REU Site: Social and Environmental Influences on Brain and Behavior

该项目由社会、行为和经济科学局(SBE)的本科生研究经验(REU)站点计划资助。这个REU网站的目标是创建一个本科生研究奖学金计划。这项计划的两个主要目标之一是提高我们科学家的多样性。为了改善不同人群在心理学领域的教育、培训和随后的代表性，我们将为来自代表性不足背景的学生提供严格的研究培训，以便他们为在STEM追求未来的职业生涯做好更好的准备。我们的第二个主要目标是提高我们科学的多样性。不幸的是，在大多数已发表的研究中，例如基于背景、社会经济地位和种族的差异很难研究，因为我们的样本不能代表美国总体人口。在这项建议中，我们不是基于社会-情感背景来控制变异性，而是试图直接研究它，试图找到这种变异性与基本的神经、认知和社会过程之间的系统关系。总体而言，我们希望这一培训计划不仅将培养出更多样化的下一代科学家，而且还将培养当代和未来一代的研究人员，他们具有高度的积极性和良好的装备，能够产生更多样化的科学。为期一年的奖学金计划将包括三个主要部分-a)严格的动手研究培训，b)专业发展，和c)社区参与。为了获得实践研究培训，研究员将获得津贴，在整个夏季期间在心理学系的罗格斯-纽瓦克实验室全职工作。为了促进职业发展和提高研究技能，研究员还将在学年期间参加每周一小时的研究研讨会。最后，他们将接受社区参与方面的培训，以便他们能够学习如何为自己的研究招募多样化和有代表性的人类受试者样本，以及如何将他们的研究结果直接传播给这些社区成员。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE). The goal of this REU Site is to create an undergraduate research fellowship program. One of the two major aims of this program is to improve the diversity of our scientists. To improve the education, training, and subsequent representation of diverse populations in psychology, we will provide students from underrepresented backgrounds with rigorous research training so that they are better prepared to pursue a future career in STEM. Our second major aim is to improve the diversity of our science. Unfortunately, in most published research, variation based on context, socio-economic status and race, for example, is difficult to study, as our samples are not representative of the general US population. Instead of controlling for variability based on socio-emotional context, in this proposal, we seek to study it directly in an attempt to find systematic relations between this variability and basic neural, cognitive, and social processes. Overall, it is our hope that this training program will not only create a more diverse next generation of scientists, but that it will also train current and future generations of researchers who are highly motivated and well-equipped to produce more diverse science.The 1-year fellowship program will have three main components—a) rigorous hands-on research training, b) professional development, and c) community engagement. To gain hands-on research training, fellows will receive a stipend to work full-time in a Rutgers-Newark lab in the Psychology Department for the duration of the summer. To foster career professional development and enhance their research skills, fellows will also take part in a weekly, one-hour research seminar during the academic year. Finally, they will receive training in community engagement so that they can learn how to recruit a diverse and representative sample of human subjects for their own research, and how to disseminate their findings directly to those community members.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.