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Psychology mercor

Applied Psychology Benchmark Specialist

Mercor • Remote

Education

PhD

Type

Hourly

Pay Rate

$50–$63/hr

Listed

51d ago

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What We Know About This Role

Weekly hours
10 hrs/week

About this role

From the Mercor listing

Role Overview

We are seeking expert psychologists to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will write and verify rigorous multiple-choice questions across core psychology domains, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks used to advance AI capabilities.

You will be assigned one of two task types:

  • Question Authoring — Create original, challenging multiple-choice questions in your area of psychology expertise, rate their difficulty, and submit them for review.

  • Question Verification — Review pre-written questions for accuracy, clarity, and rigor. Edit where needed, rate difficulty, and document any changes made.

Psychology Domains Covered

Neuromorphic Engineering, Human Factors and Engineering Psychology, Consumer and Market Psychology, Psychometrics, Digital Health, Psychedelic-assisted Therapy.

Key Responsibilities

  • Author original psychology questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall

  • Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined — all necessary information must be in the problem statement

  • Rate each question's difficulty: Medium (intro undergraduate), Hard (advanced undergraduate), or Expert (post-graduate and above)

  • Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives that challenge expert-level solvers

  • Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear, concise reasoning in markdown format

  • Supply 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources (peer-reviewed journals, university repositories)

  • For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made

Ideal Qualifications

  • PhD, PsyD, or doctoral candidate in Psychology or a closely related field

  • Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain

  • Strong command of graduate-level psychological theory, research methodology, and empirical literature

  • Clinical licensure or research publications in psychology is a strong plus

  • Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely

More About the Opportunity

  • Expected commitment: 10+ hours/week

  • Asynchronous, fully remote work

Requirements

  • Must be eligible to work in Remote
  • Fluent proficiency in English (Written & Verbal)
  • Reliable high-speed internet connection
  • PhD's degree or equivalent professional experience
  • Demonstrated expertise in Psychology

How long hiring takes

Across the AI training platforms we refer candidates to, the median gap between referral and hire is about 30 days. It varies by platform and role, so treat it as a rough guide for this one.

Within 2 weeks
~25%
Within 6 weeks
~60%
Within 3 months
~80%

Talent Pool members

Apply through this link and we can put you forward to Mercor when your profile is a strong match. Not every applicant is submitted. If you're not in the pool yet, set up your profile first.

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Why this role

This Applied Psychology Benchmark Specialist role is fully remote and pays $50–$63/hr, a solid way into Psychology work without needing to live near an office or relocate for it.

Talent pool

We're light on Psychology candidates

We've matched 33 people with a Psychology background against 373 Psychology listings we've tracked, so most go out without one. Set up a profile and we'll consider you for a role like this one.

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Skills and categories

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Common questions

Does it cost money to apply to Mercor?

No, applying and joining Mercor is free. Mercor's revenue comes from a fee it charges the client on top of your hourly rate, not from applicants. Treat any request for payment to join as a red flag.

Is Mercor for freelancers or full-time contractors?

Mercor places you with one client for a defined engagement, like 'Python Tutor for 3 months', rather than having you grab small tasks from a shared queue. Most roles function as steady contract work, not one-off gigs.

What does task-based AI training work look like?

Practical, hands-on data work: recording short videos, categorizing images, rating text responses, or analyzing data. Tasks are designed to be short and distinct, typically 5 to 60 minutes each.

What does asynchronous AI training work mean in practice?

No set hours, no check-ins, no meetings. You log in when you want, pick up an available task, complete it, and submit; nobody is waiting on you in real time. That's different from remote employment, where you're expected online during business hours. The tradeoff: you're competing with others for available tasks, so an empty queue means there's simply nothing to do until more work is released.

What does Psychology work look like for an Applied Psychology Benchmark Specialist?

Tasks here are scoped to Psychology, not generic labeling. As an Applied Psychology Benchmark Specialist, expect to draw on real domain judgment (evaluating outputs, correcting errors, or providing expert reasoning specific to Psychology) rather than following a one-size-fits-all rubric. If you don't have hands-on Psychology background, this is likely not the right listing to start with.

What specific skills does this listing call for?

English and Expert are named directly in the listing. If you don't have hands-on experience with these, expect the screening process to test for them directly rather than accepting adjacent experience as a substitute.

How many hours per week does this role require?

Based on the listing, this role is scoped at about 10 hours per week. Treat this as a real commitment expectation, not a loose estimate.

How much does this specific role pay?

This listing is posted at $50–$63/hr, an hourly rate. The range reflects experience level and negotiated terms, not a placeholder, so where you land in it depends on your background and the assessment. Pay can change between when we last checked the listing and when you apply, so confirm the current number on the platform's own application page before committing time.

What happens when I click Apply on this listing?

You'll be taken to Mercor's external site to complete your application there. This listing links through a referral, but the process is identical to applying directly; the link just routes you correctly. Create an account on their site and follow their onboarding steps.

Is a PhD required?

For this specific role, yes, or near-equivalent professional depth. The credential gate is enforced at the assessment stage, not just on paper. That said, active PhD candidates and people with equivalent published research have qualified without a formal degree. The assessment is the real filter.

How soon will I start working after applying to Mercor?

Not immediately. Mercor is a talent marketplace, not a task queue, so applying puts you in a pool of candidates. You start working only once a specific client, like a major AI lab, selects your profile, and that matching process can take weeks.