The Baby Learning Lab (Principal Investigator: Dr. Lauren Emberson) is recruiting volunteer Research Assistants.
Position Overview
The Baby Learning Lab is seeking Undergraduate Research Assistants to engage with children, schedule family visits, attend community recruitment events, and perform daily lab tasks.
Position Responsibilities
Research Assistants (RAs) perform a variety of tasks as a part of the Baby Learning Lab. RAs are trained to contact families to invite them to participate in our in-person studies; to conduct behavioural coding; to prepare materials for upcoming studies; to help support family visits and fNIRS/eye-tracking data collection; and to code videos of infant behaviour. With experience, RAs are typically assigned to specific, ongoing projects that involve even more hands-on research experience; these specialized tasks may include performing behavioural coding, literature reviews and helping with data processing and analysis.
Some RAs also contribute to specific projects such as Exploration, which focuses on infant neurocognitive development in naturalistic play settings. This project is overseen by Dr. Lauren Emberson, offering RAs a unique opportunity to work closely with her. While a portion of the work—such as behavioral coding—is done remotely, we also complete a weekly 3-hour in-person shift, one hour in person meeting and 5 hours working remotely/in person, which can be scheduled flexibly and allows us to engage in more research-intensive tasks and team collaboration. When we’re in the lab, we attend bi-weekly meetings where we sometimes discuss research papers or collectively tackle open questions in our work. For example, when we asked, “Should we code caregiver labeling as overlapping with caregiver singing?”, we conducted a literature search as a group and discussed the findings together.
There’s also a high degree of autonomy in how we approach coding decisions, which we always review collaboratively in meetings. This has been an incredible learning opportunity to better understand our project design and research goals. All video coding is conducted over secure networks to protect participant confidentiality, and no prior experience is required—training is fully provided.
The lab fosters a supportive and welcoming atmosphere, and there’s lots of room for growth, including opportunities for Work Learn positions, Directed Studies, Honours projects, and Senior RA roles.
After two semesters, students may qualify for advanced roles, such as Directed Studies, Honours, or Paid Research Assistant positions (e.g., Work Learn, AURA, NSERC USRA). No prior research experience is required—this role is ideal for students passionate about developmental psychology and working with young children.
Position Requirements
The Baby Learning Lab is looking for motivated undergraduate students who meet these requirements:
- Minimum Commitment: 9 hours/week
- Minimum Semester Commitment: 2 semesters
- Will References Be Requested: No (but a student can choose to submit them)
- Will Transcript Be Requested: No
- Will Interview Be Requested: Yes
Additional Information Required: A description of prior informal or formal experience that might be relevant to the position (working or interacting with infants, children, or parents), if any, and (2) a statement regarding how the student would support and contribute to equity, diversity and inclusion in the lab.
To Apply
Submit an application through the lab’s website and one of the lab coordinators will reach out to you soon. You can find the application form here: https://babylearninglab.psych.ubc.ca/join-the-lab/undergraduate-students/
About the Baby Learning Lab
The Baby Learning Lab, directed by Dr. Lauren Emberson, studies the capacity of the infant brain to learn, and how these capacities develop across the first months and years of life. To understand the learning mechanisms of the infant brain, we utilize both behavioural (i.e., quantifying actions or eye-movements) and neuroimaging (i.e., functional near-infrared spectroscopy or ‘fNIRS’) methodologies in our research.