📋RA Daily Checklist

These tasks should be done a daily basis

The RA in the control room will often find that there is a lot of down time. You need to use that time to do lab related work and only use it for your own personal work time if you have completed all the following tasks.

Daily Tasks

Check the Slack #announcements channel

Grad students and the lab manager will regularly post there about important updates to procedures

Respond to emails

If there is anything you are uncertain about ask a grad student or the lab manager

Check that the subject database is up-to-date

• Have all the particpants that came in today been added to the database?

• What about participants yesterday?

• Make sure their session date has been added!

• Is all the other information filled in?

Check that the schedule is accurate

Mistakes get made. That is okay. Always double check things like the schedule

Send out reminder emails

Have reminder emails been sent out for tomorrow's participants?

Ask about extra work

Ask a grad student or lab manager if there is any other work they can have you do

Keep the lab tidy!

Even if it is not your mess, if you notice the lab is getting messy and unorganized please clean up.

• Take out the trash and recycle bins (by the refrigerator down the hall)

• If there are dirty dishes lying around clean and dry them

• If there are dishes on the drying towel, put them away in the cabinets

• Keep our supplies and items on the shelf tidy and organized

• Clean up any clutter (e.g., papers, cables, random items) on the desks

Morning Shift

• Check the lab email for anything that needs immediate attention (e.g., participant canceling today's session)

• Open the Running Room and make sure the computers are on

• Make sure the Running Room is tidy

Noon Shift

Extra things to do when the participant leaves (if there is time)

• Wipe the headphones, keyboard, mouse, and chair, down with cleaning wipe

• Organize the participant desks

• Clean up the Running Room

Afternoon Shift

Extra things to do when the participant leaves

• Wipe the headphones, keyboard, mouse, and chair, down with cleaning wipe (before and after participant arrives)

• Organize the participant desks

• Put the iPad screen to sleep

• Clean up the Running Room

• Clean up the Control Room

• Take out the trash and recycle bins (by the refrigerator down the hall)

• Close the Control Room and Running Room doors on your way out

Extracuricular Tasks

Read our lab's publications

This is a great way to be more informed as to the actual research we are doing and would be required if you want to get more invovled in the lab. See our lab's publications page or ask any of the graduate students if there is anything you should be reading.

Here is a list of publications you should read

• Engle (2002) - Working Memory Capacity as Executive Attention

• Engle (2018) - Working Memory and Executive Attention: A Revisit

• Burgoyne and Engle (2020) - Attention Control: A Cornerstone of Higher-Order Cognition

• Mashburn, Tsukahara, and Engle (2020) - Individual Differences in Attention Control

• Draheim, Pak, Draheim, and Engle (2022) - The Role of Attention Control in Complex Real-World Tasks

• Tsukahara and Engle (2021) - Fluid Intelligence and the Locus Coeruleus-Norepinephrine System

• Seeburger et al. (2024) - Time-Varying Functional Connectivity Predicts Fluctuations in Sustained Attention in a Serial Tapping Task

Learn R

This will allow you to become more involved in working with and processing data in our lab

• Go through the R Workshop materials

• Go through the A&WM useRguide for our lab

Let the grad students and lab manager know that you are learning R and keep them up to date on your progress!