Overview of Psychology Research Lab

History

The Psychology Research Laboratory was established in 2003 to provide a venue for conducting research in BSU's Psychology Department. What began as a one cart laboratory has expanded into two rooms specified for research, as well as an office for the Research Coordinator.  Hart 328 has space for 8-12 subjects and four PC terminals for computer response surveys; Hart 327 seats four to six subjects, and has cabinets for specialized testing equipment. There are also surveys on-line. Professors, graduate students, honors thesis students, and undergraduate independent study students use the lab to conduct their studies and review and analyze their data. 

The Change to University Status

According to the 2007 White Paper prepared by the Board of Trustees (The Question of University Status for Bridgewater State College), "... A change to University status focuses institutional attention on the need to offer students additional opportunities for more fully engaged forms of learning. Curricular innovations such as out-of-class experiences, hands-on laboratory exercises, inquiry-based studies, internships, undergraduate research projects ... and other methods to intensify student interest in traditional coursework ... consistently lead to enhanced levels of academic and professional success.” Now that we have attained University status, research will undoubtedly take on a more prominent role for both students and faculty. The Psychology Research Lab is pleased to offer research space, training, and support as we move forward as Bridgewater State University.

Subject Pool

The subject pool for research in the Psychology lab mostly includes students currently enrolled in Introductory Psychology (PSYC 100).  Part of the requirement for this course is to experience research - either as a research study participant or summarizing a research article.   This subject pool allows the researchers to avoid biased samples, samples with non-normal/correlated variance distributions, etc. Also, the posting and signup procedure developed for use of the subject pool avoids problems with coercion and incentives, thus satisfying the requirements of the Institutional Review Board and funding agencies.

Research Coordinator

The Lab is managed by the Research  Coordinator. The Lab Coordinator prepares training and outreach materials, provides orientation to new researchers, introduces undergraduate psychology classes to the Lab and its activities, maintains IRB files for Departmental studies, works with Information Technology to install and update study software and hardware, schedules studies, oversees subject recruitment, trains and supervises Lab work-study students, and tracks and reports participation data. The Lab Coordinator reports directly to the Department Chair. If problems or policy issues arise, the Lab Coordinator consults with the Chair of the Psychology Department, as well as the Lab Advisory Committee; in appropriate cases, concerns are presented to the entire faculty at Departmental meetings, for discussion and action.

 

Last Modified: March 6, 2012