Reginald Adams is interested in how we extract social and emotional meaning from nonverbal cues, particularly via the face. His work addresses how multiple social messages (e.g., emotion, gender, race, age, etc.) combine and interact to form unified representations that guide our impressions of and responses to others. Of particular interest is the functional correspondence between static and expressive cues; at a fundamental level both signal basic intentions to approach-avoid, dominate, and/or affiliate. With this in mind, his current work examines the influences of eye gaze, social group memberships (e.g., gender and race), and facial appearance on the way we process and perceive others’ mental and emotional states. Although his questions are social psychological in origin, his research draws upon visual cognition and affective neuroscience to address social perception at the functional and neuroanatomical levels.
Peter Arnett’s research interests lie primarily in the area of adult clinical neuropsychology. Current research focuses on understanding neuropsychological consequences of multiple sclerosis (MS), a demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system. Recent projects have evaluated neuropsychological correlates of depression in MS and factors (such as coping ) that may moderate the relationship between common symptoms of MS and depression. Recent studies have also explored the nature of depression in MS and how it differs from depression in non-neurological patient groups. Dr. Arnett also oversees the program on neuropsychological consequences of sports-related concussion for Penn State Athletics. This program involves baseline neuropsychological testing of first-year Penn State athletes involved in contact sports. When athletes experience concussions, they are re-tested and their postconcussion testing compared with baseline test results. This information is then used to assist return to play decisions. Current research from this program focuses on the influence of motivation on baseline performance, optimal ways of estimating baseline cognitive ability, and exploring the relative sensitivity of computerized versus paper-and-pencil neuropsychological tests to concussion.
(Dr. Arnett will NOT be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Child clinical psychology and family processes and risk issues. Her work focuses on maternal behavior, child abuse, gender and aggression, and legal issues affecting families (e.g., definitions of parental competence for custody evaluations; racial, ethnic, and class bias in legal treatment of families).
My research seeks to understand how people think creatively. In our lab, we use brain imaging and behavioral experiments to examine neural and cognitive systems that support creative thinking. One line of research uses fMRI to characterize brain network dynamics during creative task performance. A goal of this work is to link brain activity during creative performance to specific cognitive processes (such as memory, attention, and cognitive control), using network analysis and multivariate modeling of fMRI data. We also combine brain imaging with neuromodulation (e.g., tES-fNIRS) to test causal questions regarding neurocognitive mechanisms of creativity, with the longer-term goal of understanding whether and how creativity can be enhanced. We study creativity in a variety of contexts and domains, including musical improvisation and scientific problem solving. We also develop open access resources to measure creativity for educators and researchers, using natural language processing and other computational tools.
Sheri Berenbaum is interested in social and cognitive development, primarily from a neuroscience perspective. Current work focuses on prenatal sex hormone effects on gender development, genetic influences on pubertal development and on the association between pubertal timing and behavior, and the neural substrates of individual differences in cognitive abilities. A goal is to understand the ways in which biological predispositions and the childhood social environment work together to produce individual differences in social behavior and cognition.
Karen Bierman has interests in child-clinical psychology and social-emotional development. Her research has focused on peer relations, social skills for peer acceptance, and intervention programs to facilitate social adjustment. Currently, she is involved with the multi-site FAST Track Program, which focuses on the early identification and prevention of conduct problems in elementary-aged children; the Head Start REDI program, a randomized field trial evaluating curriculum components and reading strategies designed to enhance school readiness; and the FOCUS prevention trial examining the diffusion of empirically supported prevention programs to support school readiness through university-community partnerships.
(Dr. Bierman will NOT be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Frederick Brown investigates the neurobehavioral rhythms of life that underlie all human activity. They include daily (circadian, sleep/wake), monthly (lunar phase, reproductive), and seasonal (“wintertime blues”) rhythms. His research involves measuring the daily rhythms of cognitive and performance variables, and determining any effects on them from fatigue and sleep deprivation. His collaborators include human factors and engineering colleagues at the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, and scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute for Research, Silver Spring, MD.
Kristin Buss is interested in emotional development and temperamental variation from birth through early childhood. Her work spans multiple areas of research within social development, psychobiology, and neuroscience. Her current work is focused on the development of risk for adjustment problems, such as anxiety symptoms in toddlers with fearful temperaments. This work has demonstrated significant effects for types of situations where children show fear as well as their physiological stress reactivity.
