su Centre for Cognitive Development @ UBC

Information for Students

Find out more about joining our Centre!

Our Commitment To Changing Exclusionary Academic Culture

Psychology should be by everyone and for everyone. We believe that it is our responsibility as psychologists to change academia’s culture of exclusion, which often relies on unpaid or underpaid labour and on rewarding the efforts of a very small group of (primarily white, cis, and male) scientists. We aim to create opportunities for more people, especially underrepresented minorities, to become involved in psychological research, and on recognizing and rewarding the work done by a more diverse group of academics. We want to identify and break down the norms and barriers that prevent most people from achieving a prominent and long-term role in psychology.

We strive to facilitate a lab culture that is inclusive, one that supports safe spaces and emphasizes openness, acceptance, transparency, and collaboration between lab members. We want to normalize dialogue surrounding issues of exclusion and discrimination, acknowledging that identity plays a role in one’s experience of psychological science, even when it shouldn’t. Our lab invites and welcomes all students interested in joining psychological science, independent of their race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, religion, socio-economic status, or sexual orientation. Students do not have to have previous lab experience to apply for our lab.

Ultimately, we want to help make psychological science more empathetic to, accessible for, and representative of, anyone who wishes to participate in it.

We also believe that our lab’s efforts towards changing academic culture should be public, collaborative, regularly reviewed, clearly defined, and keep us accountable for our progress. You can view our lab's list of Long-Term Goals, as well as the Short-Term Actionable Objectives that we are currently working on. We also maintain a list of resources, including books and academic articles, that we find useful for educating our lab members on the history of discrimination and marginalization within psychology and academic culture at-large that you can view here).

How to Join Our Lab as a Research Assistantship (RA)

Our lab regularly recruits UBC undergraduate students as Research Assistants (RAs), including as volunteers or for course credit (through the Directed Studies or Honours Programs). RAs form the backbone of the lab and play a very prominent role in all day-to-day activities. As an RA, you will work hands-on with a senior member of the lab on a research project. We always try to match each RA to a project that they are most interested in. Your responsibilities depend on the type of RA position, which are all described in detail below.

For all positions, we ask for a 2-semester commitment and 8-10 hours/week during the regular school week and, depending on our RAs' availability, Saturdays and/or Sundays. We fully train RAs on all aspects of the lab and the project they are working on. RAs can also optionally get experience with programming and statistical software such as MATLAB and/or R. Although no previous experience is neccessary, we get many more applications than we have positions. Please note that only UBC undergraduates or recent UBC graduates are eligible for our RA positions, and only current UBC students can receive course credit for their RA roles.

We most often recruit new RAs for the lab each September, with the application and interview process beginning at the end of July. We also sometimes recruit new RAs in November and April. If you are interested, please email us at ccd.joinus@ubc.ca for application details. One of us will be in touch as soon as we are looking for new RAs.

To help students have better expectations about our recruitment process, we post all of our Interview Questions in advance here. We also have a list of Frequently Asked Questions about our application process here. If you still have any questions about our positions, the application process, or the interview, please direct them towards our Research Coordinator.

Types of RA Positions

    In-Lab Kid RA

  • - Book and conduct studies in our centre at UBC's Kenny building
  • - Work with children ages 2 to 12 years old
  • - Can expect to be working closely with families and parents
  • - Want to know what a typical day looks like for an in-lab kid RA? Read more here!
  • - For a more complete list of Expectations and Responsibilities for In-Lab Kid RAs, you can read our formal document here.

    Daycare RA

  • - Book and conduct studies at schools and daycares in the Vancouver area
  • - Must have two weekday mornings free until 1pm to be considered for the position
  • - Work with children ages 3 to 9 years old
  • - Can expect to be working closely with school and daycare administrative staff
  • - For a more complete list of Expectations and Responsibilities for Daycare RAs, you can read our formal document here.

    In-lab Adult/HSP RA

  • - Conduct studies with university students recruited through UBC's HSP system
  • - Can expect to be working independently with university students
  • - For a more complete list of Expectations and Responsibilities for Adult/HSP RAs, you can read our formal document here.

    Coding RA

  • - Fully remote position
  • - Help code data for statistical analysis (e.g., transcribe audio files)
  • - For a more complete list of Expectations and Responsibilities for Coding RAs, you can read our formal document here.

Course Credit Positions

All positions in our lab can be done either as volunteer positions or for course credit. For most students, they are enrolled either in PSYC240, or one of the Directed Studies courses. We can only enroll students before the add/drop date of each semester. Please ask us for more details early in each term if you would like your RA position to be for course credit rather than volunteering, and we will always make accomodations to make this happen.

Graduate Students

Our lab frequently accepts graduate students at the M.A. and Ph.D. levels. To apply, you will require a strong record of research experience, strong GPA and GRE scores, and a well written statement of interest. Applications are available through the UBC Department of Psychology website. The deadline for application is typically December 1st of the year, with interviews scheduled for the first week of February. Students can expect full funding, including tuition, and minimal course loads.

Though not required, we strongly recommend that you contact Dr. Odic to inquire about the fit between your interests and the lab. Many invisible factors determine whether you will be accepted, and contacting us directly is the best way to get the information you'll need to decide whether you should apply. We also encourage you to read Dr. Odic's "Graduate Student Expectations" document, which outlines his expectations of the graduate students who work in his lab.

Interested in Joining the Centre?

We are always looking for talented individuals to join our research team!

If you are interested in applying to be a graduate student or post-doc, please contact Dr. Odic directly.

If you'd like to join the lab as a Research Assistant, please email us at ccd.joinus@ubc.ca. We will be in touch when we are actively interviewing applicants (usually in July and August). Please keep in mind that we can only accept current or graduated UBC students as RAs in our lab.

Interested in finding out even more?

We'd love to have you at the Centre, either as a participant in one of our studies or as a member of the lab!