Undergraduate Research Opportunities
Assist In Research - PSYC 2999/4999
Students may enroll in PSYC 2999 or PSYC 4999 for research credit and some faculty may accept volunteers. Below is the list of our faculty members and their areas of research specialization. Please directly contact the faculty member whose research you are interested in before submitting any forms for approval. Students are required to have a minimum 2.5 LSU and Cumulative GPA. Students in their first semester at LSU will not be eligible for PSYC 2999/4999 because they do not have an LSU GPA yet.
To receive credit for working in a lab, you must first submit a form for approval. Please discuss lab requirements with the faculty member before submitting forms for approval. For approval, please fill out either a PSYC 2999 or PSYC 4999 form and complete the student section of the form entirely. Please read the form and all directions carefully. Once you have obtained all necessary signatures, the form will go to the office for final approval.
If you have any questions, email psycadvising@lsu.edu.
Behavior Analysis
Dr. Donaldson’s research focuses on improving the lives of children and their caregiving adults by examining simple, efficient, and effective interventions and promoting shared governance in the intervention selection process.
Common themes in her research include improving classroom behavior in preschool and elementary classes, promoting safe play at recess, and teaching early academic skills.
Undergraduate research assistants will have the opportunity to collect direct observation behavioral data and conduct research sessions with individuals or groups of individuals in community settings. In addition, research assistants will be expected to attend weekly lab meetings, in which the data are presented and relevant research articles are discussed. Students can earn course credit by enrolling in PSYC 2999. Interested students should complete the application.
Dr. Gilroy's research interests include the socialization and communication impairments demonstrated by individuals with disabilities (e.g., autism, intellectual disabilities), the evaluation of Behavior Analytic intervention packages using randomized-controlled designs, and exploring how models of decision-making and operant demand relate to caregiver decision-making (i.e., which treatments to implement and to what degree).
Aside from clinical research and service delivery, I develop and maintain numerous apps (i.e., speech-generating devices) used in clinical interventions and statistical packages (i.e., operant demand, delay discounting) used in clinical research. Everything I develop and research is released under free and open source licenses to support interventions in resource-strained settings, such as homes and schools. All projects, to date, are contained in my active GitHub repository.
My current projects include developing free and open source tools for use in communication interventions and in modeling caregiver decision-making. Per communication interventions, this project is dedicated to developing affordable and sustainable applications that can be used effectively by families and educators across environments. My projects related to caregiver decision-making are primarily statistical in nature, focusing on modeling how caregivers select interventions for their children and allocate their time and effort.
Students who are interested can email Dr. Gilroy at sgilroy1@lsu.edu.
Dr. Morris’ laboratory focuses on utilizing experimental manipulations of the environment to understand the causes of behavior and prescribe effective interventions to promote the development of adaptive social behaviors.
Dr. Morris conducts behavior-analytic research in three principal areas: (1) methods of assessing and improving sociability, (2) the identification, evaluation, and utilization of different types of reinforcing stimuli, and (3) the application of quantitative models to understand problems of basic and applied significance. Students can get involved in this research in a variety of ways, including assisting with data analysis, collecting behavioral data, and even conducting research sessions.
Students may work with children with and without developmental disabilities in clinical contexts or undergraduate students and artificially-intelligent organisms in the context of basic and translational research. All members of Dr. Morris’ lab are expected to attend weekly research meetings.
Interested students are encouraged to apply by emailing a brief description of their interest and availability to Dr. Morris at slmorris@lsu.edu.
Dr. Soto investigates the cognitive and behavioral effects of drugs.
Dr. Soto's current research is focused on 1) evaluating the long-term behavioral and physiological effects of early-life exposure to psychiatric medications and 2) the dynamics of behavioral and physiological adaptations to changes in dietary protein intake.
Dr. Soto has a strong track record of mentoring undergraduate students in research and his students have presented their research findings at regional and national conferences and have been accepted into graduate programs at prestigious institutions such as Wake Forest University, Rutgers University, and Penn State University. Undergraduate students are encouraged to apply to work in the lab. If you are interested in applying to work in Dr. Soto's laboratory, please complete an online application at Soto Lab Application.
View Dr. Soto's faculty biography page and Dr. Soto's laboratory website.
Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Dr. Beck conducts research on theoretical and applied questions related to visual attention and memory.
