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 volunteer approximately 9 hours per week, with primary shifts Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm, and occasional weekend hours depending on project needs. Responsibilities include engaging with children, scheduling family visits, attending community recruitment events, and performing daily lab tasks. Some research assistants may also work on specific projects like Exploration, focusing on infant neurocognitive development in natural play settings. These RAs will perform behavioural coding, either remotely or in the lab.
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 Responsibilities
Undergraduate Research Assistants at the Baby Learning Lab typically volunteer in the lab about 9 hours per week. These hours will typically occur during work hours (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm) but may also occur during the weekends, upon further discussion. Your time in the lab can look like a variety of different things: playing with children while their sibling completes a study, emailing or calling families to schedule appointments, attending recruitment events in the community to help us reach out to families, helping us with some daily research tasks, coding videos of cute babies playing, etc. With scheduling appointments, we put a heavy emphasis on this as it is very vital to our lab. Without any families coming into our centre, we simply cannot run our studies. Once trained and comfortable, you could also be a part of helping our researchers run their actual studies, aiding them in distracting the babies when attempting to take head measurements, and administering questionnaires. Part of this time commitment is attending lab meetings. Some research assistants may also work on specific projects like Exploration, focusing on infant neurocognitive development in natural play settings. These RAs will behavioural coding, either remotely or in the lab.
Dr. Emberson is very keen on having students take on higher research assistant roles once they’ve been in the lab volunteering for two semesters. These include honours, directed studies, and (paid) work learn students or to apply for paid summer positions in the lab (AURA, NSERC USRA).
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. 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.