:
Distractions can distort our memory, or cause us to forget. Our lab investigates how and why our memories are vulnerable to interference. We are also working on interventions to improve memory. We use both behavioral and neuroimaging (fMRI) techniques to understand how executive functions such as attention allocation and interference resolution can trained. We are especially interested in how these abilities may be affected by normal aging. Students in our lab are involved in screening, scheduling, and running participants in experiments programmed using E-Prime software. Students exhibiting exceptional performance may also be involved in running fMRI experiments and analyzing data.
Time commitment requested:
Approx. 9 hrs/week
Qualifications of student:
Interested students should possess good knowledge of Microsoft Excel and other basic computer programs. Experience working with human participants in a research setting is desirable. Students should be highly motivated, detail-oriented, organized, and dependable. They should also have a pleasant telephone manner and possess very good interpersonal skills. An interest in pursuing a career in psychological and behavioral research is a plus.

Credit Offered:	Yes	Money:	No
Experience only:	Yes	Workstudy:	No

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Project Director:
Jin Bo
Email: jinbo@umich.edu
Alternate Contact:
Jin Bo
Email:jinbo@umich.edu, Phone: (734)764-8186 or (734)647-5514
Overall Title of Project:
Skill Acquisition in Older Adults
Major area of Psychology in which these projects are located:
Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Project Description:
In this project, we examine how aging affects motor skill learning. The acquisition of new motor skills is essential to adaptive human behavior throughout the lifetime. Studies suggested declines in the ability of the elderly to learn new manual motor skills. It is also known that older adults are impaired at spatial cognitive processing. However, it is not clear whether declines in spatial cognition contribute to motor learning deficits in older adults. Thus, the current study integrates behavioral and neuroimaging approaches, to examine the neural networks and mechanisms involved in motor sequence learning when the demands of spatial processing vary. This research will contribute to the accumulating body of knowledge on the cognitive neuroscience of aging. The results will also have potentially important implications for the design of rehabilitative interventions in older adults. In this project, undergraduates can be involved with many different areas, depending on interest and experience. Opportunities include recruiting subjects, running neuropsychological tests with young and older adults, data management and data analysis. Interested students may also have chances to be involved in the brain imaging study using fMRI. For more information, please see our website at http://www.kines.umich.edu/research/chmr/nbl.html
Time commitment requested:
10-15 hours a week
Qualifications of student:
Students must be motivated, dependable and have good communication skills. Basic knowledge of statistics is preferred. Students interested in 2 semester commitment are encouraged to apply. Please contact Jin Bo via email to set up an interview.

Credit Offered:	Yes	Money:	No
Experience only:	Yes	Workstudy:	No

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Project Director:
Israel Liberzon
Email: liberzon@umich.edu
Alternate Contact:
Shaun Ho
Email:hosh@umich.edu, Phone: 734-232-0197
Overall Title of Project:
Behavioral and/or fMRI study in cognition emotion interaction
Major area of Psychology in which these projects are located:
Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Major area of Psychology in which this project is located:
Decision making, emotion, attention, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder
Project Description:
A couple of multidisciplinary studies involved in this project focus on behavioral and/or neuroimaging of cognition-emotion interaction in stress or normal state. The tasks for the student(s) of this position after appropriate training include running behavioral experiments, data entry and/or analysis, and contacting potential participants.
Time commitment requested:
10 to 20 hours per week
Qualifications of student:
None.

Credit Offered:	Yes	Money:	No
Experience only:	Yes	Workstudy:	No

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Project Director:
Alternate Contact:
Frederick Conrad
Email:fconrad@isr.umich.edu, Phone:
Overall Title of Project:
Living in History: Personal Memory and Public Events
Major area of Psychology in which these projects are located:
Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Major area of Psychology in which this project is located:
Autobiographical Memory
Project Description:
This project explores the relationship between autobiographical memory (memories from one’s own life) and memory for historical events. More specifically we ask: when do people use political and historical events to structure the events of their lives? We focus on Americans who have lived through World War II and the degree to which they use the war to organize their memories. This is part of an international project that has asked similar questions about residents of many countries, including New Yorkers and the 9/11 terrorist attack, Bosnians and the war in Balkans, Turks and the earthquake of 1999 in Izmit, Turkey, Israelis and terrorist attacks in Israel, and Danes and the German occupation during World War II. Students will conduct laboratory sessions in which individual participants think aloud as they determine when particular autobiographical events took place. The think aloud process exposes participants’ recall strategies and reconstruction processes as they come up with the date. This tells us something about how they structure their autobiographical memories with respect to personal and public events. Students will also code the verbal reports for, among other things, references to personal versus historical/political events.
Time commitment requested:
10-15 hours per week
Qualifications of student:
Knowledge of MS Word and Windows is required. Experience with Excel will be helpful. Some experience using SPSS is preferred, but not required.