Theoretical questions such as "how does the brain store visual information" and "what factors in the visual world capture and guide visual attention" are examined with the goal of developing workable models of human visual cognition. As these theories are developed, they are used toward the goal of improving users' performance on tasks that require visual attention and memory. For example, based on our knowledge of how visual attention and memory operate in the human brain, we can develop graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and training techniques that can accentuate the strengths and limit the weaknesses of these processes.
Current research employs techniques such as tracking participant's eye movements as they search for a visual target or try to detect visual changes in a display. Dr. Beck is also interested in people's beliefs about how their visual system works and how the inaccuracy of these beliefs influences perception.
Students interested in working in Dr. Beck's laboratory should send an e-mail to mbeck@lsu.edu, call (225) 578-7214, or stop by 209 Audubon Hall.
Dr. Cherry is interested in factors that impact healthy aging.
Current research projects focus on disaster stress related to the historic flooding of 2016 and prior hurricane experience. Students may be involved in recruiting and testing community-dwelling adults both at LSU and off-campus locations, data entry, and library work.
- Disaster Stress and Cognition in Midlife and Later Adulthood
- Interdisciplinary Approaches to Healthy Aging
For more information, contact Dr. Cherry at pskatie@lsu.edu.
Dr. Cox applies a combination of behavioral research, computational modelling, machine learning, and neuroimaging to investigate the representational format of semantic knowledge.
Our knowledge of the world shapes our path through it: the decisions we make, the things we attend to and ignore, and what we think we know about an unfamiliar environment when we enter it for the first time. How this knowledge is acquired, and a brain-based account of what that knowledge is and how it is physically represented in the brain, are critical questions for cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience.
Interested students should contact Dr. Cox at chriscox@lsu.edu for further information.
Dr. Elliott has a primary research interest in memory, working memory, attention, and the development of attention and memory in children.
One current line of research includes an investigation of how people perform in the presence of sounds that are irrelevant to the main task.
For more information, contact Dr. Elliott at (225)578-7460, or email eelliott@lsu.edu.
Dr. Lucas conducts research on how people learn and remember information, and how different aspects of memory are implemented in the brain.
Dr. Lucas has a particular interest in how people manage the limits of their own memory abilities by making decisions about when and how to interact with to-be-remembered information— for example, by deciding what information to prioritize and how best to learn it. Another topic of interest is how memory contributes to a variety of tasks that require flexible thinking, such as creative problem solving. Dr. Lucas uses a variety of methods in her work, particularly event-related potentials (ERPs) and eye tracking.
Students participate in the design of experimental materials, data collection, data entry/analysis, and participant recruitment. Opportunities for additional involvement may be available for interested and motivated students who work in the lab for multiple semesters.
For further information, contact Dr. Lucas at hlucas2@lsu.edu.
Dr. McDonald investigates how people (children and adults) acquire and comprehend language.
Dr. McDonald is interested in factors (e.g. age of acquisition, working memory capacity, amount and type of exposure) that determine the mastery of the structural aspects of language. Research projects include investigating language mastery in elementary school- aged children, in native speaking adults under different learning and testing conditions, and in second language learners.
Students with interest in linguistics, cognitive processing, and second language learning (especially if you are fluent in two or more languages) are encouraged to contact Dr. McDonald in room 223A Audubon Hall, (225) 578-4116, or email psmcdo@lsu.edu.
Dr. Soto's current research is focused on 1) evaluating the long-term behavioral and physiological effects of early-life exposure to psychiatric medications and 2) the dynamics of behavioral and physiological adaptations to changes in dietary protein intake.
Dr. Soto has a strong track record of mentoring undergraduate students in research and his students have presented their research findings at regional and national conferences and have been accepted into graduate programs at prestigious institutions such as Wake Forest University, Rutgers University, and Penn State University. Undergraduate students are encouraged to apply to work in the lab. If you are interested in applying to work in Dr. Soto's laboratory, please complete an online application at Soto Lab Application.
View Dr. Soto's faculty biography page and Dr. Soto's laboratory website.
Clinical Psychology
Dr. Buckner researches psycho-sociocultural factors related to substance abuse and related disorders as well as ways to improve empirically supported treatments of these disorders.
Current research has particular focus on identification of factors related to substance
misuse, especially among individuals form marginalized groups, as well as on ways
to improve empirically supported treatments of substance use disorders. Student responsibilities
could include collection of ecological momentary assessment of alcohol and other substance
use in the natural environment, participant recruitment, data entry, survey programming,
and literature searches. Preferences will be given to Psychology majors, students
with serious interests in research and attending graduate school, and students with
a GPA 3.2 or higher.
