Cognition Across Development (Mandalaywala Lab)
Our competitive Research Intensives program places high-achieving high school students in professional working labs alongside distinguished faculty, graduate and undergraduate students.
Research Intensive in the Cognition Across Development Lab (Mandalaywala Lab)
The Cognition Across Development (CAD) Laboratory at UMass Amherst in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences examines how young children (ages 3- to 10-years-old) make sense of the complex social world around them. In particular, we examine how parents and the neighborhoods children grow up in shape how children begin to think about others in terms of their gender, race, or social status. Understanding how children come to view certain social categories as special and salient can help us understand the developmental origins of problematic social phenomena, such as stereotyping, prejudice, and inequality.
Research assistants in the CAD lab are trained to work with children and adults in research settings. In addition to gaining hands-on experience conducting studies and working with data, research assistants will also learn the theory and concepts behind the research studies and have the opportunity to participate actively in weekly lab meetings.
The Mandalaywala Lab can host up to 6 students. Learn more.
Program Overview
During this program, high school students will assist UMass faculty and graduate students in research labs while learning about research methodologies and contributing to ongoing research studies. Each student will create and present a research poster to faculty, fellow students, friends and family at a poster session at the end of the program.
Students will come away with an introduction to the field of Biology, firsthand experience with university-level research, and an understanding of opportunities that exist for undergraduate students at a major R1 university such as UMass Amherst.
Applications
For all Research Intensives applications: In your statement of interest, please include 3 lab choices from our list of available labs along with a brief explanation of your interest in each one.
