Please fill out this google form application if you are interested in becoming an Undergraduate Research Assistant in our lab (see below). Note that applications are typically reviewed at the end of the semester prior to the one that new Research Assistants would start.
If you have a specific question, email us at emac.usf@gmail.com. Students using their USF email: please allow 1-2 business days for a response. If you do not hear back within that time, please check your spam/junk folders.
Postdocs
If you are interested in doing a postdoc in the lab, please contact Dr. Schotter at eschotter@usf.edu to discuss research projects and funding opportunities.
Graduate Students
We are accepting graduate students to join our lab through the Psychology Department PhD program in Cognition, Neuroscience and Social Psychology. Applications are accepted each Fall (deadline: December 1) to start the following August. Please reach out to Dr. Schotter at eschotter@usf.edu before applying to discuss your interest in the lab.
To apply, follow the application procedures for the Department of Psychology and review information about the interdisciplinary program in Cognition, Neuroscience, & Social Psychology.
We are also happy to have visiting graduate students from other departments or universities work in our lab for a semester or longer. Please reach out to Dr. Schotter at eschotter@usf.edu to discuss your interest in being a visiting student in the lab.
Undergraduates
Research assistants in the EMaC Lab study human cognition using eye tracking experiments, electroencephalography (EEG; i.e., “brain wave”) experiments, advanced statistical techniques, and cognitive models.
The Big Questions:
How do people read? How do they fit together the sequence of visual “snapshots” of the text that they obtain on each eye fixation to understand what the words and sentences mean… all in the matter of seconds? How do a reader’s expectations about words affect the visual processing of the text? How is visual processing of text related to processing of speech-based language?
How do deaf people process text? If hearing people usually access the speech equivalent of text when reading silently, what do deaf people do if they have never heard the language? Do they instead attend to peripheral visual information much like they do when processing sign language?
How does musical training affect cognition? Is musical information processed similarly to language information, and do people who have experience processing music receive benefits that make it easier for them to process language?
What Research Assistants do:
Use state-of-the-art eye tracking and/or EEG equipment to study research questions like the ones mentioned above. As part of this research, students will develop stimuli (e.g., find or compose words, pictures, sentences, musical phrases), run subjects (e.g., schedule appointments, give instructions, set up the eye tracker, monitor data collection), process data, and engage in the theoretical development of the project (conduct background research and present original research findings). Students will also have opportunities to learn experimental design and statistical analysis (and related computer programming in R and Python), if desired. In addition to working directly on ongoing projects in the lab, students will attend weekly lab meetings, which involve reading, presenting, and discussing recent journal articles related to lab projects and participating in workshops on writing, presenting, and computer programming.
Undergraduate Honors Thesis
It is also possible to work on your Honors Thesis through the Psychology Honors program. Please note that we only supervise thesis projects for students who have already been working in the lab, so please reach out to us as soon as possible. You may contact Dr. Schotter directly regarding the mentorship process via eschotter@usf.edu.
To participate in a research study, sign up using our university’s SONA system.
The EMaC Lab 