Students interested in substance misuse research experience can contact Dr. Buckner at jbuckner@lsu.edu.
View Dr. Buckner's faculty biography page. Alternatively, view the Anxiety and Addictive Behaviors Clinic (AABC) webpage.
Dr. Calamia is interested in clinical neuropsychological assessment, which involves
measuring cognitive and emotional functioning in individuals with conditions such
as ADHD, traumatic brain injury, and Alzheimer's disease.
Students may be involved in a number of activities including patient recruitment,
administering neuropsychological tests and measures, clinical data entry, and research
dissemination (e.g. poster presentations). Students may also be involved in research
in senior living communities such as engaging residents in virtual reality activities.
For more information, please contact Dr. Calamia at mcalamia@lsu.edu.
View Dr. Calamia's faculty biography page. View Dr. Calamia's lab website.
Dr. Cohen's laboratory focuses on researching serious mental illness (SMI).
Current projects are aimed at better understanding symptoms in individuals with SMI.
Students can serve a number of duties, including data-coding, computerized analysis of patients' behavior, literature searches and assisting with data-collection.
Responsible students interested in SMI are encouraged to contact Dr. Cohen at acohen@lsu.edu for further information.
View Dr. Cohen's faculty biography page. View the Severe Psychopathy Research Laboratory (SPRL) webpage.
Dr. Capron focuses on suicide prevention and amelioration of cognitive biases (e.g., anxiety sensitivity, behavioral economics, post-traumatic cognitions). I create single-session/technology-delivered (e.g., smartphone, Virtual Reality Head Mounted Displays, immersive simulators) interventions that eliminate structural (e.g., cost, location, transportation) and cultural (e.g., stigma) treatment barriers, which reduce health disparities in higher-risk populations (e.g., rural, military, minority).
For Interested Undergraduate Students:
Students can assist in multiple phases of this research, including running participants through VR/simulator studies, participant recruitment, survey and experiment development, statistical analysis, and dissemination (research posters and publications). Students interested in anxiety, trauma, or suicide prevention are encouraged to contact Dr. Capron at dcapron@lsu.edu.
Visit Dr. Capron's faculty biography page.
Dr. Frick conducts research on children and adolescents with serious behavior problems.
Current research projects focus on how the various factors within the child and his
or her social context can lead him or her to act in ways that hurt others (e.g., aggression
and violence) or that violates important societal norms (e.g., school rules, laws).
This research is used to improve how youth with behavior problems are diagnosed and
treated. It is also used to influence public policy for how youth are best treated
by the justice system. Projects involve children as young as age 3 through young
adulthood. The research would be particularly beneficial for students who are interested
in pursuing graduate work in developmental, clinical, or forensic psychology.
Students interested in working in Dr. Frick's laboratory should send an e-mail to pfrick@lsu.edu.
Dr. Hill conducts research focused on suicide prevention for youth and emerging adult populations, with a focus on identifying risk and protective factors for use in therapeutic interventions, testing brief interventions for suicide prevention, and factors that support resilience in underrepresented or underserved populations (LGBTQ youth, racial/ethnic minority youth).
Students can assist in multiple phases of this research, including literature searches, study recruitment, interviewing study participants, developing surveys, assisting with community-based training, statistical analysis and project management. Students in Dr. Hill's lab are expected to commit to a minimum of two semesters. Independent study opportunities are reserved for students actively engaged in the lab.
Interested students are encouraged to contact Dr. Hill at ryanhill@lsu.edu.
My program of research is focused on understanding the etiology, course, and comorbidity of externalizing psychopathology in childhood, with a particular interest in psychophysiological and dispositional risk factors. Through my research I hope to:
- Identify risk factors and/or markers of externalizing behavior, as early in development as possible.
- Understand the mechanisms underlying shared etiology and continuity between early childhood symptoms and later psychopathology.
- Inform the development of individualized approaches to the treatment of children exhibiting disruptive behaviors.
Undergraduate students may have opportunities to assist in participant recruitment, data collection, including psychophysiological data (e.g., heart rate variability, pre-ejection period, skin conductance), data entry, literature searches, and dissemination of research results.
