Position Details: The Child Learning and Cognition (CLC) Lab, led by Dr. Yu Zhang, researches children's and adolescents' learning through naturalistic observations, lab experiments, and surveys. As a Research Assistant, your role will involve contributing to literature reviews, developing stimuli for observations and experiments, creating surveys using Qualtrics, assisting in participant recruitment, handling data collection/entry, engaging in behavioral coding, and managing data.

We offer on-the-job training and provide opportunities for professional development. As a Research Assistant, you will acquire essential skills that align with your future career goals in various fields, including education, healthcare, non-profit organizations, research institutes, family and children's centers, and more.

Requirements: Interest in developmental psychology. Comfortable in communicating and working with families with children. Strong attention to detail. Willingness to learn and take initiative. Availability to work a minimum of 8 hours per week (with a total allowance of 20 hours). Commitment for at least two semesters. A GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Interested students should complete an online application.

Dr. Zhang will review graduate student applications for the 2025-2026 admission cycle, starting in Fall 2025.

Our lab focuses on the following: developmental, cognitive, and cultural psychology; children's learning experience in diverse sociocultural contexts; parent-child interaction; cognitive development from infancy to middle childhood (e.g., analogical reasoning, early math/spatial understanding); and learning beliefs and motivation in children and adolescents. 

To Apply for a graduate school opportunity in the lab, please follow the instructions above, email Dr. Zhang (yzhang@csusm.edu) outlining your research interests, and attach a copy of your CV.