Joining Our Lab
The Social Learning Lab (PI: Dr. Hyo Gweon) is recruiting a full-time lab manager to start Summer 2025!
Our research aims to understand how humans learn in social contexts, with a particular focus on early childhood. The lab manager will work closely with other lab members to assist in all aspects of running the lab and conducting research (especially behavioral studies with young children, both in-person and online). Expected start date is mid-June 2025, with some flexibility. Duties include (but are not limited to): data collection/analysis, managing databases, training & coordinating undergraduate RAs, stimuli construction, maintaining computer software/hardware, and coordinating outreach activities, and organizing lab events. The lab has off-campus research sites in public museums, and the job will involve regular visits to these sites. The lab manager will also have opportunities to contribute to ongoing projects in the lab or lead a new project.
Requirements: Strong organization skills and strong working knowledge of Slack, MS Office, and GSuite is required. In the selection process, we will also consider research experience, quantitative background (statistics, data analysis), technical skills (e.g., R, Python, Javascript/HTML/CSS), and communicative skills. The applicant should be eligible to work in the US as a full-time employee as we cannot sponsor work visas (e.g., H1B).
This position will be posted as a one-year fixed-term position, but we expect the position to be held for at least two years; renewal will be contingent upon performance.
How to apply: Please apply through Stanford Careers (Requisition ID: 105712). Submit your resume/CV, undergraduate transcript, and cover letter stating your interest in and qualifications for the position. To ensure full consideration, please apply by February 23 (Sun), 2025.
Send all inquiries to: sociallearninglab@stanford.edu.
Prospective PhD students: Please visit this page
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Our lab welcomes enthusiastic, motivated undergraduate students to join! Research assistants are usually involved in developing and making materials for studies, subject recruitment, and running experiments with children and adults. Our undergraduate researchers often stay with us for a year or longer to gain research experience and learn about how to use scientific methods to study how people--especially young children--learn from others and help others learn.
What’s involved? Minimal commitment is 9-10 hours/week (3 research credits) for at least two quarters, and we’d love you to stay longer! Federal work-study is also an option for students who are eligible for the program.
The exact nature of your work will depend on your level of prior experience and skills, and change as you gain more experience. You will most likely be paired with and mentored by a graduate student, post-doc, or our lab manager, and so your exact work will also depend on which projects they have going on! Many of our research assistants help with conducting studies with children, including creating stimuli, testing, and marking their responses.
At the least, we expect our researchers to be comfortable recruiting families in public settings and interacting with them. Previous research experience and/or working with children are not necessary but preferable. We welcome people with creative minds and artistic skills, as we often need to design booklets, animations, and videos that contain our experimental stimuli or even build our own “toys” that light up or play music. There are also opportunities in the lab to learn and apply various technical skills, including proficiency with R, Matlab, Qualtrics, Python, HTML, JavaScript, and video editing software, and we welcome students with these skills. However, these are not requirements for new research assistants; we just expect you to be open to learning them together with your mentor as research projects evolve.
See our People page to meet our undergraduate assistants, and feel free to reach out to them if you’d like to learn more about their experience!
To apply: We are currently not recruiting undergraduate research assistants, but will update this page in early March with Spring 2025 openings. Please refer to our summer internship section below for information about summer research opportunities in the SLL. If you have any questions, please contact Aneesa Conine-Nakano (lab manager) at sociallearninglab [at] stanford [dot] edu.
For opportunities in other labs, refer to Stanford Psychology website for research opportunities.
Post-bac Research Assistants
SLL occasionally hires post-bac RAs. These are usually recent graduates with a BA or BS, working in a lab to gain more research experience before pursuing a PhD in related fields. Some are full-time positions (e.g., lab manager) that are recruited nationally every 2-3 years. Others are part-time positions, starting from 10-20 hours/week; these positions often start with a few weeks of volunteer trial period before transitioning to a paid position. Note that we can only hire people who are already authorized to work in the U.S., and cannot sponsor work visas (e.g., H1B).
Tip: To search for Post-bac RA or lab manager positions, consider signing up for the COGDEV and COGSCI mailing lists. Many labs/researchers (including us) post calls/ads for these positions using these lists.
Open Positions: We are currently recruiting a full-time lab manager to start Summer 2025. Please see the job description at the top of this page for more details and the application link.
Summer Internship Opportunities
Stanford Undergraduates: We recruit summer interns through three programs -- PsychSummer, the SymSys Summer Internship, and the HB-REX Internship. Students also apply for UAR Major Grants to continue their research over the summer, including their work towards an Honors Thesis. Some apply for Work-Study. While it is not a requirement, students who pursue summer research in our lab typically have already worked with us for 1 or more quarters.
Non-Stanford Undergraduates: We typically recruit summer interns through the Early Identification Program. This program goes through a separate admissions process, so please contact program office for more information.
Open Positions: We are currently recruiting summer interns through PsychSummer (applications due Feb. 21) and the SymSys Summer Internship (application opens Feb. 18). To be considered, please indicate the Social Learning Lab (PI: Dr. Hyowon Gweon) as a lab of interest in your application. For more information, please refer to the internship program's website.
High-School Students
We typically do not accept high-school students as research assistants, except for students who have been accepted to the RISE program. For other opportunities at Stanford, refer to Stanford's Outreach Programs.
Note that we can only accept students who were admitted through these programs. We are sorry but we cannot host volunteer summer interns.