USING THE CBDR SUMMER RESEARCH INTERNS
May 2008
1. The deadline for requests for interns to run studies is 2 weeks prior to when the study will be
run. Requests submitted after this date will be allocated intern hours on a first-come,
first-served basis if additional hours are available.
2. The current allocation system will also give top priority to researchers that are supporting the
program with funding, their time, and educationally enriching the interns’ summer experience.
3. Each researcher has a responsibility to the interns that are running his/her experiment. All
materials should be supplied or arrangements made for interns to get supplies. Procedures
should be explained before the start of any experiment. As supervision is needed, especially
when using the Data Truck, a graduate student or faculty researcher must attend data collection
sessions.
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Computer-based Experiments
o Must be pre-tested on Monday by the experimenter (i.e. go to the truck or lab and
make sure it works on the computer.)
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Surveys
o Must be submitted by Monday to the Lab Manager, Ms. Piper Lincoln.
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Data Entry
o Spreadsheets with variable names and any relevant instructions must be submitted
by noon on the day prior to data entry.
4. An important component of the intern program is that it proves the interns first hand knowledge
about experimentation and behavioral research. In order to facilitate the learning experience,
researchers will be required to give an educational “debriefing” seminar at the weekly intern
meeting on the Mondays following the execution of their experiment between 1pm and 3:30pm.
The researcher should give background information on the research question, present their
hypotheses, discuss why they employed the particular method of data collection that they did,
and discuss the results of the study. Special attention should be paid to increasing interns’
general level of knowledge about the research topic and specific knowledge about study design.
5. Two teams of interns will be rotating days on which they work on the Data Truck and in the lab.
Because of this, it may be difficult to schedule the same intern consistently for long-term
projects.
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Interns will be running studies on the truck Tuesday-Thursday from 10 AM – 6 PM and on
Friday & Saturday nights from 9 PM – 2 AM. Researchers will need to meet interns at the
truck at 10 AM to brief them on procedures and give a demonstration. They will also need
to meet them at 6 PM to collect data and reimburse interns for parking, if applicable.
Interns will be working in the lab Tuesday-Thursday from 10 AM – 5 PM to do data entry,
prep for experiments the next day (i.e. make copies, get supplies from Giant Eagle, etc.)
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