“I would advise anyone to try directed research. This experience has been invaluable to me as I have learned to set reasonable expectations, have acquired the dedication and concentration needed to properly run participants, and have built the flexibility to address issues."

Supervising Faculty: Scott Fraundorf

Contact:
Scott Fraundorf
sfraundo@pitt.edu
608 Learning Research and Development Center

Area of Research: Cognitive

Description of Research:

Have you ever wondered what the best way to study is? There are several different ways to study, such as breaking the material up into chunks or cramming right before an exam.   It’s hard to know what’s most effective, and even harder to study in the most effective way.  This is especially true when there are so many distractions in today’s interconnected world.  We’re conducting research to understand the best learning techniques, and people’s motivations when choosing study methods.  Our research primarily uses behavioral/cognitive experiments both in the lab and on the Web.  

Duties of Students: 
* Assist in experimental stimuli creation (such as helping to find facts or prose passages)
* Help collect data (e.g. running participants through experiments)
* Code and/or analyze data from studies
* Help pilot experiments to look for errors and provide feedback
* Read scientific papers from this area of research and discuss them in lab meetings.

Requirements:
Students must complete the following prerequisites before the start of PSY 1903*:
Overall GPA of 3.0 or higher
12 credits of Psychology (including current term)
STAT 0200/1000/1100- Statistics
PSY 0036/0037 - Research Methods in Psychology

Terms offered: fall and spring

Number of Students: 2

Additional Information: Check out our lab page: http://www.maple-lab.org