Honors Program in the Psychological Sciences:Information that might be useful in

Identifying a Mentor

Often identifying an appropriate faculty mentor is the most difficult part of getting started in the honors program. Although there are a number of resources available to help with this process, identifying and contacting potential mentors, and then garnering their agreement to serve as one's sponsor in the Honors Program is primarily the student's responsibility. This handout is meant to provide some helpful information to make the process easier and more productive.

In terms of general resources, talk with students currently participating in the program to get their perspectives on their projects and what various faculty are like to work with. Also, don't be afraid to talk with Psych-related professors who know you about your desire to participate in the program and your research interests. Even if the professor you talk to doesn't have appropriate interests for you, s/he can often point you in the direction of colleagues who better match your interests. Talk to us, and as co-directors of the program we will do our best to point you in the direction of potential matches.

One very useful resource that is our department websites. In particular, a suggestion we would make to anyone who doesn't already have a sponsor lined up is to visit the Psychological Sciences Web Site and pages that describe faculty research interests. All faculty with appointments in either Psychology or Psychology and Human Development are represented on these pages. The link to the entry page for faculty interests is:http://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/people/?group=faculty . This page lists each faculty member and provides a very succinct listing of his/her research interests. If you click on a given faculty member's name you will be taken to more in-depth information on that person.

In addition, I recently polled the faculty regarding their willingness to sponsor honors students this year, and on the next page I provide a listing of professors who actively responded that "yes" they would be interested in taking on at least one honors student. Thus, if professors on this list have interests that match yours, they would be very good first contacts. However, if, after viewing the faculty interests pages and/or talking with other students and professors, the person you are interested in working with is not on this list, please don't rule that person out as a potential mentor until after you have talked with him or her. Many faculty who may not be actively looking for an honors student would be very willing, sometimes even eager, to take one, with the right interests, who took the initiative to approach him or her.

Happy hunting, and if I can be of help with this, please let me know. If you would like an electronic version of this handout (with hot links) just zap one of us an e-mail.

Best,Leslie Kirby, Department of Psychology & Meg Saylor, Department of Psychology & Human Development

(Faculty list begins on next page)

Faculty who have actively indicated an interested in taking on an honors student this year

Professor Department InterestsFor more information:

Jo-Anne Bachorowski Psychology Vocal communication, including laughter, vocal expression of emotion, and indexical cues in speechhttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/joanne-bachorowskihttp://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/bachorowski/ Randolph Blake Psychology Human visual perception, visual awareness/consciousness, multi-sensory interactionhttp://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/blake/blake.html

Vivien Casagrande Psychology Visual Neurosciencehttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/vivien-casagrande andhttp://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/Casagrande/CasagrandeLab/vivien.html and see attached

Bruce Compas Psych & HD Self-regulation and coping with stress; including coping with depression and pediatric cancerhttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/bruce-compashttp://gadd.kc.vanderbilt.edu/stressandcoping/ Judy Garber Psych & HD Development of psychopathology; risk and prevention of depression in children and adolescents; parental depressionhttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/judy-garner and attached

Leslie Kirby Psychology Positive emotions; emotions and health; stress and coping; emotion elicitation; sustainability issueshttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/leslie-kirbyhttp://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/kirby/ and attached

Alex Maier Psychology Perception, Awareness & Attentionhttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/alex-maierhttp://www.maierlab.com/ and attached

René Marois Psychology Behavioral and Neural Basis of Attentionhttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/rene-maroishttp://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/marois/LabHome.html

Bruce McCandliss Psych & HD brain development in preK through 3rd graders associated with education in language , mathematics, and attention skills http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/site/people/13626/mccandliss-bruce.aspx

Laura Novick Psych & HD problem solving, reasoning, thinking with diagrams, expertise, science (evolution) educationhttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/laura-novick

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/novick/diag_research.html and attached

Sean Polyn Psychology Human Memory, Neuroimaging, Electrophysiology, and Computational Modelinghttp://memory.psy.vanderbilt.edu And attached

Kristopher J. Preacher            Psych & HD Structural equation & multi-level modelinghttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/kristopher-preacherhttp://quantpsy.orgsee attached

Gavin Price Psych & HD Educational Neuroscience, Dyscalculia, Numerical Cognition, Developmental Cognitive Neurosciencehttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/gavin-price

Bethany Rittle-Johnson Psych & HD children’s learning of key concepts and problem solving strategies in academic domains such as mathematics; the application of learning research to educational interventionshttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/bethany-rittle-johnson and attached

Megan Saylor Psych & HD Theory of Mind, and Language Development in Infants and Preschoolershttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/megan-saylor

Adriane Seiffert Psychology Attention and perception of moving objectshttp://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/seiffert/index.html and attached

Craig Smith Psych & HD Emotion, Stress, and Coping, including the processes by which emotions are elicited and differentiated, the psychophysiology of emotion, and individual differences in emotion, including gender differenceshttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/craig-smith and attached

Georgene Troseth Psych & HD Learning from video, touchscreens, and e-books by Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolershttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/georgene-troseth and attached

