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PSY 390 Research Opportunity


Fall 2012



Faculty member or graduate student

Faculty: Dr. James Nairne

Graduate Student: Joshua VanArsdall


Description of research area

Dr. Nairne’s Adaptive Memory Lab begins with the idea that human memory evolved subject to the constraints of nature's criterion—differential survival and reproduction. Consequently, our capacity to remember and forget is likely tuned to solving fitness-based problems, particularly those prominent in the ancestral environments in which memory evolved. 

Do the operating characteristics of memory continue to bear the footprint of nature's criterion? This is ultimately an empirical question, and our laboratory has been conducting experiments exploring evolutionary constraints on remembering and forgetting. For further information on our research program, including copies of our published work, please see our website. (evo.psych.purdue.edu)


Description of undergraduate participation

Undergraduates in the Adaptive Memory Lab are expected to be responsible and dependable first and foremost. The primary work associated with being an undergraduate in the lab is data collection, an extremely important task. Those who do a PSY 390 in this lab will interact with participants, as well as be well-informed about what the results of their work are through weekly meetings. Additional responsibilities include other office tasks such as occasional copying and filing, as well as data scoring. Completing a PSY 390 in the Nairne Lab means gaining experience with the creation & execution of experiments, and analysis of resultant data in the field of cognitive psychology.


Research setting

Research in the Nairne Lab involves testing participants using a variety of computer-based and paper-based measures. The research area is in memory, a division of cognitive psychology. PSY 390 applicants are encouraged to have taken PSY 200 before applying, though it is not required.


Number of assistants needed

2


Contact information

Joshua VanArsdall

jvanarsd@psych.purdue.edu


Additional comments

Preferred (but not required) courses taken:

PSY 200          PSY 201          PSY 203