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December 2016

Friends and Alumni Support the Department

Norman H. Anderson Awards

For the sixth year, the Department of Psychology awarded Norman H. Anderson funds for domestic conference travel and research-related expenses. This past year twenty-two awards were made to graduate students and five to undergraduates. Students presented their research at nine different conferences across the country including meetings for the Society for Neuroscience and Social Neuroscience, the Cognitive Development Society, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology to name a few. Seven graduate students had the opportunity to pursue original lines of research in their labs with Anderson funding. The projects this past year included a study on the percetual feature recombination and false memory creation, a study on causally determining the role of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (diPFC) in retrieval monitoring by using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to selectively stimulate the region, a study on mechanisms of insight learning, and a study on gesture and learning. We are excited to see the many publications and conference presentations that have resulted from this opportunity for graduate students to explore independent research programs.

Earl R. Franklin Fellows

Earl R. Franklin, an alumnus of the College, established a fellowship in 2006 that awards students in the Departments of Psychology and Comparative Human Development merit based funding to conduct summer research. The Psychology Department selected four Franklin Fellows for 2016. This summer Xanthe Gallante worked with Dr. Jean Decety to explored how contextual information is incorporated in resource decision making tasks in young children. Annie Hao's project with Dr. Miwa Yasui and Dr. Richard Shweder explored possible differences in stigma towards mental health treatment between Chinese International and Chinese American young adults, considered in relation to possible differing cultural orientations. Haozhe Shan's research with Dr. Peggy Mason focused on a rodent model of social rejection, and the gut microbiota basis of rat social preference. Finally, Zachary Trail worked with Dr. Alex Shaw to explore children’s understanding of moral hypocrisy and the possible signaling benefits of moral condemnation.

Hanavi-Montgomery Summer Fellowship

In 2011, Ron Hanavi and Lisa Montgomery made a generous gift to the Infant Learning and Development Lab to support summer research projects related to child development. The Hanavi-Montgomery Summer Fellowship awards a summer research stipend to one undergraduate each year to support a student's research in an area of interest without having the burden of needing to find additional summer employment. This year, the Hanavi-Montgomery Summer Fellowship supported third-year Daniella Rodriguez who assisted with two different coding projects. One project looked at cross-cultural differences in American and Mayan children's action learning and another project at how early language experience in deaf and hearing children shapes children's attention to language.

Starkey Duncan Alumni Lecture

This past Autumn marks the fourth annual Starkey Duncan Alumni Lecture. A generous gift from the Duncan family made it possible for us to invite Marie T. Banich, who received her PhD from the Department in 1985 and is now a professor at the University of Colorado-Denver, to give a lecture. In her talk, entitled Talking to Each Other: How Connectivity Between Brain Regions Influences Processing Capacity and Cognitive Control, Dr. Banich discussed her dissertation research at Chicago and the work that followed, showing that communication between the multiple areas in the brain influences processing capacity. The talk concluded with a discussion of Dr. Banich's more recent research on how individual differences in brain organization and connectivity at rest can provide insights into the neural correlates of cognitive control and execultive function. Following the talk, the Dr. Banich and lecture attendees gathered for a reception in the Social Sciences Tea Room.

Starkey Duncan Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Every year the Department of Psychology seeks nominations from undergraduate students to recognize the important role graduate students play in their education and learning experience. The Starkey Duncan Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching honors graduate student teaching assistants or instructors who have made significant contributions to their undergraduate students’ learning and engagement in psychological science. This year's award recipient was Kirsten Adam for her work as a teaching assistant for Psychological Research Methods and Sensation and Perception. One student wrote, "Kirsten was incredibly helpful, communicative, and resourceful, going above and beyond what I was expecting from a TA." Kirsten was presented with a plaque to recognize her outstanding efforts in the classroom.

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