Credit Offered:	Yes	Money:	No
Experience only:	Yes	Workstudy:	No

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Project Director:
Katherine Sledge Moore
Email: mooreks@umich.edu
Alternate Contact:
Daniel Weissman
Email:danweiss@umich.edu, Phone:
Major area of Psychology in which these projects are located:
Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Project Description:
Our research lies at the intersection of visual memory and attention. Our attention often wanders to people and objects that relate to our current thoughts. For example, when we are hungry we often stare at someone else's pizza. Although such interactions between attention and our current thoughts are well documented, there are remaining questions regarding the influence of memory on attention. In this series of computer-based attention studies, we will explore whether the number and nature of pieces of information that we are keeping in mind influences the degree to which our attention is captured by people and objects that resemble those bits of information. Our hypothesis is that attentional capture will be reduced as the number of pieces of information we are thinking about increases because it's very difficult to keep many things in mind at the same time. Undergraduates working on the project will schedule and run participants and attend weekly lab meetings. Additionally, there are opportunities to be involved in any and all of the following aspects of the project, based on experience and interest: data analysis, design and programming of new experiments, and literature review. Students will learn how to conduct research, work as part of a team, and will be encouraged to think creatively and independently. Those working for course credit will receive guidance on writing a paper and/or preparing a poster presenting the results.
Time commitment requested:
6-15 hours per week
Qualifications of student:
The most successful students will be those interested in the project and in learning about psychological research. Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills are required, as is general computer proficiency in MS office. Additional computer skills (programming, SPSS, etc) are preferred but not required.

Credit Offered:	Yes	Money:	No
Experience only:	Yes	Workstudy:	Yes

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Project Director:
Nina Strohminger
Email: humean@umich.edu
Alternate Contact:
Prof. Rick Lewis
Email:rickl@umich.edu, Phone:
Overall Title of Project:
An eyetracking investigation of social emotions and moral decisions
Major area of Psychology in which these projects are located:
Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Major area of Psychology in which this project is located:
Social
Project Description:
How do we reason about moral problems? To what extent does moral reasoning rely on deliberative processing versus snap judgments? What can we learn about morality based on the influence of emotion, and what can we learn about emotion based on its influence upon morality? These are a few questions we address in our lab, using both behavioral and eyetracking methods. Undergraduates working on the project will schedule and run subjects, assist with conference/written reports, and meet regularly with the project director. Additionally, students are encouraged to be involved in any of the following aspects of the project, based on experience and interest: data analysis, design and programming of new experiments, and literature review/theoretical discussions of the topics under consideration. Students will learn how to conduct research, work as part of a team, and think creatively and independently. Those working for course credit will receive guidance on writing a paper and/or preparing a poster presenting the results.
Time commitment requested:
10-20 hours per week
Qualifications of student:
The most successful students will be bright, highly-motivated individuals interested in working on the project and learning about psychological research. Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills are required, as is general computer proficiency. Additional computer skills, in particular with programming (Python, Medialab, HTML) and statistical software (SPSS, R), are preferred but not required. Interested applicants should submit a resume to Nina (humean@umich.edu).

Credit Offered:	Yes	Money:	No
Experience only:	No	Workstudy:	No

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Project Director:
Jerome Prado
Email: jprado@umich.edu
Alternate Contact:
Daniel Weissman
Email:dweissman@umich.edu, Phone:
Overall Title of Project:
A behavioral investigation of decisional conflict
Major area of Psychology in which these projects are located:
Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Major area of Psychology in which this project is located:
Neuroscience
Project Description:
Every day we spend a considerable amount of time trying to make the best decisions possible. These decisions could be trivial, such as choosing which movie to see, or necessary to survival, such as choosing a mate or finding a place to live. The ability to choose between conflicting decisions is often celebrated as one of the most fundamental capabilities of the human brain. The goal of the current project is to learn more about the factors that influence how we make such decisions. We will be investigating these factors by comparing behavioral and brain imaging data between conditions that vary the degree of decisional conflict. Students will schedule and run participants and attend weekly lab meetings. Additionally, there are opportunities to be involved in any and all of the following aspects of the project, based on experience and interest: data analysis (behavioral and physiological), design and programming of new experiments, and literature review. Students will learn how to conduct research, work as part of a team, and will be encouraged to think creatively and independently. Those working for course credit will receive guidance on writing a paper and/or preparing a poster presenting the results.
Time commitment requested:
10-20 hours per week
Qualifications of student:
The most successful students will be those interested in the project and in learning modern cognitive neuroscience research. Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills are required, as is general computer proficiency in MS office. Additional computer skills (programming, SPSS, etc) are preferred but not required.