Lynn Walker Pediatrics/Psy & HD Health Psychology and Biopsychosocial Processes in Painhttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/lynn-walker http://pediatrics.mc.vanderbilt.edu/interior.php?mid=5675 and attached

Geoff Woodman Psychology Attention, Memory, and Learninghttp://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/woodman/Lab.html and attached

More Info on Prof Vivien Casagrande's research interests

The overall goal of our laboratory is to understand how visual information is processed by the brain. In particular we are interested in how feedforward and feedback signals are combined within the visual thalamus and cortex. Our working model of visual cortical organization hypothesizes that there are both specialized, dedicated systems and networks that serve multiple purposes. We hypothesize that the system is dynamic so that signals are combined in cells in different ways over time. Perceptual experience involves cooperative interactions between cells within different pathways and within different areas. From this perspective, visual pathways, compartments and areas may contribute to a number of complex functions depending upon the perceptual needs of the organism; needs that will vary over time and conditions. Within this context we currently are interested in understanding: 1) how many parallel visual pathways send information from the retina to visual cortex in primates, 2) how parallel feedforward lateral geniculate nucleus pathways contribute to the properties of primary visual cortex and its extrastriate targets, 3) how neurons in visual cortex are functionally organized to process different aspects of visual information, and the relationship between functional maps or modules. 4) What role do feedback pathways play within the visual cortex and visual thalamus and 5) the influence of cognitive factors including attention, motivation and eye movements on visual processing in the thalamus. A variety of electrophysiological, anatomical and imaging approaches are used in these studies including single unit and multiunit array recording in both anesthetized and awake behaving primates, light, electronmicrosopic and confocal examination of cells and circuits, optical imaging of intrinsic signals and pharmacological manipulation. 

Students are welcome.

More Info on Prof Judy Garber's Research Interests

Dr. Garber is a developmental psychopathologist with training in clinical and developmental psychology. Her research focuses on risk and protective factors for the development of internalizing problems (depression, anxiety) in children and adolescents and in translating this knowledge into programs for preventing and treating these disorders. Current projects include: Risk for depression. A six-year longitudinal study of psychosocial predictors of depression

among offspring of depressed mothers. Treating parents’ depression. A two-year longitudinal study of parents in treatment for

depression and changes in their children’s emotional and behavior disorders (Garber et al., 2011).

Prevention of depression in at risk adolescents (Garber et al., 2009, JAMA). We are completing a five-year follow-up of 316 adolescents who participated in a prevention study.

Motivational Enhancement Program. This study aims to increase the likelihood that parents who are experiencing psychiatric problems will seek treatment.

Family-based prevention of depression. With my colleague, Bruce Compas, Ph.D., we are planning another depression prevention study that tests the efficacy of an intervention aimed at reducing depression in parents and preventing depression in their children as compared to a written information control condition.

Enhancing positive affect in children at risk for depression.

Honors students are part of a research team that includes other undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows working on various studies (noted above). We conduct research in schools, psychiatric clinics, and in our on-campus laboratory. Honors students: work with Dr. Garber to develop a research project for their Honors thesis. This involves

conducting a literature review, developing a research proposal, collecting new data, working with data from an ongoing study, learning to analyze data, writing a final thesis, and presenting their results as a poster.

attend research meetings with Dr. Garber and the others working in her lab. At these meetings we discuss recent articles about relevant topics (e.g., treatment of depression in adolescents; relation between anxiety and depression), review the results of studies currently being conducted in the lab, and design new studies based on the literature and data from our current projects.

attend individual meetings with Dr. Garber and her postdoctoral fellows or advanced graduate students who work with honors students on their projects (e.g., data analysis)

Honors students typically spend about 8-10 hours/week working in the lab. Hours are flexible and can be arranged to fit your schedule. For further information, please contact jgarber.vanderbilt@gmail.com

Examples of PublicationsCarter, J.S., & Garber, J. (2011). Predictors of the first onset of a major depressive episode and

changes in depressive symptoms across adolescence: Stress and negative cognitions Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120(4), 779–796.

Foster, C.J.E., Garber, J., & Durlak, J.A. (2008). Current and past maternal depression, maternal interaction behaviors, and children’s externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 527-537.

Garber, J., Ciesla, J.A., McCauley, E., Diamond, G., & Schloredt, K.A, (2011). Remission of depression in parents: Links to healthy functioning in their children. Child Development, 82(1), 244–261.

Garber, J., Clarke, G., Weersing, V. R., Beardslee, W.R., Brent, D., Gladstone, T., Debar, L., Lynch, F., D'Angelo, E., Hollon, S.D., Shamseddeen, W., & Iyengar, S. (2009). Prevention of depression in at-risk adolescents: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association. 301(21):2215-2224.

Garber, J., & Cole, D.A. (2010). Intergenerational transmission of depression: A launch and grow model of change across adolescence. Development and Psychopathology, 22(4), 819-830.

Morris, M.C., Compas, B.E., & Garber, J. (2012). Relations among Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, comorbid Major Depression, and HPA Function: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 32(4), 301-315.