Students interested in research in early childhood externalizing behaviors should contact Dr. Mikolajewski at amikolajewski@lsu.edu.
Dr. Soto’s research takes an interdisciplinary approach to assess unique executive function neurocognitive profiles in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., ADHD and Autism) combining clinical, behavioral, and neurophysiological measurements.
Undergraduate students may have opportunities to assist in preparing participant recruitment
materials, piloting tasks/experiments, data entry, literature searches, and dissemination
of research results (i.e., poster presentations). Students will be required to attend
weekly lab meetings. Preference will be given to students that are willing to commit
to a minimum of two semesters.
Interested students are encouraged to contact Dr. Elia Soto at esoto@lsu.edu.
Dr. Tucker conducts research in the field of suicide prevention with a specific focus on novel contributors to suicide risk and historical and current cultural factors that influence suicide risk and resilience in underrepresented populations (e.g., transgender veterans and ethnic/racial minority adults).
Students can assist in multiple phases of this research, including literature searches, participant recruitment, survey and experiment development, statistical analysis, and dissemination (research posters and publications). Dr. Tucker’s research program is also active in online awareness campaigns.
Responsible students interested in suicide prevention are encouraged to contact Dr. Tucker at rtucker1@lsu.edu.
Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Dr. Burke's research examines the intersection between diversity and the hierarchical nature of organizations.
Her work centers on how demographic (gender, age, race) and behavioral (sexual harassment, emotional displays, leader errors) indicators of power and social status determine who has access to opportunities. Specifically, how do these power and status dynamics manifest through formal positions (leadership) and informal social dynamics (power claiming, maintenance, and loss). She is driven to critically evaluate the way individual employees interact with organizational structures, investigating mixed and evolving findings in the gender and diversity literature.
Students interested in her work on diversity and/or leadership can email her at vburke4@lsu.edu.
Dr. Cobb is an industrial-organizational psychologist who focuses on occupational health psychology.
Her research centers around the work-nonwork interface and employee well-being. Specifically, Dr.Cobb’s research aims to understand how workers differentiate their personal and professional lives to promote health, productivity, and fulfillment, with consideration for the unhealthy and/or oppressive environments that workers may find themselves in. Additionally, she uses open science and a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Students interested in any of these topics, including research methodology, can contact Dr. Cobb at hrcobb@lsu.edu regarding research opportunities, which may involve helping with data collection, crafting manuscripts, designing surveys or interview scripts, or other tasks as needed.
Visit Dr. Cobb's faculty biography page.
Dr. Zhang is an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist.
His research interests involve risk taking at work, statistical communication, and employee selection decisions. Undergraduate researchers may be involved in a variety of tasks including coding qualitative data, running experiments, and literature review.
Students who are interested should contact him via email at zhang1@lsu.edu and visit his lab's website for more information.
School Psychology
Dr. Clark’s research is centered on promoting student mental health and academic functioning within school settings and beyond.
Dr. Clark is interested in students’ perception of school climate and their sense of school belonging, as well as academic engagement (affective, behavioral, cognitive) and achievement. Dr. Clark’s conceptualization of mental health considers not only psychological risk factors and symptomatology, but also the presence of protective factors and subjective well-being.
Dr. Clark is particularly interested in the developmental transition from late childhood to early adolescence (i.e., transition from elementary to middle school). She is committed to utilizing empirically-validated universal screening tools and school-based mental health interventions that align within a multitiered system of support (i.e., response to intervention).
Students in Dr. Clark’s lab can expect individualized advising and mentorship, as well as peer mentorship and collaborative experiences across the School Psychology Program and Department of Psychology. Dr. Clark collaborates with students to hone their individual research interests and develop a program of research. Students may become involved in all aspects of the research process, including literature reviews, study conceptualization, data collection and analysis, and disseminating findings via peer-reviewed conference presentation and publication.
Students who are interested can email Dr. Clark at kellyclark@lsu.edu.
Dr. Choe’s research is centered on social-emotional learning, mental health, social supports, and a culturally responsive approach.
Dr. Choe has established her scholarship on 1) exploring protective and risk factors for culturally diverse children’s mental health and 2) developing culturally responsive social-emotional learning programs.
Dr. Choe’s current projects include developing and implementing online social-emotional learning for Asian immigrant children and adolescents in Louisiana. Students could have opportunities to collect and manage data and create curriculum materials. Students with experience working with children and parents may also have opportunities to work directly with children and parents. Students who are fluent in Korean, Chinese, or Vietnamese are highly encouraged to apply for this opportunity, but this is not required.
