Psychology Department

Faculty


  • Abramov, Israel
    Areas of Expertise: I study the visual system across the life span, using psychophysical methods to understand the underlying biology. I and my collaborators measure spatio-temporal resolution, binocular functions, color functions, etc. We ask which functions are correlated and therefore share neuronal substrates. We also test specific groups, such as participants with Down's syndrome. Applied topics include illumination of art in museums and identifying stylistic groupings of archaeological artifacts.
  • Brauner, Elisabeth
    Areas of Expertise: I am interested in the relation among cognition, communication, and social structures. Current research focuses on transactive memory, communicative processes during which knowledge about other people's knowledge is acquired, and its application to knowledge management in organizations and organizational learning (with Dr. A. Becker, Innsbruck, Austria). My lab group and I have developed several methods for investigating transactive knowledge and knowledge transfer (with Dr. Rommel Robertson).
  • Delamater, Andrew
    Areas of Expertise: My research interests are directed towards an understanding of basic learning processes, particularly as they are revealed in simple Pavlovian and instrumental learning paradigms with laboratory animals. Our focus is on understanding, both at the psychological and neural systems levels of analysis, how organisms represent the causal structure of their environment.
  • Erdelyi, Matthew
    Areas of Expertise: PSYCHODYNAMICS(especially, constructive and reconstructive processes in perception and memory;defense mechanisms such as simple repression and denial); INTERPRETATION (as in dreams, fantasy, jokes); THE UPS AND DOWNS OF MEMORY (oblivescence-reminiscence; amnesia-hypermnesia); PSYCHOANALYSIS.
  • Grasso, Frank W.
    Areas of Expertise: The BioMimetic & Cognitive Robotics Lab is dedicated to the discovery of mechanisms that control & coordinate behavior. We use biomimetic robots and computer simulations in parallel with animal behavior studies to validate theories of behavior. The neural, evolutionary & ecological constraints on behavior are central to our work and we think a complete understanding of a behavior must include these 3 constraints. We take the computational perspective that models must be both simple & powerful.
  • Hardin, Curtis D.
    Areas of Expertise: My research focuses on the interpersonal foundations of cognition, including the self-concept, social identification, prejudice, and ideology. Most of my work is animated by shared reality theory (Hardin & Conley, 2001; Hardin & Higgins, 1996). From this perspective, individual cognition and interpersonal relationships are mutually constructed and regulated through the achievement of "shared reality," which is a kind of working intersubjectivity.
  • Hass, R. Glen
    Areas of Expertise: Evolution and human social behavior; Cognitive processes involved in human mating; Perspective-taking; Ambivalence and social attitudes.
  • Kacinik, Natalie A.
    Areas of Expertise: Psycholinguistics and Cognitive Neuroscience. One line of research examines the representation and activation of word meanings in semantic memory. The other deals with the comprehension of higher-levels of language (i.e., figurative expressions, discourse, and pragmatics). These issues are investigated behaviorally using word recognition and priming procedures, and with methods from cognitive neuroscience like visual half-field presentation, event-related potentials (ERPs), and structural MRI.
  • Kozbelt, Aaron
    Areas of Expertise: Analyses of artists' problem solving, evaluative, and metacognitive processes, and their relation to creativity.

    Archival studies of creativity over the lifespan, especially among classical composers, addressing how creativity changes with expertise, and the reliability of self-criticism processes.

    The psychological nature of skilled artistic drawing and its relation to artists' visual perception abilities and art history.

    Psychology of humor, including links to evolutionary theory.
  • Kurylo, Daniel
    Areas of Expertise: Dr. Kurylo's research focuses on ways in which populations of neurons become integrated to produce cognitive functions. Models of neural integration are explored in human clinical populations as well as with animal models. Studies include an analysis of visual impairment in patients with brain injury and schizophrenia. Studies also include an analysis of visual capacities in animals, and changes in perception that result from alterations in neural chemistry.
  • McDonough, Laraine
    Areas of Expertise: How do infants learn about the world and how does this learning provide the foundations for adult knowledge? Laraine McDonough has asked this question several ways by uncovering what is memorable to infants and what kinds of meanings are first learned. She then found that the particular language learned (e.g., English, Korean, or Japanese) influences early meanings. She continues this research with children with autism. She also investigates how early meanings may help us understand metaphors.
  • Owen, David
    Areas of Expertise: Human behavior genetics
    Abnormal psychology
    Tests and measurement
  • Pipe, Margaret-Ellen
    Areas of Expertise: I study (1) how best to conduct investigative interviews with children who are victims of, or witnesses to, child abuse, and (2) how children acquire information from what they read and watch and how this information influences their own experiences of new situations. For example, how should we best prepare a child for an upcoming experience that is likely to be distressing, to reduce the long-term effects on the child?
  • Rabin, Laura A.
    Areas of Expertise: Researchers are characterizing the earliest stages of age-related cognitive impairment, when treatment that slows progression to dementia can exert the strongest impact. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transitional state between the cognitive changes of normal aging and Alzheimer's disease. Patients with MCI experience significant memory loss yet do not meet criteria for dementia. I study patients with MCI using neuropsychological evaluation, genetic testing, and neuroimaging techniques.
  • Reigada, Laura
    Areas of Expertise: My research interests focus on early identification and treatment of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents; treatment of chronically ill youth with disease-specific anxiety; dissemination of evidence-based treatments; and cognitive processes in treatment change.
  • Sclafani, Anthony
    Areas of Expertise: The biopsychology of appetite, food preferences, and obesity. Current research is focusing on the role of learning in the development of preferences for high-fat and high-sugar foods using animal models (rats, mice). Brain mechanisms mediating food appetite and preference learning are under investigation.
  • Snadowsky, Alvin
    Areas of Expertise: His areas of expertise are leadership and group structure in industrial and organizational settings.
  • Walder, Deborah J.
    Areas of Expertise: My research program focuses on the neurodevelopment of mental health disorders such as schizophrenia and depression, with consideration of sex differences. I study biomarkers of risk (e.g., neurohormones, brain abnormalities, genetics, and neuropsychological functioning) and environmental factors, among healthy and high-risk youth and young adults. This includes use of prospective methods to better understand the early trajectory of illness, with an eye toward prevention and early intervention.
  • Weston, Peter
    Areas of Expertise: Scholarly Interests: Social Structure and Personality Dynamics; Self and Identity; Personality Theory; Health Psychology; Psychology of Prejudice and Racism; Academic Advisement