Conor Smithson

Conor Smithson, from The Object Perception lab, successfully defended his dissertation titled "The Structure and Correlates of Domain-general Object Recognition Ability" on November 5th, under the supervision of Dr. Isabel Gauthier. This work uses structural equation modeling to advance our understanding of the relations between a high-level visual ability for subordinate-level object recognition and a number of other constructs, including intelligence, spatial abilities, auditory object recognition and episodic memory for the location of objects. Congratulations Dr. Smithson!

News

Jadyn Collado

Jadyn is an undergraduate honors student in the Bastos Lab. Vanderbilt Media ran this story about Jadyn and her family's connection to Vanderbilt University.
Jadyn is now exploring groundbreaking neuroscience research and following in her aunt's footsteps.

Follow us on LinkedIn!

The Department of Psychology is happy to announce our page on LinkedIn. Here you can connect with alumni, keep up to date with research from our faculty and look for events happening in the psychology deaprtment. Follow and connect with us here or click the icon below!

Join the Tennessee Psychological Association (TPA)

Becoming a TPA student member connects you to Tennessee’s vibrant psychology community and helps you start building your professional network long before graduation. Whether you’re an undergraduate exploring career options or a graduate student preparing for licensure, TPA offers opportunities to learn, lead, and belong.

Student members gain access to mentorship, statewide networking, continuing education, and advocacy that shapes the future of psychology in Tennessee. You’ll meet practicing psychologists, attend workshops and conferences, and discover how your voice can influence policy and practice across the state. TPA helps bridge the gap between the classroom and your professional life — giving you community, connection, and a front-row seat to the future of the field. Please consider joining to be part of the community by clicking here.

Publications

Schlundt Lab

The Schlundt Lab published this article in JAMA dermatology. It is very important to survivors of SJS/TEN.

Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis (SJS/TEN) survivors experience substantial long-term sequelae. Research on physical symptoms experienced during acute hospitalization is well documented, but limited studies have been completed on the long-term biopsychosocial effects of SJS/TEN, particularly from the patient’s perspective.

Alumni Updates

Becky Cutler and Marcus Wild

Former Ph.D. students, Marcus Wild and Rebecca (Becky) Cutler just published a paper in Scientific Reports that describes their collaboration on a modeling psychopathology as a high-dimensional symptom space. Marcus was a clinical student supervised by Jo-Anne Bachorowski, and Becky was a CCN student supervised by Sean Polyn. Their publications and dissertations were on very different topics, solidly in their own areas, but these two friends were both passionate about psychology, and it was during these extracurricular conversations that the idea was born. This paper applies Becky’s skills with modeling high dimensional spaces and Marcus’ knowledge of psychopathology to construe psychopathology as a trajectory through a multidimensional symptom space. The resulting model applies to individuals as well as groups, providing a representation of a person’s current state, their history of past states, and the future states that the person might attain with therapy (getting better) and without it (getting worse). This impressive achievement exemplifies the best in academic collaboration. Marcus and Becky reached across disciplines to create something unique that neither could achieve on their own, and they did it out of friendship and a shared love of psychology.

Lab Updates

Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Conference

Noah Willhite (left) and Ayman Aljishi (right) from the Hoffman lab presented at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in San Diego earlier this week.

Ayman presented: Coordinated dynamics of Dentate Spikes and ripples in the hippocampus of sleeping macaques.

Noah presented: Organization of hippocampal and medial prefrontal activity during spatial-inference category learning in freely moving rhesus macaques.

Mia Elbon (bottom left) from the Herculano lab also presented at the confrence with her poster: It doesn’t take more hippocampal neurons to go farther. Mia also presensted a talk at the JB Johnston club annual meeting.

Sajad Ahmadinabi (bottom right) from the Womelsdorf lab presented his poster: Anterior Cingulate Cortex Links Past and Current Choice Outcomes During Information Sampling.

Upcoming Talks

Clinical: Tuesday's, 12:00-1:00pm, 316 Wilson Hall

December 2 -- Allie Adamis

CCN: Thursday's, 12:10-1:00pm, 316 Wilson Hall

December 4 -- Faculty Panel: Isabel Gauthier, PhD, Andre Bastos, PhD, Ashley Watts, PhD

Making Rejection Work for You - a panel discussion on how to deal with rejection in academia.

Neuroscience: Friday's, 1:25-2:15pm, 316 Wilson Hall

December 5 -- TBD

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