How much research experience is "extensive"?

[MJordano]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum. I'm a senior undergrad working towards a double major in biology and psychology, and I'm obtaining a minor in cognitive science. I am going to be applying to graduate programs in cognitive psych, developmental pysch and neuroscience very soon.

I've been looking at the graduate admissions/prospective student pages for schools and many say that preference is given to students with "extensive" research experience. But how much research is considered "extensive"?

I currently have 6 credit hours in psych labs. Three credits are from a health psych lab examining the effects of meditation on attention and working memory, and other three from a lab studying cross-modal sensory interactions. I will most likely have another 2-3 credits this upcoming semester in a language processing lab.

I also plan on applying for 3 credits of independent study in the biology department. I will not have completed the bio research by the time I send in my applications, but I will be enrolled in it and aware of my duties in that lab.

How much research do most applicants have in psych departments?

Thanks!

M.

[Quant_Liz_Lemon]

How did you earn these credit hours? Were you a research assistant, or were these concurrent with courses?

Edited August 14, 2012 by Quant_Liz_Lemon

[nessa]

I wouldn't say credit hours are a good measure of experience, although clarifying how these hours were earned would help. In general, schools are looking for significant research involvement and promise, if not demonstrated ability, to be an independent researcher. So, for the research work you did, did you help design studies, analyze data, or write up results for a poster or presentation? Can you talk intelligently about the background of the work you did, what your hypotheses are and why, and how your results add on to what is already known? That is what they will be looking for.

[MJordano]

I wouldn't say credit hours are a good measure of experience, although clarifying how these hours were earned would help. In general, schools are looking for significant research involvement and promise, if not demonstrated ability, to be an independent researcher. So, for the research work you did, did you help design studies, analyze data, or write up results for a poster or presentation? Can you talk intelligently about the background of the work you did, what your hypotheses are and why, and how your results add on to what is already known? That is what they will be looking for.

Sorry, I probably should have gone into a little more detail.

For the cross-modal interactions lab I'm working with the prof and a small group of students to actually design the experiment and the stimuli using various computer programs. For the health psych lab I worked with participants to collect data, scored data and did some stats analysis. For these labs I am listed as a co-investigator and if the work gets published I will be able to answer any questions about the protocols.

For the language processing lab I will most likely be collecting and scoring data and helping with the stats analysis. The bio research I'm applying for is another research assistantship. None of these labs are in conjunction with a class, but for my research methods II/Capstone course I will be designing and carrying out my own independent research project. I will be starting that this semester as well.

Thanks!

M.