Our History.
CNRI started in the Fall of 2020 as a way to promote access to undergraduate research opportunities in psychology and neuroscience through training and mentorship.
The program's humble roots began with a collaboration between graduate students in two labs, graciously sponsored by Drs. Scott Huettel and Alison Adcock.
In our first year, we had almost 100 applicants each semester.
The program has since expanded to multiple labs in the Duke Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and is fully funded by the Charles Lafitte Foundation Program for Research in Psychology & Neuroscience, a generous donation from Beth and Ron Ostrow, and a co-sponsorship with Duke’s Center for Computational Thinking.
One Community. Two Opportunities.
Our program brings together the mentorship of graduate students and postdocs with the motivation of Duke University undergraduates.
Undergraduates
come from all over campus and start with little to no prior research experience. Over the course of a semester, they:
(a) gain a basic understanding of behavioral science topics and concepts,
(b) learn how to read scientific articles,
(c) receive an introduction to coding in Python and other programs relevant for behavioral science experiments (e.g., PsychoPy, Qualtrics), and
(d) become part of a supportive group with a track record of helping undergraduates grow as scholars and researchers.
Mentors
are graduate students and post-doctoral fellows associated with Duke's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. We are passionate about understanding human behavior and help our undergraduates research a variety of topics including decision making, curiosity, learning, emotion, memory, executive function, and eating behavior. We use behavioral methods (e.g., computer-based tasks and games, eye-tracking, virtual reality), neuroscience methods (fMRI, EEG, TMS), and advanced statistical methods (e.g., machine learning, computational modeling) to study human behavior and cognition.