Interested students are encouraged to contact Dr. Choe at danbichoe@lsu.edu.
Dr. Donaldson’s research focuses on improving the lives of children and their caregiving adults by examining simple, efficient, and effective interventions and promoting shared governance in the intervention selection process.
Common themes in her research include improving classroom behavior in preschool and elementary classes, promoting safe play at recess, and teaching early academic skills.
Undergraduate research assistants will have the opportunity to collect direct observation behavioral data and conduct research sessions with individuals or groups of individuals in community settings. In addition, research assistants will be expected to attend weekly lab meetings, in which the data are presented and relevant research articles are discussed. Students can earn course credit by enrolling in PSYC 2999. Interested students should complete the application.
Dr. Gilroy's research interests include the socialization and communication impairments demonstrated by individuals with disabilities (e.g., autism, intellectual disabilities), the evaluation of Behavior Analytic intervention packages using randomized-controlled designs, and exploring how models of decision-making and operant demand relate to caregiver decision-making (i.e., which treatments to implement and to what degree).
Aside from clinical research and service delivery, I develop and maintain numerous apps (i.e., speech-generating devices) used in clinical interventions and statistical packages (i.e., operant demand, delay discounting) used in clinical research. Everything I develop and research is released under free and open source licenses to support interventions in resource-strained settings, such as homes and schools. All projects, to date, are contained in my active GitHub repository.
My current projects include developing free and open source tools for use in communication interventions and in modeling caregiver decision-making. Per communication interventions, this project is dedicated to developing affordable and sustainable applications that can be used effectively by families and educators across environments. My projects related to caregiver decision-making are primarily statistical in nature, focusing on modeling how caregivers select interventions for their children and allocate their time and effort.
Students who are interested can email Dr. Gilroy at sgilroy1@lsu.edu.
Dr. Long's laboratory focuses on improving the implementation of evidence-based treatments in schools and culturally responsive practice.
Despite the proliferation of evidence-based treatments for use with youth in schools, desired student outcomes and educational and mental health disparities remain. Thus, Dr. Long’s current research aims to address these disparities and enhance the quality of educational and mental health services for marginalized and minoritized communities. Dr. Long's first line of research focuses on the identification of implementation barriers and facilitators that might lead to the development of effective implementation supports, increasing youth receiving high quality and proven practices. A second major line of research for her is examining cultural variables that moderate treatment outcomes (i.e., retention, engagement, and improvements in functioning/performance) and the impact of interventionist cultural competency on client outcomes.
Student responsibilities could include data collection in schools or community settings, data coding and entry, literature reviews and/or the development of study materials. Preferences will be given to Psychology majors, and students with serious interests in research and attending graduate school.
Students interested in implementation science and culturally responsive practice research should contact Dr. Long at along@lsu.edu
Dr. Morris’ laboratory focuses on utilizing experimental manipulations of the environment to understand the causes of behavior and prescribe effective interventions to promote the development of adaptive social behaviors.
Dr. Morris conducts behavior-analytic research in three principal areas: (1) methods of assessing and improving sociability, (2) the identification, evaluation, and utilization of different types of reinforcing stimuli, and (3) the application of quantitative models to understand problems of basic and applied significance. Students can get involved in this research in a variety of ways, including assisting with data analysis, collecting behavioral data, and even conducting research sessions.
Students may work with children with and without developmental disabilities in clinical contexts or undergraduate students and artificially-intelligent organisms in the context of basic and translational research. All members of Dr. Morris’ lab are expected to attend weekly research meetings.
Interested students are encouraged to apply by emailing a brief description of their interest and availability to Dr. Morris at slmorris@lsu.edu.
Adjunct Faculty
Dr. Brantley is conducting research on psychological aspects of physical illness.
Current research involves studies to investigate psychological factors that may promote long-term adherence with chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity.
Students will be required to perform library work, data collection, and data coding and input. Specific duties vary with each research project.
For further information, contact Dr. Brantley in the Behavioral Medicine Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, call 763-2629, or email BrantlPJ@pbrc.edu.
Dr. Carmichael is using neuroimaging to investigate the effects of aging, diabetes, exercise, and diet on the brain.
