REU Site: Developing Social Minds

该项目由SBE理事会的本科生研究经验（REU）站点计划资助。它具有科学和社会效益，并将研究和教育相结合。这个REU网站为第一代本科生，种族和少数民族以及退伍军人提供了一个密集的夏季研究项目，他们获得的实践研究经验有限。该计划将在他们从事旨在了解发展中的社会心理的研究项目时，为他们提供经济、智力和社会方面的支持。学生将参与具有深远影响的研究，例如，减轻STEM中的性别刻板印象，理解社会学习的进化起源，以及增加心理样本的多样性和代表性。该项目将为每个学生提供一个支持网络，通过将每个学生与三位导师（同行、资深实验室成员和教职员工）配对。通过让来自不同背景的学生参与进来，这个REU网站项目将使心理学和其他STEM领域受益：因为科学只会从更广泛的人才库和增加思想的多样性中获益。这个REU现场项目包括波士顿学院的四个实验室。该项目从全国各地招募在心理学研究领域代表性不足的学生，参加为期10周的社会认知发展强化实践研究项目。该计划有三个主要目标：为学生提供(1)发展研究的深度和广度；(2)多层次师徒网络；(3)学术界和其他领域的持续支持。学生将在发展研究的各个方面获得深入的实践经验，同时通过与其他实验室和外部演讲者的互动，接触到社会认知研究的广度。学生们将进行涉及婴儿、儿童、成人甚至非人类动物（狗）的前沿研究，鉴于这四个实验室所做工作的跨学科性质，这将极大地促进我们对人类发展的更广泛认识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the SBE Directorate. It has both scientific and societal benefits, and integrates research and education. This REU Site provides an intensive summer research program for first-generation undergraduate students, racial and ethnic minorities, and veterans, who have had limited access to hands-on research experiences. This program will support them financially, intellectually, and socially while they work on research projects aimed at understanding the developing social mind. Students will be involved in research that will have far-reaching implications—for instance, mitigating gender stereotypes in STEM, understanding the evolutionary origins of social learning, and increasing diversity and representation in psychological samples. The program will provide a network of support for each student, through pairing each student with three mentors (peer, senior lab member, and faculty member). By involving students from diverse backgrounds, this REU Site program stands to benefit Psychology and other STEM fields: as science only stands to gain from drawing on a broader talent pool and increasing the diversity of ideas. This REU site program includes four labs at Boston College. The program recruits students from across the country who are underrepresented in psychological research to participate in a 10-week intensive hands-on research program in social cognitive development. The program has three main goals: to provide students with (1) depth and breadth in developmental research; (2) a multi-tiered mentorship network; and (3) sustained support in academia and beyond. Students will gain in-depth, hands-on experience in all aspects of developmental research while being exposed to the breadth of social cognitive research through interactions with other labs and outside speakers. Students will conduct cutting-edge research, involving infants, children, adults, and even nonhuman animals (dogs), that will greatly contribute to our broader knowledge of human development given the interdisciplinary nature of the work being done by the four labs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.