Research Assistants: Child Cognitive Development
Prof. Elizabeth Spelke, Laboratory for Developmental Studies (Psychology(FAS) and Harvard-MIT Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines
fall 2023

Seeking interested and motivated students to assist with research in Prof. Elizabeth Spelke's cognitive development lab, under the aegis of the Laboratory for Developmental Studies and the Harvard-MIT Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines. Most of the research in the lab uses behavioral methods, focused on infants' spontaneous actions of looking at, reaching for, or smiling to objects and people, and on children’s responses to visual scenarios and verbal questions. In the lab, previous studies have used non-invasive neuroimaging methods based on EEG, as well as eye tracking. We use these methods to investigate the basic cognitive capacities of infants, toddlers, and children, with an emphasis on the development of perception and knowledge of objects and their mechanical interactions, agents and their instrumental actions, people and their social interactions, number, geometry, formal mathematics, and symbolic skills. Current research projects with infants focus on topics including infants' understanding of objects, infants' attributions of perceptions, beliefs, and emotions to people, and infants' inferences about the object kinds based on their shapes. Experimental research on these topics is conducted in collaboration with investigators developing computational models of human cognition and its development, and with investigators exploring the brain systems underlying these capacities. Current projects with older children focus on the development of numerical, geometrical, social-cognitive, and symbolic skills, including reading, with the goal of developing and testing interventions to enhance the readiness of disadvantaged children for learning across such domains. Some of this research is conducted in collaboration with economists conducting randomized field experiments assessing the effectiveness of such interventions in developing countries, at scale. Responsibilities: While working in the lab, research assistants will be responsible for recruiting and scheduling infant and child participants and their families, assisting lab researchers in testing infants and children, interacting with families who participate in remote study sessions, coding infant looking time responses and toddler behavioral responses, and working with grad students, postdocs, and the director of the lab to complete tasks specific to their research. Requirements and Expectations: Research assistants work in the lab for 10 hours per week and attend weekly course meetings during which grad students discuss their research interests and the current state of their research projects. Throughout the semester, students have the opportunity to learn about a wide variety of research topics within cognitive science. Additionally, each student is paired with a researcher in the lab so as to focus on one topic in depth. We accept students to work in the lab for course credit (Psychology 1652r), as part of the college work-study program, or (in rare cases) as volunteers. The course is open to students of all concentrations and there are no prerequisites, though preference is given to students whose academic interests dovetail with those of the lab's investigators and students. The weekly course meeting time is TBD and students' schedules will be taken into consideration. Additional Information: Our studies are online via Zoom and in-person. We anticipate work-related duties to be conducted in the lab, even as some of our experiments are remote. We are especially welcoming of students with diverse interests and backgrounds, as well as students who are considering honors thesis projects addressed to these or related topics. We anticipate funding being available for work-study eligible students, and we encourage such students to apply. Students should check with their Financial Aid Officer to determine if they are work-study eligible before applying. To Apply: If interested, please fill out this application. If you have any questions, please reach out to the lab manager, Cristina Sarmiento at csarmiento@g.harvard.edu