About this program
This internship experience has been designed to provide exceptional undergraduate
students an opportunity to gain experience conducting psychological research in a
child development lab. Students do not need to have previous research experience to
be competitive applicants; in fact, students from liberal arts colleges and smaller
universities are strongly encouraged to apply. The program is open to current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors.
The Early Development Lab is a research lab in the psychology department at the University of
Virginia led by Dr. Angeline Lillard, a leading expert in pretend play and theory of
mind research. Generally, our research focuses on the cognitive development of
children from about 3 to 10 years of age.
Research topics
Our lab is interested in how children interact with pretend, fantasy, imagination, and media and how this interaction influences their cognitive and social development. Some current projects in the lab are:
- How television viewing impacts executive function, cognitive skills, creativity, and attention
- How children negotiate the boundary between reality and pretense. For example, does pretending to be an aggressive character lead to increases in aggression once the pretend episode is over?
- Does pretend play help children develop social understanding? Will children be better at recognizing emotions and thinking about others' mental states after engaging in social pretend play?
- Can children learn new information and/or skills through pretending and fiction? How might this type of learning differ from direct instruction?
What to expect
The Early Development Lab Summer Internship is built upon a mentorship model, with each intern being paired with at least one graduate student mentor in the lab. Graduate student mentors and interns will work closely on at least one ongoing study. Moreover, interns will have the opportunity to be involved in several steps of the research process, including study design, participant recruitment, and data analysis. Interns will also attend weekly lab meetings and journal article clubs. Finally, the lab's principal investigator, Dr. Angeline Lillard, will provide a series of professional development talks, such as crafting an effective statement of purpose and navigating the graduate school admission process.