Job Opportunity

Project Description Learning Disabilities Research Center II

Center II is one component of a large Federally funded center grant studying Reading Disabilities. In this part of the project we are looking at the various sub-skills that are a part of the larger skill of reading. Subjects in the study are twins and their siblings that range in age from 8-20 years (most are under 14 years). Some of the subjects have a school history of reading problems and some do not. The use of twins allows us to address the question of whether reading disability is heritable or not, to what extent, and which kinds of reading skills are more heritable than others. Heritability is only one of the questions we address. Other questions include: What are the major components of reading and how are they related to each other? What components are most strongly related to reading disability in general? Are there different patterns of reading disability that can be identified? What are the strengths and weaknesses of people with identified patterns?

Subjects are administered a battery of cognitive tests during a one-on-one testing session that takes place on the weekends. During the week, the information is coded from tape and entered into the computer by a team of work study students. Later, errors are rated and data is summarized for analyses.

Job Description, Professional Research Assistant, LDRC II:

Supervision of Work Study team:

• Participating in interviewing new hires
  
• Training of new student workers
  
• Ongoing supervision and providing feedback to student team
  
• Performing regular evaluations for work study students
  
• Respond to student needs, complaints and suggestions
  
• Update all training and other procedural materials as needed
  

Testing of research subjects on weekend:

• Perform all aspects of testing protocol during weekend testing sessions
  
• Supervise testing protocol by WS student occurring simultaneously
  
• Handle problems that might come up with equipment, subjects, or testing environment
  
• Enter comments from testing sessions into comment database
  

Data management and quality control:

• Do error ratings for all tasks that require such ratings
  
• Perform regular quality control checks on data coding and entry
  
• Participate in first level of data manipulation in preparation for statistical analyses
  
• Watch for ways to improve the ease and quality of data collection, coding and entry
  

There are also miscellaneous jobs that need to be done such as equipment purchase and inventory of supplies, juice purchase and stocking, and other jobs that come up from time to time to facilitate the smooth running of the lab.

Visit Richard K. Olson's Web page for more information about the Project.

This is a half-time position. A four-year degree and background check are required. We ask for a minimum two year commitment. Email applications are encouraged..

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