We invite applications from student researchers who are interested in 2 main types of position: graduate student applications, and undergraduate applicants looking to gain research experience in the lab.
Graduate applicants:
Prospective graduate students are encouraged to consult the UBC Psychology webpage on how to apply, entry requirements, and opportunities for funding. (LINKS). Luke is open to receiving applications to the Cognitive Science or Clinical Psychology programs in Psychology, or the Neuroscience graduate program at UBC. To consider whether the Centre for Gambling Research is likely to be a good fit for you, please think about the following:
- Our students are motivated, enthusiastic, and dedicated, with a strong interest in gambling behaviour seen through the lens of psychology. Graduate research involves team-work, and requires strong interpersonal skills and an ability to receive and respond to feedback.
- Successful applicants typically have undergraduate backgrounds in Psychology, and this would usually include specific research experience in areas of psychology such as judgment and decision-making, cognitive neuroscience, or addictions research. We recognize that gambling is a small field and many applicants will not have prior experience in gambling per se.
- Research at the Centre cuts across many aspects of gambling behaviour, including psychological and clinical aspects. At the same time, we are interested in broadening our research repertoire, by taking on students with experience in areas such as data science, computational modelling, behavioural economics, or public health.
- Applicants will be expected to have reasonably strong technical skills, including statistics and programming. Students will be expected to have some background in scientific writing as well as oral presentation of research.
If you are planning to apply to graduate school under my supervision, please send a CV and brief description of your research interests, to luke.clark@psych.ubc.ca. As a first step, I will typically arrange a short Skype call or in-person meeting (for applicants based in Vancouver). Shortlisted applicants will be invited for in-person interviews (typically in February) which will include meetings with other Faculty members in Psychology as well as meetings with current Graduate students in the lab.
Undergraduate applicants:
We typically host a number of undergraduate students working as Research Assistants on projects for 1-2 terms at a time. These are usually voluntary positions, although we are happy to consider students for the NSERC USRA scheme for summer placements. Many of our undergraduates will be undertaking Directed Studies or Honours projects based on the projects that they are working on.
If you are interested in joining the lab as an undergraduate RA, please consider the following:
- Most of our undergrads are working under the day-to-day supervision of a graduate student or post-doc in lab. We typically expect a time commitment of 5-10 hours per week. Undergrads will usually be involved in recruiting, screening, and testing of living, human participants – some may even be community participants rather than UBC students. Hence strong interpersonal skills is a key requirement! It is also vital that students are punctual and reliable.
- We try to match students to a project based on their previous research experience and what areas they are looking to gain experience in. Some of our projects involve psychophysiology measures like heart rate monitoring. Other projects involve coding or data analysis.
- We often commit to students a few months in advance. For example, for the Fall term (September to December), we will often commit to students over the summer, so that if you contact us after the start of term, we may not have any remaining projects. Plan ahead!
- Dr Clark teaches a 300 course on Gambling and Decision-Making in the Fall term. This course provides an excellent foundation for a research placement on gambling, and many of our undergrad RAs will have taken this course prior to joining the lab.
If you would like to enquire about undergraduate research opportunities, please email luke.clark@psych.ubc.ca including a copy of your CV and a short research statement to explain why you are interested in research on gambling, and what you hope to gain from the placement.