The Summer Research Institute (SRI) spans an eight week period beginning June 1, 2009 during which the 10 selected students are engaged in an intensive research experience in fundamental areas of psychology. The program consists of two types of activities. The primary activity is spending time working in an active research lab. Duties include running subjects, developing experimental materials, performing experimental procedures, tabulating data, analyzing data, library research, and report writing. The student should anticipate devoting 35 hours a week to work in the laboratory. The second activity consists of participating in a 2-hour per week practicum course on research methods and data analysis, as well as attending weekly colloquia in which faculty present their research. The SRI experience is designed to give the interested student hands on experience in the research process central to experimental psychology. SRI students will be working in the laboratory of a faculty member of the University of South Carolina Department of Psychology. Below are brief descriptions of each laboratory. Refer to this when filling out your application and ranking the laboratories you are most interested to join.

BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
__ Basic Neuroscience: Rosemarie M. Booze. Dr. Booze's research has been concerned with neuronal mechanisms underlying sex differences in the brain. The student will study drug addiction dependent variables and will perform learn histological and cellular techniques to study the brain. Examination of neuron cultures involves tests of the effects of neuroprotectants, such as estrogen actions in the brain.
__ Neuropharmacology and Behavioral Effects of Nicotine: Steven B. Harrod. Dr. Harrod studies intravenous effects of nicotine administration and analyzes sex differences including locomotor activity in animals. He uses several neurochemical techniques including immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy and receptor binding.
__ Neurobiology of Social Behavior and Fetal Alcohol Research: Sandra J. Kelly. Dr. Kelly's research uses an animal model of fetal alcohol syndrome and recently has been concerned with effects of alcohol exposure on social behaviors in rats. The utilized procedures include administration of alcohol during prenatal and postnatal periods, behavioral testing, and neurochemical techniques. In addition, the neurobiology of social behavior involves brain lesions and automatic tracking of social interactions.
__ Psychopharmacology: Charles F. Mactutus. Dr. Mactutus' research examines the neural effects of prenatal exposure to cocaine. His research identifies changes in auditory startle response and spatial cognition from cocaine exposure, and examines prenatal and postnatal drug influences on the noradrenalin system.

COGNITION
__ Psycholinguistics and Human Reasoning: Amit Almor. Dr. Almor's research concerns processes underlying language comprehension and production, and in particular the interaction between language and memory. This work involves both computational modeling and study of language performance in special populations (e.g., elderly and Alheimer's Disease patients). He also studies domain human reasoning mechanisms in the context of possible shaping by evolutionary processes.
__ Perception and Attention: Leslie and Gordon G. Baylis. Their recent research focuses on understanding visual and attention function in humans across the life span using a computer networked facility. The research of Leslie and Gordon Baylis, which includes that of aging subjects, examines how scene information is evaluated, and why and where we attend to objects. Dr. Baylis' research interests rely heavily on advanced fMRI technology for study of neurological cases to identify brain sites involved with complex visual analysis and attention.
__ Reading and Eye Movements: Robin K. Morris. Dr. Morris's recent research focuses on understanding cognitive processes involved in reading. The primary procedures utilize eye movement monitoring, response time, and recall measures of reading comprehension.
__ Judgment and Decision Making: Douglas H. Wedell. Dr. Wedell studies cognitive and affective processes underlying simple and complex judgment and choice. His primary experimental procedure is to manipulate features of the stimuli and the context, and then collect measures of choice, judgments, information access patterns and response times.

COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
__Cognitive Neuropsychology: Jeffrey C. Schatz. Dr. Schatz's research emphasizes relationships among brain structure, brain function and cognitive development in school-age children. The primary focus is the cognitive neuroscience of attention through the use of structural MRI scans, EEG/ERP, and comparisons between healthy children and those with neurologic conditions.
__ Semantic Processing and the Brain: Svetlana Shinkareva. Dr. Shinkareva's research focuses on understanding how the brain organizes and represents information about word meaning. She employs functional neuroimaging (fMRI) and a diverse set of quantitative methods to study how words and word categories are represented in the brain.
__ Neuroscience of Deception: Jennifer M. C. Vendemia. Dr. Vendemia's recent research focuses on the neural processes underlying deception. Her principal procedures involve high density-EEG and ERP, and other physiological correlates of deception. She studies mock crime questions and those from autobiography.