Please circulate the below posting for a full-time RA position, working primarily with me and a bit with Steve Pinker.
The Harvard University Department of Psychology seeks a full-time Research Assistant to work with Dr. Samuel Mehr in the Music Lab (0.8 FTE) and with Dr. Steven Pinker (0.2 FTE).
In the Music Lab, the RA will participate in all aspects of our research, including creating experiment stimuli with video and audio editing tools; programming experiments in PsychoPy, jsPsych, HTML, and/or CSS; collecting and analyzing data; managing databases; editing and contributing to grant proposals and research papers; setting up and maintaining equipment; carrying out in-lab experiments with people of all ages, including infants, children, and their parents; and carrying out massive online experiments. The RA is expected to participate in the lab's intellectual community by attending and participating in lab meetings and working with the PI to develop independent research projects. Responsibilities for Dr. Pinker include maintaining his website; replying to correspondence with modified form letters; making travel arrangements and processing reimbursements; monitoring grant expenses; creating and modifying graphs in Excel; analyzing data; maintaining databases; and running experiments. Hours will occasionally include evenings and weekends. This position is ideal for people interested in developing a strong research background before applying to graduate school.
An undergraduate degree in cognitive science, psychology, or a related field is preferred, though candidates at other career stages and with other backgrounds will also be considered. Additionally, a background or strong interests in music and/or sound engineering is required. The RA must possess excellent organizational and communication skills, and must demonstrate the ability to work independently. Experience with some of the software packages and programming languages we use is a plus, including R, Stata, _javascript_, CSS, HTML, Python, SQL, AWS, Audition, Premiere, MTurk, Qualtrics, etc. Experience with web development is not required but is a plus.
All formal offers will be made by FAS Human Resources. This is a one-year term position to start 1 August 2019, with a possibility of yearly renewal. The start date is negotiable.