Credit Offered:	Yes	Money:	No
Experience only:	Yes	Workstudy:	Yes

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Project Director:
Frederick Conrad
Email: fconrad@isr.umich.edu
Overall Title of Project:
Split second decisions based on conversational partners' voices.
Major area of Psychology in which these projects are located:
Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Major area of Psychology in which this project is located:
Social
Project Description:
When you answer the telephone and the caller starts talking, you make many judgments and decisions in a matter of seconds – or less – on the basis of very little information. Do you hang up? Do you stay on the line? Our project, funded by the National Science Foundation, concerns the kinds of decisions people make when contacted by phone and invited to participate in surveys. The telephone sample survey is one of the cornerstones of social science research, providing much of what we know about our society – facts about life in America and public opinion. Unfortunately, the survey method is in trouble because many people now refuse to participate, e.g., they hang up the telephone when invited to become a survey respondent. Is there something about the caller’s voice and way of speaking that leads the answerer to agree to participate – or refuse? We will be looking at objective measures of such behaviors such as the rate of disfluencies (e.g., ums and uhs) within turns and pauses between turns, as well as more subjective measures such as the warmth and formality of the caller’s voice. Students will help classify or code the speaking turns (e.g., “Hello.” “Hello, I am calling from the University of Michigan, Survey Research Center.” “Click”) in the initial seconds of the phone contact and will rate the characteristics of the voices such as affect evident the interaction. Understanding how this initial interaction affects subsequent survey participation can help increase participation rates, which is essential for the statistical inferences that are based on survey results and inform our more general understanding of everyday conversation.
Time commitment requested:
10 hours per week
Qualifications of student:
Committed, organized, conscientious; some background (classes or research) in the study of social interaction, psycholinguistics or research methodology would be helpful but not essential.

Credit Offered:	No	Money:	Yes
Experience only:	No	Workstudy:	No

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Project Director:
Alicia Hofelich
Email: ajhof@umich.edu
(734) 764-2191
Email:
Stephanie Preston
Email: prestos@umich.edu
Overall Title of Project:
The Role of Emotional Facial Expressions in Empathy
Major area of Psychology in which these projects are located:
Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Major area of Psychology in which this project is located:
Social Psychology
Project Description:
Whether it is a returned smile from a passerby or a friend’s commiserating frown, imitated facial expressions are ubiquitous in social interactions. Through an upturned lip corner or furrowed brow, we are able to rapidly decode what another person is feeling. What cognitive processes underlie this ability? Do our own facial expressions play a role in understanding the emotions displayed by another? Do individual differences in these processes give rise to differences in empathy? We address these questions using a variety of psychophysiological measures (heart rate, skin conductance, facial muscle activity) and behavioral tasks. Undergraduates working on the project will learn how to analyze psychophysiological data and will primarily assist in data processing. Students may also be involved in scheduling and running subjects, and are encouraged to attend weekly lab meetings. Further involvement in this and other projects is possible depending on interest and commitment of the student.
Time commitment requested:
6-15 hours, flexible
Qualifications of student:
Students should be highly motivated, dependable, and conscientious. Psychology and Biopsychology/BBCS majors are especially encouraged to apply. Excellent organizational skills and general computer proficiency in Microsoft Excel and Mac OS X is required.

Credit Offered:	Yes	Money:	No
Experience only:	Yes	Workstudy:	No

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Project Director:
Alternate Contact:
Jessica Bernard
Email:jessbern@umich.edu, Phone: 734-764-8186
Overall Title of Project:
Cognitive Training as an Intervention to Improve Complex Motor Skills
Major area of Psychology in which these projects are located:
Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Project Description:
Can a cognitive intervention be used to improve complex motor skills such as driving? The notion that cognitive and motor skills are plastic and can be improved with training is very exciting, because it opens up the possibility for rehabilitation and amelioration of age-related declines in performance. It has been shown that older adults can improve cognitive processes such as attentional control, memory, and speed of processing with training. Although transfer to other tasks has been reported, it is not clear whether improvements transfer to real-world tasks such as driving. The aging of the baby boomers will bring about new challenges for the safety of older drivers. We propose to test whether five weeks of a cognitive training intervention improves measures of cognition, complex motor control, and performance in a driving simulator task for both young and older adults. We have recently shown that a particular type of cognitive training shows transfer benefits to untrained tasks. Moreover, our work and that of others demonstrates that the interdependence between the cognitive and motor systems increases with age. Thus, it may be that cognitive training benefits will also transfer to the control of complex motor skills for older adults. Identifying an intervention which allows older adults to extend their safe driving years would have immense societal benefits. Moreover, it is of theoretical interest to determine whether cognitive training improvements transfer to tasks that are both “near to” and “far from” the training task, because it would provide insight into which aspects of cognition are malleable with practice. Those working on the study would be involved in multiple aspects of the project including subject testing as well as data processing and analysis.
Time commitment requested:
8+ hours per week
Qualifications of student:
The student should be familiar with Microsoft Excel as well as general comfort with using PCs. Excellent organization skills are key. Good people skills are also a must. Previous research experience would be preferred, but not required.

Credit Offered:	Yes	Money:	No
Experience only:	Yes	Workstudy:	No