system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
To PhD students in Psychology - How much peer reviewed research were you reading as an undergraduate?

I am at the point in my undergraduate career where I am trying to narrow down my research interests to prepare for my senior thesis and the graduate school hunt. I was just wondering how much research I should be trying to read weekly to be on par with others who have gone to graduate school. Should I try and read one a day? One a week?

EDIT: Also, does anyone have tips on how I can organize what I have read to try and narrow down my interests? The graduate students in my labs have told me an excel document would probably be a good idea but I was wondering if anyone had any other tips and tricks for organizing, remembering, and utilizing the research that you read. Thank you!
gpt
Just, like, random research articles on your own?  I'd say, like, none, as a matter of obligation. Hopefully you're getting a bit from the upper level classes. You already volunteer in labs, so you should get a little to read from them.  That's enough that research articles won't be unfamiliar when you get there.  

Decide on an area (cognitive, social, dev, neuro, whatever).  Classes and your personal passions will suffice-- there's too much out there to expect to survey these things reading random articles. Find out what the best programs are in that area.  Apply to those.  See who's there, look at their research a little, and mention the ones that seem like the best fit in your letter of interest.  Run it all by someone who knows the field and who can tell you who is active, who is a nutcase, and so forth.  

Your thesis should probably be pretty heavily based on whatever is already going on in your labs, your own interests ought not come into it that much.  Otherwise it will be both shitty and an unmanageable amount of work.   




source: psych phd, employed academic research scientist 

edit:  There's another path, one where you have a burning desire to research some question or topic, usually self-relevant.  But if this isn't you, it's not likely to become you because you picked up the right article.