LAB MANAGER POSITION AVAILABLE:
Language Processing and Language Development Lab
Institute for Research in Cognitive Science
Department of Psychology
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA USA
The research labs of Dr. John Trueswell and Dr. Lila Gleitman are hiring a full-time research assistant (i.e., lab manager/coordinator) to help conduct language processing studies with children and adults. In many of these studies we will be recording the eye movements of participants as they respond to spoken instructions. The successful candidate will have frequent contact with postdocs, graduate students, research assistants, and will have plenty of opportunities for scientific involvement in all aspects of research projects in the lab including journal articles and conference presentations. Thus, this position is an excellent stepping stone for someone planning to go to graduate school in psycholinguistics — individuals previously employed in this position are now star graduate students, postdocs and even professors within psychology and linguistics.
Primary responsibilities include:
– Assisting lab members and the PIs in the running of experiments
– Designing, running and analyzing experiments with infants, children, and adults
– Developing experimental materials, and data management/analysis.
– Recruiting participants
– Coordinating and training undergraduate research assistants
– Assisting in planning lab events and meetings
– Additional duties include management of human subject information, assisting in the reporting of information to funding institutions and Penn’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), and lab scheduling.
Essential qualifications:
– A Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, Linguistics, Computer Science, or Cognitive Science
– 0-1 year of research experience, preferably with children or infants (an equivalent combination of education and experience can be considered).
– Excellent organizational and communication skills (especially with young children and families).
– Be detail-oriented, motivated, creative, organized, and able to work independently
– Experience is required in Microsoft Excel and statistical analysis software (preferably R, SPSS and/or MatLab).
– Be able to jump from low- to high-level amount of work smoothly and work under pressure when deadlines are approaching
Preferred qualifications:
– Prior experience in psychology research and/or computational modeling.
– Proficient programming skills, ideally in Python, R and Matlab.
– Flexible work availability (including evenings and weekends) is desirable.
The position can begin as early as March of 2018 — but we will also consider later start dates, as late as May or June of 2018.