Dr. Cameron investigates the psychological processes involved in empathy and moral decision-making, using an interdisciplinary approach drawing on affective science, social cognition, and moral philosophy. In much of his research, he examines motivational and situational factors that shape empathic emotions and behaviors toward others. In other research, he uses implicit measurement and mathematical modeling to assess empathy and moral judgment in healthy, clinical, and incarcerated populations. To learn more about his research, please visit the Empathy and Moral Psychology Lab web page.
Richard Carlson is studying how individuals control their mental activity in complex tasks such as symbolic and spatial problem solving and reasoning. His current research is concerned primarily with the roles of spatial and temporal frames of reference in the conscious control of skilled mental activity. His major conceptual focus is developing a theory of consciousness that relates conscious agency and information processing accounts of cognitive control. This theory emphasizes the parallel structures of perceptual, symbolic, and emotional awareness.
Louis Castonguay’s interest is on different aspects of psychotherapy. The research conduct in his lab has examined therapy participants (client and therapist variables), process of change (e.g., intervention and relationship variables), context variables (e.g., center effects), and training (e.g., peer supervision). Some of these empirical investigations have focused on predicting who will benefit more or less from therapy, who will return for new episodes of therapy, and will do worst during treatment; on examining how much therapists differ in their ability to foster change, to facilitate attendance to therapy sessions, and to reduce drop out from therapy; on investigating the complex relationship between techniques (unique to particular approaches and common to all treatments) and outcome; and on clarifying the role of the working alliance (is it facilitating change or is it providing a corrective experience, and is it more important for some clients than others). Most of these studies are currently conducted in naturalistic settings (also called practice-oriented research or practice base evidence), particularly in the context of different practice-research networks — which involve the active collaboration of researchers and clinicians. Some of the lab’s research has also taken place within the context of randomized clinical trials (e.g., cognitive therapy and integrative treatment for generalized anxiety disorder).
(Dr. Castonguay will be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Pamela Cole’s research focuses on the early development of emotion regulation in normally developing children and in children who are at risk for later psychopathology. A new project, in collaboration with Crnic, Nelson, & Blair (HDFS) examines emotion regulation and its development between 18 and 48 months, in particular, the development of effective and flexible emotion regulation strategies and of awareness of strategies. A second area of interest is cultural variations in emotion regulation and the socialization of emotion, particularly in Asian (Nepali & Japanese) societies, and the implications of cultural differences for the relation between emotional functioning, competence, and psychopathology.
(Dr. Cole will NOT be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Jonathan Cook studies how identity threat from important social categories, like race, gender, sexual orientation, or chronic illness, can affect cognitive, affective, and physiological processes over time. His research examines consequences that are shared across disparate stigmatized group memberships, as well as the unique consequences of given social identity groups or identity types (e.g., based on ability to conceal). His research also seeks to develop and test psychological interventions to reduce identity threat or mitigate its consequences.
My research focuses on elucidating the cognitive and neural mechanisms that support learning and memory in young and older adults. I employ both behavioral and neuroimaging methods, including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional MRI (fMRI) to explore the interaction of cognitive and neural processes involved in episodic memory. While my primary research investigates the neural correlates of item memory during both encoding and retrieval, my research also examines the neural processes associated with relational memory and false memory. With respect to cognitive aging, my research concentrates on the examination of age-related neural markers of cognitive decline, as well as mechanisms for neural compensation. Other lines of research include both implicit learning and genetic neuroimaging.
Rina Eiden’s research focuses on understanding developmental trajectories among children at risk for maladjustment due to multiple adversities linked to parental substance abuse, as well as early childhood interventions designed to ameliorate these risks and promote competence. Her studies, many of which follow cohorts of children across multiple developmental stages (e.g., birth to adolescence), seek to understand developmental mechanisms that may explain the association between parental risk factors and child outcomes (e.g., infant-parent attachment, parent-child self-regulation, individual differences in children’s autonomic and stress reactivity, and immune/inflammatory mechanisms). She has a particular interest in prenatal and early childhood interventions for substance using parents, with the goal of promoting family health, including positive developmental cascades for children.
