Research Internships: Developmental Linguistics

Research Internships: Developmental Linguistics
Dr. Jesse Snedeker, Snedeker Lab, Lab for Developmental Studies, Department of Psychology
spring term and beyond (could start any term but we expect students to stay with us for at least 2 terms preferably more)

The Snedeker Lab is seeking research assistants for several projects investigating how children acquire and process language. Our lab largely uses methods such as: EEG (measuring the electricity generated by the brain) and behavioral production (asking children to produce an explicit response) experiments with a wide range of populations and languages. Projects this semester, separated by methodology, are the following.  Eyetracking: (1) Investigating the understanding of quantification in infancy, specifically the concepts of “some” and “all”, (e.g., 'some balls explode' vs 'all balls explode') using eyetracking. Behavioral Production: (1) Exploring toddler’s understanding of alternative possibilities (e.g., 'something is in A or in B'); (2) exploring how event representations are encoded in the absence of language by conducting nonlinguistic tasks to get at the distinction between the agent (the doer) and the patient (the affected one); (3) exploring how event types (specifically manner and path) are encoded by young children in the absence of language; (4) investigating toddler’s understanding of one and two participant events with a behavioral production task; and (5) exploring the production of negation in young children using event successes and even failures. EEG: (1) Investigating children's online language processing in a naturalistic context, specifically what word features (e.g. frequency, length, predictability) children rely on, and whether this changes across development (ages 5-14); (2) exploring the modulation of a semantic priming effect in different experimental contexts with both children and adults; (3) investigating children and adults’ online language processing in a code-switching context (English-Mandarin); and (4) investigating toddler’s online language processing in a naturalistic context, specifically what word features (e.g. frequency, length, predictability) toddler’s rely on. Responsibilities: Research assistant responsibilities include designing and creating stimuli, aiding in experimental design, recruiting, scheduling, and testing adult and child participants, coding and analyzing data, and assisting with write-ups. Research assistants meet regularly with their mentor and attend Snedeker lab meetings. All Snedeker lab RAs are expected to do ~11 hours of lab work each week. We have a preference for course credit RAs and would like a commitment of two terms. Students planning to write a psychology, linguistics, or neuroscience thesis should contact the Snedeker Lab before the fall of their junior year. Regarding mentorship, RAs in the Snedeker lab meet regularly with their grad student or postdoc mentor. RAs will set goals for the semester with the lab manager at the start of the term and will regularly check in with their mentor and lab manager about how to meet those goals. RAs will attend lab meetings and present their work to other RAs and lab members. Other events, including grad student panels, writing workshops, and R workshops, are organized each semester based on the goals and needs of RAs. To Apply: Interested applicants please send a brief cover letter and CV to the Snedeker lab manager (Hanna Shine, hshine@fas.harvard.edu). (posted 11/24)