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Undergraduate
Students & College Graduates
Undergraduate
students and college graduates have always played an important
role in my laboratory. The typical undergraduate is a psychology
major with an interest in research and future graduate studies.
Recent college graduates who are taking time off from school after
graduation and before applying to graduate school may also find
gaining research experience valuable.
Students who work in my lab typically get involved in all aspects
of the research, from preparing study materials, to administering
tests to younger and older adults, to scoring and interpreting
the data. Everyone is involved in lab meetings where we discuss
ongoing projects and plan future studies. Over the course of a
year, all members of the lab get a chance to see multiple studies
through from start to finish. They get a good appreciation of
the entire research process.
I am
always looking for talented and motivated undergraduates and college
graduates with an interest in aging and/or cognition who wish
to gain research experience. There are a number of ways to get
involved:
1. The first step is to contact me. If you poke around my website
and find the research interesting, just send me an email prior
to the beginning of the semester you'd like to volunteer. (Contacting
me the preceding semester is ideal!) My email address is hartman@email.unc.edu.
Let me know a little about yourself and why you are interested
in working with me. Sending a resume is also useful. Then we
can set up a time to talk.
2. The most common way of for undergraduates to volunteer is
by registering for Psychology
98 (Independent Research). This is usually a 3-credit course,
requiring about 10 hours a week. In addition to contributing
to the research effort, students in PSYC 98 complete a set of
readings (book chapters and empirical articles) and write a
paper.
3. From time to time there are paid Research Assistant positions
available. These involve a minimum 12-month commitment.
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Prospective
Graduate Students
Graduate
students who join my laboratory come from both the cognitive and
clinical psychology graduate programs. It is my intention and
hope that this cross-program fertilization reduces the divide
between basic and applied research, by helping basic researchers
see their work in a broader context and helping applied researchers
ground their work in current knowledge of cognitive theory.
Students in the cognitive program working with me typically come
with interests in memory, attention, or cognitive aging. While
working with me, they typically focus on basic research, examining
the cognitive mechanisms underlying the normal aging process and
theoretical issues in the study of memory and attention. Recent
dissertation topics have included: the effects of interference
on working memory on younger and older adults, and the role of
encoding and temporal order deficits in age differences in working
memory.
Students in the clinical program who work with me usually have
interests in the neuropsychology of aging, and more general interests
in clinical neuropsychology. Because it is my belief that a solid
understanding of information processing is important for advances
in the field of neuropsychology, clinical students typically begin
by designing a project that focuses on normal age-related changes
in cognition. Later projects tend to have a more applied bent.
For instance, recent dissertation topics have included studies
of the relationship between memory complaints in older adults
and neuropsychological test performance, and a study of the relationship
between sleep and cognitive decline in older adults.
All graduate students in my laboratory become full members of
my research group from the first semester they arrive. Even while
they start to gain familiarity with the empirical literature,
they also begin to get hands-on experience working in the lab,
either helping design a new study and/or collecting data on a
study already underway. This work in turn usually leads to the
development of a master's thesis proposal. In the process of conducting
research, graduate students also become active participants in
the laboratory, joining meetings where all current and planned
projects are discussed. In addition to attending lab meetings,
they also meet individually with me on a regular basis, to discuss
the development of their research skills and the ideas they generate.
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