James Farr’s research interests are in the area of industrial/organizational psychology with emphasis on personnel selection, criterion development, and work motivation. Current research projects are concerned with the evaluation of personnel selection systems; the effects of individual and workgroup factors on performance feedback seeking and giving; factors affecting work performance evaluations; and issues related to older workers’ job performance and motivation.
Karen Gasper is interested in affect and social cognition. Currently, her research examines the effect of both momentary and long-term feelings on information processing, the factors that influence affect regulation, and situational and individual differences in emotional understanding and experience. Some projects have investigated the influence of trait and state anxiety on judgment, the effect of mood on creativity, and the factors that reduce the influence of affect on information processing.
Rick Gilmore’s research asks three questions: What are the representations underlying spatial perception and action? How are these representations instantiated in the brain? How do they develop, and why? The developmental cognitive neuroscience approach he takes to these questions combines insights from behavioral studies, biological experiments, and computational models. The ultimate aim is a unified, biologically and computationally plausible, account of the development of spatial perception and action early in life.
As an industrial/organizational psychologist, Alicia Grandey’s research focuses on stress and emotions from the perspective of the employee. Specifically, this has taken the form of two main streams of research. Her first area of research explores the experience and control of emotions within the work role, and how emotions can be both beneficial and detrimental to the performance and well-being of the employee. Research is designed to have implications for selection and training of employees. The second area focuses on work-family conflict as a contributor to stress, and how employees and organizations perceive and react to “family-friendly policies.” Related topics of interest include coping and support, mood/affect, customer service, and perceptions of injustice.
Dr. Hausman is an Assistant Director of the Psychological Clinic. Her primary interests include typical and atypical regulation of both positive and negative emotions in children and adolescents. Specifically, her work has focused on atypical regulation of positive emotion (affective, cognitive, neurobiological) with respect to anxiety and depressive symptoms and disorders in children and adolescents. She also has interests in clinical training and supervision as means of disseminating evidence-based practices.
(Dr. Hausman will NOT be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
A primary focus of my research is to examine the influences of injury and disease on functional brain organization. This research includes both behavioral and MRI-based techniques and examines both acute and long-term patient outcome variables. MRI-based techniques provide the opportunity to examine alterations in the neural substrate and to correlate basic brain changes with variables of cognitive and functional outcome. In my laboratory, MRI methods include proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to examine neurometabolism, diffusion tensor imaging to examine structural white matter changes, and functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine cognitive deficits. Currently, with investigators at Hershey Medical Center, we have initiated a study examining basic brain changes associated with severe brain trauma over the course of the first 6 months of recovery. A second goal of my work is validate functional MRI techniques in individuals sustaining severe brain trauma. There is already an emerging literature employing fMRI to examine a myriad of deficits caused by brain trauma. However, the validity of these findings remains in question due to the potential influence of brain injury on cerebral blood flow (the basis of the fMRI signal). With funding from the NIH-NINDS, we are now examining how brain trauma alters the fMRI signal. This work aims to provide investigators with improved methods for appropriate interpretation of fMRI data sets in studies of TBI as well as other clinical samples.
(Dr. Hillary is planning on recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Cynthia Huang-Pollock is a child clinical psychologist who is interested in identifying neurocognitive deficits that may be associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In recent studies, Cynthia has used cognitive paradigms of attention to determine whether attention as a cognitive process is in fact dysfunctional in children with extreme levels of behavioral inattention and hyperactivity. Dr. Huang-Pollock is also interested in determining whether our current understanding of the structure of cognitive processes remains valid when normal development is disrupted. Future research is focused on determining how neuropsychological performance may be affected by motivation, reward, and timing deficits in children with and without ADHD.
(Dr. Huang-Pollock will be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Dr. Jackson is a board-certified, clinical child psychologist and is the Associate Director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at Penn State. Her federally funded research focuses on the development of models of the process of resilience for youth exposed to trauma with a specific focus on youth exposed to child maltreatment and the intergenerational transmission of trauma. Her work includes observational and physiological techniques in addition to survey measures in longitudinal and prospective research approaches. She also works on the development of assessment for trauma as well as the assessment of emotion regulation and cognitive functioning for youth and families exposed to adversity.
