Research Assistant Interest Form
Research in the lab investigates how language is understood. The lab takes three approaches to this research problem. We conduct basic psycholinguistic and cognitive experiments with human participants. We also explore language and cognitive issues with respect to their neuropsychological underpinnings. Many of our projects utilize the Hyperspace Analogue to Language computer model of memory. This model was developed in our lab. Check out the lab web site for more information on lab research. Dr. Burgess' psycholinguistic analysis has been featured on the Discovery Channel for the program More Than Human to investigate the language ability of the world's fastest talking person <click here for video><click here if that doesn't load for you>.
Undergraduate students have accomplished a great deal as RAs in the lab. Dr. Burgess' undergraduates have recently won the Departmental Outstanding Undergraduate Student two times. Two of his students won the Psi Chi Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award. These two students were selected to represent UCR at the UC-wide Research Day in Sacramento. In the last five years twelve of the lab's undergrads have been authors on thirteen separate presentations at the UCLA Undergraduate Psychology Conference and his undergrads have been coauthors on five papers at the Psychonomic Society conference and the Society for Computers in Psychology conference. One student was a coauthor on a paper presented at the The Amazing Meeting (TAM), a conference sponsored by the James Randi Foundation on skepticism. Topics involved categorization ability, vocabulary, verb categorization, racial bias in language in the media, proper name connotation, and skeptical cognition. They have also coauthored papers on computer models of autism, word meanings, proper names, and racial bias.
Complete the application below to see if your interests and background fits with the lab's current needs. You may also want to consult Dr. Burgess' web page on becoming a research assistant.