Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Undergraduate honours students collaborate with Dr. Deborah Mater on research related to psychopathology, trauma, clinical assessment, and mental health systems. Projects emphasize applied clinical questions and ethical research practice.

Areas of Interest (General research description): Dr. MacLean's research explores factors that affect professional decision making and eyewitness recall for critical events (workplace and criminal). For her, compelling factors are the effects of context and motivation in the investigative process. She studies how factors such as expertise, stereotypes, environment, allegiances, or state affect decision making and recall. Her research considers topics such as confirmation bias/tunnel vision and investigative interviewing.

Research assistants (RAs) working in Dr. Bernstein’s lab will be given the opportunity to gain experience in a variety of research settings and contexts. The main role of an RA is to run subjects through experiments. This includes obtaining informed consent, debriefing participants, and being able to properly administer the procedure. Additionally, RAs may be asked to assist in creating testing materials, piloting studies, and helping to develop new studies. There are many other small tasks involved in completing research and maintaining the lab. Often RAs are encouraged to attend guest lectures, attend and present at conferences, and make full use of the resources that the university provides. RAs also have the opportunity to become familiar with and utilize research equipment and technologies (e.g., eye-tracking, survey development platforms, and research-focused software).