(Dr. Jackson will be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Rick Jacob’s studies several topics in industrial psychology. In work in performance analysis, Dr. Jacobs studies individuals longitudinally to understand why, with seniority, some people improve while others remain relatively stable or deteriorate. He also studies the conceptual and practical distinctions between seniority and experience. In work on personnel decision making and applied information processing, Dr. Jacobs studies individuals’ use of multiple cues in forming composite judgements (e.g., for decisions on managerial promotions, risk analysis in nuclear power plants, union participation). In work with teachers, Dr. Jacobs uses results from surveys of more than 47,000 teachers to test hypotheses concerning gender differences, the impact of seniority on various job attitudes, and the link between job attitudes and the intention to leave the profession of teaching.
Dr. Laurent studies how people think and feel about other people’s minds and actions, including how people form and revise their moral judgments. Topics of interest include social and moral cognition, perspective taking and empathy, intentionality and mental states, and also intersections between psychology and the law.
Ken Levy is a broadly trained clinical psychologist whose research interests bridge the areas of social, personality, and developmental psychology. His research focuses on attachment theory, emotion regulation, personality disorders, and psychotherapy process and outcome. Recent projects have examined the relationship between adult attachment organization (including mentalization) and personality disorders, neural and neurocognitive aspects of attachment and personality disorders, as well as psychotherapy process and outcome in the treatment of personality disorders. Current projects examine mechanisms of change in psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder, the contextual and personality factors that influence post-treatment adjustment in patients with borderline personality disorder, and the developmental precursors of personality problems in children of parents with personality disorders. He and his students pursue this research in their laboratory at Penn State and also in collaboration with colleagues at the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell Medical Center.
(Dr. Levy is planning to recruit a graduate student for 2023-24)
Lynn Liben is interested in both cognitive and social development, and in their interface. Current work in cognitive development focuses on children’s growing ability to understand graphic representations, including maps, satellite imagery, photographs, and drawings. For example, in a collaborative grant with geographers, astronauts, earth scientists, educators, and other members of the psychology department, she is studying the use of various scientific visualization tools (e.g., Geographic Information Systems software) with children and adults. Also under study are the origins and amelioration of sex differences in spatial skills. Work in social development focuses on gender and racial stereotypes, with particular interest in the ways in which cognitive processes play a role in understanding and modifying these stereotypes.
Dr. Lunkenheimer’s research program revolves around regulatory processes in the family, with the dual goals of (1) understanding how mother-child and father-child interaction patterns act as risk and protective processes for developmental psychopathology and (2) uncovering malleable relationship processes that could aid in the tailoring and improvement of preventive intervention programs for families at risk. Grounded in dynamic systems theory and using dynamic time series statistical approaches, Dr. Lunkenheimer studies the moment-to-moment coregulation of emotions, goal-oriented behaviors, and physiology between parents and young children in relation to familial risk factors and child outcomes (e.g., children’s self-regulation). A primary interest is examining the role that these parent-child coregulation patterns play in the development of child maltreatment, as well as their association with related maltreatment risk factors (e.g., harsh parenting, parental mental health problems and stress, children’s behavior problems). Ultimately, this work is designed to obtain a better understanding of the etiology of developmental psychopathology and inform the prevention of child maltreatment.
Mel Mark’s current interests include: (1) application of recent models of affect to prevention and to risk-taking behaviors; (2) the appropriate use of social science research in social policy, particularly in the context of program evaluation; and (3) a revision and extension of terror management theory.
Amy Marshall is interested in social information processing deficits and contextual variables that contribute to the perpetration of intimate partner violence. Social and cognitive science methodologies are used to identify information processing deficits underlying associations between aggression perpetration and personality variables (particularly psychopathy and borderline/dependent personality characteristics), as well as posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Emotion recognition skills, and methods of studying such skills in context, are of particular interest. Current work also aims to differentiate variables that contribute to male and female perpetration of intimate partner violence from variables that contribute to aggression in non-intimate relationships.
