The focal point of our REU program is the research project. Faculty mentors will contact their interns to begin the process of project selection and literature review upon their acceptance into the program. Mentors will suggest several interesting research questions that interns could pursue and will provide guidance in the literature review process. Interns who wish to define a research topic on their own will be encouraged to do so in collaboration with their faculty mentor. It is expected that all interns will have defined a suitable research question and completed a focused literature review within the first two weeks of the 8-week summer program.

The next four weeks of the program will be spent setting up the research and collecting data. Interns will create stimuli and materials and will develop and carry out data collection procedures in a relatively independent fashion. However, they will be aided in these efforts by their faculty mentors and by the graduate assistant for the project. Faculty mentors will provide guidance on methodological issues and the graduate assistant will provide help with software, with setting up and using equipment, with animal care and maintenance, and with research participant scheduling.

The final two weeks of the program will be devoted to data analysis and report writing. Interns will conduct the analyses of their data using statistical analysis software. Faculty mentors will help interns select the appropriate statistical tests for their data and interpret the outcome of these tests; the graduate assistant will provide aid in using the statistical analysis software. Interns will draft a written report of their research using the American Psychological Association (APA) format for research reports and they will present their results orally at a mini-conference that will be held at the end of the program. Interns will also be encouraged to present their research findings at a regional or national conference. Faculty mentors will maintain contact with their REU interns during the academic year following the program to help them complete any unfinished work on their research project and to help them prepare the results for conference presentation. Interns may apply for reimbursement of expenses related to travel to a conference for the purpose of presenting their research (limited to a total of $500).

• Writing Research Reports in Psychology Interns will meet once a week during the 8-week program to learn how to write research papers in psychology. By participating in this workshop, they will have a fairly clean draft of their research report by the last week of the program. Final drafts will be published in a "journal" that will be provided to each of the interns in the program.
• Experimental Design and Statistical Analysis/SPSS Interns will meet twice a week during the first four weeks of the program to review experimental design and basic statistical analysis techniques (descriptive statistics, measures of association, t-test, one- and two-way ANOVA) and to acquire a basic level understanding of SPSS. Upon completion of this workshop, interns should be able to use SPSS to create a database, obtain descriptive statistics, and perform simple statistical analyses.
• Powerpoint/Giving Effective Presentations Interns will meet once a week for the last four weeks of the program to learn how to give effective oral and poster presentations. At least half of the workshop will be spent in the computer laboratory learning how to use MS Powerpoint presentation software. Interns will also prepare their "brown bag" presentations in this workshop.
• Special Topic Seminar - Ethics This seminar will focus on ethical issues in the conduct of psychological research. Topics will include: scientific integrity, participants' rights, obligations as a researcher, protection from harm (human & animal), informed consent, confidentiality, how to prepare for an Institutional Review.
• Special Topic Seminar - Planning for Graduate Study This seminar will address how to plan for graduate study in psychology. Topics will include constructing a curriculum vitae, writing graduate school applications and letters of intent or personal statements,
• Brown Bag Seminars These seminars will be held during lunch time and will feature informal discussions of research projects and research presentations by faculty mentors and their graduate students. These seminars are designed to provide REU interns with a broader picture of the types of research conducted by developmental psychologists and to give them an opportunity to see several research presentations before they must give their own presentations.

Each REU intern will be a part of a research team composed of the faculty mentor and the mentor's graduate students who are working during the summer. In addition, interns will attend workshops and seminars where they will be encouraged to interact and work together on group projects.

Finally, interns will be housed together in a dormitory and will have several opportunities to interact with each other socially. A Break-the-Ice picnic will be held during the first week of the program and a Farewell party will be held at the end of the program. Interns will also be able to attend local cultural events (e.g., Horse Cave Theater, Bowling Green/Warren County Symphony) and visit near-by attractions (e.g., Mammoth Cave, Nashville Sounds baseball game, National Corvette Museum).