Jennifer Wiley
Email Address: jwiley@uic.eduCollege: Liberal Arts and Sciences Department: Psychology
Title: Professor
Office: 1054C BSB M/C 285 Phone: 3552501
Webpage: https://sites.google.com/uic.edu/jwiley
Participating in the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Awards program: Yes
Research Interest:
We are recruiting undergraduate research assistants for Fall 2025 who are interested in topics in Cognitive Psychology.
Current projects in the lab are exploring:
1) Learning by invention/Learning from failure
(how unsuccessful problem solving attempts before a math or statistics lesson can improve understanding)
2) Expertise and Learning
How people learn long sequences of information and how prior knowledge supports learning/memory
3) Metacognition and Learning
(how well students can judge their level of learning after studying, how many definitions they can recall, how well they understood concepts from reading)
4) Improving Learning
How sketching or working with others can improve learning outcomes
5) Executive Functioning
The effects of stress on working memory capacity, The relation between working memory capacity and inhibitory control (the ability to ignore distracting information) Minimum time commitment in hours per week: 3 Qualifications of a Student:
Students should have an interest in learning, memory, or problem-solving.
Students generally sign up for PSCH 396 (Directed Research). Completion of PSCH 100 and PSCH 242 are required to earn credit in PSCH 396. This research experience could also serve as an Honors Activity (either in addition to PSCH 396 or in place of it).
We welcome students who are interested in applying for LASURI awards and honors students who are interested in doing Capstone projects related to these topics. We generally require students to get at least one semester of experience in research in our lab before starting a capstone or LASURI project. Brief Summary of what is expected from the student:
Research assistants (RAs) are assigned a project leader and agree to a regular schedule for helping in the lab each week throughout the semester. RAs will help with programming, data collection, data processing, and data organization. RAs will have the opportunity to read original journal articles related to the research, discuss the designs of studies and how they are used to test research questions, and see results of the studies. Contact researcher via URE Email Webform