(Dr. Marshall will be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Dr. Matsick is a feminist social psychologist with a primary focus in sexuality, gender, and prejudice. She draws on social psychological and feminist theories to highlight the standpoint of underrepresented groups (e.g., LGBQT individuals, women, and racial minorities) in research. In one stream of research, she examines sexuality, sexual prejudice, and health outcomes among sexual and gender minorities. In a second area of research, she examines how people with less power (minority groups) perceive and respond to those with more power (dominant groups). To learn more about her research, please visit her lab website.
Ginger Moore is a child clinical psychologist with research interests in infant emotion development in high-risk contexts, including parental psychopathology, family conflict and violence, and maternal incarceration. Her recent research examines the development of normal and abnormal patterns of physiological and behavioral regulation in response to high-conflict and violent environments, mechanisms that explain risk and resilience in the face of these environments, and emotion-focused interventions to promote optimal emotion development and regulation within families.
Keith Nelson’s interests concern cognitive developmental theory. His research involves children’s acquisition and use of language and art. He also works with microcomputer-multimedia applications in educational research aimed at improving communication, art, and thinking in normal and handicapped children. Another facet of theorizing deals with the ways that cognition, emotion, and motivation are intertwined in children’s learning.
Michelle Newman’s research focuses on the nature and treatment of anxiety disorders. Dr. Newman is examining the etiology and classification, individual predictors of psychotherapy outcome, and impact of psychotherapy with respect to social phobia, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and trauma. Further, she is examining issues relevant to the health implications of anxiety disorders. Current research projects include an integrative therapy for generalized anxiety disorder (integrating cognitive behavioral, interpersonal, and experiential therapy techniques); evaluation of brief individual and group palmtop computer-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy; classification of generalized and specific social phobia, panic disorder, and GAD; examination of the impact of psychotherapy beyond the targeted symptoms of a particular disorder; impact of focus of attention in social phobia; and interpersonal impact of persons with GAD and social phobia.
(Dr. Newman is planning to recruit a graduate student for 2023-24)
I believe that interpersonal functioning is an integrative nexus for psychological science and practice, bringing together a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of adaptive and maladaptive human behavior. This belief guides my research program, which is broadly informed and influenced by the interpersonal theory of personality. In all my research endeavors I use interpersonal theory to integrate aspects of trait theories, object-relations theories, attachment theory, social learning theories, and social cognition to synthetically investigate clinical phenomena.
My research broadly applies interpersonal theory and methods to personality within clinical psychology. This includes: (a) personality disorders and alternative conceptions of abnormal personality, (b) clinical and personality assessment utilizing the Interpersonal Circumplex (IPC) and Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB), and (c) personality factors in psychopathology and psychotherapy.
Recent work has focused on new interpersonal conceptualizations of dependent and narcissistic personalities, interpersonal functioning in anxiety disorders, and the development of new circumplex measurement methodologies.
(Dr. Pincus will NOT be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
William Ray’s work can be seen as a bridging of clinical questions and cognitive neuroscience approaches. This work can be viewed under three separate but interrelated perspectives. The first perspective involves the study of affective disorders including psychophysiological changes following psychotherapy. A second research stream is that of understanding dissociative experiences within nonclinical populations. The third perspective involves basic research paradigms examining the relationship of electrocortical activity and the planning and execution of motor behaviors.
Stephanie Shields’ research is at the intersection of the psychology of emotion, the psychology of gender, and feminist psychology. Her current work focuses on questions concerning when, why, and how emotion and emotionality are explicitly labeled in everyday situations, especially in the workplace. She also studies the social context of psychological research, especially the history of the psychology of women and gender, and women’s participation in American psychology.
Susan Mohammed’s research interests are primarily in the area of organizational psychology, with an emphasis on decision making and group/team dynamics. Her decision making work investigates the processes by which individuals with different perceptions arrive at group-level interpretations of strategic issues. Her current team research is examining the influence of various types of team composition variables on group processes and outcomes. In addition, she continues to build on earlier conceptual work on team mental models by exploring ways to expand measurement options.
José Soto is a clinical psychologist interested in the influence of culture on psychological and physiological processes. Much of his work has centered on understanding the role that culture plays in emotional functioning. More specifically, he has examined how culture and ethnic background affect: 1) how we experience and express emotions and 2) how accurate we are in inferring the emotions of others. He has approached the study of culture and emotion from a multi-method perspective, using psychophysiological measures to supplement behavioral and self-report data. Recent projects have focused on how the interaction of culture and emotion can affect mental and physical health conditions such as depression and chronic pain. Future research studies will also begin to explore the influence of culture on the regulation of emotion and the development of cultural differences in emotional processes.