Current research involves functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain in younger and older adults performing cognitive tasks. The fMRI data is compared between individuals with differing histories of weight gain, diabetes control, and exercise engagement.
Students learn how to analyze MRI data, learn the current state of brain MRI research, and perform literature searches. Specific duties vary with each research project.
For further information, contact Dr. Carmichael at Pennington Biomedical Research Center: owen.carmichael@pbrc.edu.
Dr. Morrison has a general research interest in whole animal neuroendocrinology and physiology, especially as applied to the neuronal regulation of feeding behavior, body weight homeostasis, reproduction, growth, and metabolism.
Dr. Morrison’s work has recently focused on dietary protein content and its effects on food intake and body weight. Dietary protein restriction significantly alters body composition, metabolism and food intake, but the mechanisms through which protein intake is detected and regulated are largely unknown. Recent work in the Morrison lab has discovered novel pathways contributing to the detection of protein restriction, and in particular has identified the circulating hormone FGF21 as the first known endocrine signal of protein restriction. Ongoing work is focusing on both the mechanism through which dietary protein regulates FGF21 and the mechanisms through which FGF21 coordinates adaptive changes in food intake and metabolism in response to protein restriction. In addition, separate experiments seek to identify novel pathways connecting dietary protein intake to metabolism, feeding behavior and longevity.
Dr. Pizarro conducts research related to the assessment and treatment of severe challenging behavior for individuals profoundly impacted by intellectual or developmental disabilities.
Current points of emphasis in her clinical research include wholistic measures of intervention efficacy, monitoring and improving quality of care, and increasing the durability and adoptability of behavior change.
Undergraduate research assistants will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience conducting applied research in local clinics. Research assistant involvement will include collecting behavioral data and assisting with the implementation of assessment and intervention sessions with children and adolescents with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Research assistants will be expected to attend weekly meetings at the clinical research site and participate in trainings, case reviews, and journal article discussions. Students can earn course credit by enrolling in PSYC 2999. Interested students should email Dr. Pizarro at epizarro@lsu.edu.
Dr. Sinclair conducts research within social and forensic psychology. Having worked as a professor in the psychology department at Mississippi State University for 17 years before moving to LSU, Dr. Sinclair has mentored over 200 undergraduate research assistants, with a 91% acceptance rate to graduate programs and numerous awards won, and with whom she has co-authored over 140 research presentations and publications with students. She also has served as the Director for the Summer Program for Undergraduate Research for the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, faculty sponsor of Psi Chi, and other mentorship related service at the national level.
Students working with Dr. Sinclair get a variety of hands-on research experience on multiple projects. Current funded projects examine 1) disinformation and threat detection in online forums, 2) improving equity in math education in Baton Rouge public schools, 3) evaluating the quality of transitional housing options for recent parolees. Project list may change as new opportunities arise.
Thus, from day-to-day responsibilities could vary. Every week there are meetings as well wherein students are expected to set weekly goals as to what they will accomplish on each project. One day you are conducting interviews with ex-convicts and the next day you are transcribing focus groups with local teachers. The following week you are coding online posts by domestic terrorists while helping to develop new survey instruments to assess motivation. The following month you may be helping with the lit review for a proposal to examine hate crimes in schools or illegal fishing practices in Nigeria. The wealth and diversity of research skills acquired are considerable. The Social Research and Evaluation Center was recognized as a Louisiana Board of Regents Center of Research Excellence for a reason.
Interested students are encouraged to reach out to Dr. Sinclair with a vita and description of their research interests. An application will be sent and an interview will then be scheduled. Please be sure to look into examples of Dr. Sinclair’s work prior to contact (if not journal articles then check out her blogs, for example, on The Conversation and Psychology Today). A minimum of a two-semester commitment is expected working a minimum of 10 hours a week.
Dr. Staiano is interested in obesity treatment and prevention in children and adolescents, with a focus on the behavioral contributors to pediatric obesity.
Dr. Staiano is currently leading a physical activity trial for overweight adolescent girls that uses active video games (on Kinect for Xbox) to encourage physical activity. She is also directing pediatric weight loss programs in local schools and pediatric clinics.
Students may perform participant recruitment, data entry, literature searches and library work, and other activities related to specific studies. Students will have the opportunity to observe clinical assessments, data collection, and interventions.
For more information, contact Dr. Staiano in the Pediatric Obesity and Health Behavior Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Call 225-763-2729 or email amanda.staiano@pbrc.edu.