My experience is similar to clinpsychgirl's.
I am working (paid, not as a student- graduated in Dec
this is at a diff univ than I attended) in a psych lab as a Research Associate. I do structured interviews, scheduling, data entry. Hours are somewhat felxible- there are office hours and they schedule you, but it is based on your availability and you can work as many or as few hours as you want within reason. There are also some limited opportunities to take work home. You have definite tasks that are assigned and must be completed, but you can manage your time during the day- no one is watching over your shoulder.
This is a large, funded program that has been running for a few years, so my role is to support their research, not conduct my own or follow my ideas. I don't even have access to the PI or the data.
Now, I worked as a research assistant for a professor who knew me and my work ethics and abilities, etc very well, and there I had complete freedom with what I would do and when & how I would do it. I had the opportunity to come up with hypotheses and use her data (data collection was complete) and run analyses and present the work. We are now working on getting it published and I will be second author.
I also worked with that prof on an independet research project where I did everything from design the study to training observers, seeking IRB approval, etc to writing and presenting.
Other students I have known to work with that prof and in other labs/other univ have mostly done the grunt work type stuff described in my first paragraph.
It is my understanding that grad schools expect the undergrad to have the less flexible, come in and help out type of experience. But- the more experience and the more in depth the better! Esp if you can get a publication out of it!
If you want the latter type of experience (and you are no longer in college), I would suggest contacting some psych profs at local colleges and enroll in some of their classes and work with them for a semester or two.
Some of what I have learned- it is okay if the research is somewhat outside of your interests. IOW- if the only prof available to you is doing gerontology and you are into sensory/perception that's okay. It would be best to stick with psych/academic environment rather than a hospital environment, but anything is better than nothing.
They want to see that you know what a lab is like.
Now data access is tricky- technically, any lab should share data with any researcher who wants to analyze it... but many researchers are protective of their work- esp while still colllecting, writing. They don't want someone else to write up their hypotheses and get credit for all their hard work! They might be especially leery of someone without credentials. I
have known undergrads who got data sets from large labs (not affiliated with their university) though and published the work.
And... if you don't have research experience or a mentor... would you know what to do with the data if you could get it?
It wouldn't hurt to ask your supervisors about these things after you have gotten to know them. There may be a grad student working out a hypothesis that would like your help and would be willing to list you as a co-author and give you more indepth experience.
Keep your eyes open and try to get an idea of who is who and what is what... Once you know someone well, explain your desire to go to grad school and ask if they have any suggestions on how to get published in your situation.
Tara P