(Dr. Soto will NOT be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Janet Swim’s research addresses perceptions and responses to current social and environmental issues. She examines the impact of information, motivation (e.g., values, beliefs, and emotions), and behavioral skills on interest in information about climate change and engagement in pro-environmental behavior.
Dr. Testa is an Assistant Director of the Psychological Clinic. Her primary interests include the role which exposure to adverse conditions (e.g., acute/chronic/traumatic stress, insufficiency of conditions necessary for flexible adaptation) may play with respect to the cultivation of diminished self-regulatory capabilities across cognitive, affective, interpersonal, physiological, and neurobiological domains of functioning that may render an individual susceptible to both general and specific forms of psychopathology. Special interests include complex PTSD/stress syndromes, anxiety disorders, and characterological disturbances.
(Dr. Testa will NOT be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Janet Van Hell is interested in the cognitive and neural processes related to language development and language use. There are two broad themes to her current research. One focuses on cognitive and neural processes that enable the learning and use of multiple languages in bilinguals at different levels of proficiency. Her students and her study developmental patterns of cross-language interaction and transfer related to lexical and morpho-syntactic processing, as well as neural and cognitive mechanisms involved in language-switching. They also study sign-speech bilinguals who use spatial and oral languages from two different modalities. The second research theme focuses on language development in school-aged children with typical or atypical development (including children with dyslexia or with specific language impairment, children who are deaf, and bilingual children from an ethnic minority background).
Theresa Vescio’s primary research interests fall under the rubric of stereotyping and prejudice. Within that context, she examines questions of how global societal stereotypes (a) are internalized by high and low prejudice people, (b) affect dominant group members’ judgment of and behavior toward members of negatively stereotyped groups, and (c) influence the self-definition of members of negatively stereotyped groups.
Dr. Wadsworth’s research program aims to develop a rich, contextual understanding of how children in poverty adapt to their difficult life circumstances. Through a biologically informed stress-and-coping lens, Dr. Wadsworth’s work focuses on identifying individual, family, and community strengths that promote positive outcomes for youths exposed to poverty-related stress and trauma. She also develops and evaluates youth, family, school, and community-level interventions that target these strengths and assets rather than deficits.
(Dr. Wadsworth will be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Stephen Wilson’s primary area of research interest is addictive behavior, with a specific focus on cigarette smoking. The overarching goal of his research program is to advance our understanding of the self-regulatory failures characteristic of drug addiction. He utilizes an interdisciplinary approach that integrates theory and methods from traditional behavioral addiction research with those derived from the affective, cognitive and social neurosciences (e.g., functional brain imaging). Theoretically, his work is guided by contemporary neuroscientific models of executive/cognitive control and emotion regulation. These perspectives provide a novel framework for elucidating the mechanisms whereby exposure to drug cues leads to failures of self-regulation. His current work is directed at examining how the engagement of such resources affects the performance of tasks requiring cognitive control, as well as how such effects vary as a function of individual differences in cognitive ability and the nature of the task being performed.
(Dr. Wilson may be recruiting a graduate student for 2023-24)
Dawn Witherspoon is interested in how context shapes adolescent development. Her work focuses on neighborhood, school, and family factors that affect adolescents’ socioemotional and academic adjustment. In addition, she examines how race, ethnicity, and other cultural attributes interact with contextual characteristics to influence adolescent outcomes. Her current work examines adolescent development from middle to high school to understand how aspects of the residential neighborhood, school, and family contexts are related to adolescents’ academic adjustment and beliefs as well as their deviant behaviors. A goal of her research is to elucidate the development of urban and rural adolescents, with particular attention to contextual supports.
Brad Wyble studies visual cognition with an emphasis on exploring how a visual stimulus becomes a consciously accessible representation. His work incorporates theories of temporal attention and consolidation of memory representations as well as the capture of attention by task relevant stimuli. This research uses a combination of behavioral and electrophysiological data collection to provide constraints on neurocomputational models of the visual system.