More Info on Prof. Leslie Kirby's Research Interests

My research program is broadly concerned with emotions and stress.  My background is in appraisal theories of emotion, which focus on antecedents to emotional states, or what causes us to become emotional and under what circumstances.   My work centers on the process of emotions – how does the emotion system work, what are the differences between conscious and non-conscious emotional processing, and what are the consequences of emotions. Our current research focuses primarily on positive emotions, particularly the use of positive emotional experiences as a buffer against stress. We’re also focusing on broader questions about positive emotions --- are they similar to/different from negative emotional states, do they direct behavior toward specific goals in the way negative emotions do, and what level of differentiation exists amongst positive emotions. 

Another line of research is exploring the interaction between personality and emotion – to what extent do personality traits determine our emotional responses; do certain situations allow for more or less personality influence; are certain personality traits more likely to impact on emotion, etc.  Recent students projects in this domain have looked at emotional intelligence and gender differences in emotionality.

Finally, I also examine psychological issues in sustainability, specifically barriers to people acting more sustainably. This is a relatively new line of research and is open for lots of student input on the specifics of projects. But generally we’ll be developing sustainability interventions and looking at factors that make them more or less successful. One specific area of interest here is spillover – so does performing one sustainable behavior make you more or less likely to perform another one in the future. Honors students may design their own project relating to these interests, or choose to participate in an already-established project.  In both cases, students will have hands-on lab experience both at the design phase and in terms of data collection and analyses. 

More Info on Prof. Alex Maier’s Research Interests

The overall goal of our laboratory is to understand how conscious perception arises from neural activity. More specifically, we exploit the difference between the physical nature of a sensory stimulus, and its perceptual appearance using visual illusions. The specific aim of ongoing projects is to solve outstanding questions regarding the role of early sensory areas for perceptual analysis, as well as to illuminate anatomical and physiological properties that differentiate percept-related neural activity from subliminal responses. We tackle these problems by combining large-scale single neuron recordings and neuroimaging in non-human primates.

Upon joining our lab, you will immediately become part of a tight-knit research team that includes undergraduates and several graduate students. All of our experiments are highly collaborative and team-based. However, you will be given charge of your own research project for which you will receive extensive support and mentoring. Your daily responsibilities include: Research on background literature Experimental design and technical development Data collection and management Data analysis, using the MATLAB programming language. Regular attendance and active participation at our weekly breakfast laboratory meetings where we

discuss recent results from our group and competing labs; you are expected to present your own progress at least once a semester

Weekly one-on-one meetings with Dr. Maier and other senior members of the lab Writing a research paper/Honors thesis and creating oral and poster presentations of your work

As an example, previous Honors work in the lab consisted of the development and characterization of a novel visual illusion that renders salient geometric patterns perceptually invisible. While this study resulted in a full publication on its own, it also sets the basis for future neurophysiology and neuroimaging work on the basis of conscious perception.

We are a highly active, ambitious group, and we are looking for like-minded individuals. Your time commitment matches the official requirements of a minimum of 10 hours per week, with a high degree of flexibility to accommodate your schedule. Work hours frequently include evenings and weekends.

If the above sounds appealing to you, please contact alex.maier@vanderbilt.edu

Recent Publications Spaak, E., Bonnefond, M., Maier, A., Leopold, D.A. & Jensen, O. (2012) Layer-specific entrainment of

gamma-band neural activity by the alpha rhythm in monkey visual cortex. Curr. Biol. 22(24):2312-2318 Maier, A., Aura, C. & Leopold, D.A. (2011) Infragranular origin of induced LFP responses in macaque

primary visual cortex. J. Neurosci. 31(6):1971-1980. Schölvinck, M.L., Maier, A., Ye, F.Q., Duyn, J.H. & Leopold, D.A. (2010) Neural basis of global resting

state fMRI activity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107(22):10238-43. Maier, A., Wilke, M., Aura, C., Zhu, C., Ye, F.Q. & Leopold, D.A. (2008) Divergence of fMRI and neural

signals in V1 during perceptual suppression in the awake monkey. Nat. Neurosci. 11(10):1193-1200

More on Prof. René Marois’s Research interests

Research in the lab centers on the neural basis of attention and information processing in the human brain using fMRI and psychophysical tools. We are particularly interested in understanding the neural basis of attentional capacity limits (e.g. Why can we only attend to very few objects at a time? Why can't we select or execute more than one task at a time?). We are also interested in understanding the relationships between attention, working memory, and awareness.

More Info on Prof. Bruce McCandliss's Research Interests

Educational Cognitive Neuroscience

The overall goal of the Educational Cognitive Neuroscience lab is to explore the link between learning and changes in brain mechanisms, especially as this leads to new cognitive skills such as reading, mathematics, and improved executive functions in children going through educational interventions.  This is a fairly new and growing lab located on the 4th floor of Hobbs Hall.

The lab uses a number of methods that have been adapted for use with school-age children, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG, ERP),  Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) imaging of white matter tracts, and eye tracking.  Each of these methods are employed to better understand on-line cognitive performance, and are used to study mechanisms of individual differences (both in the typical and atypical range) as well as mechanisms of change such as attention and learning.

As an honors Psychology student, typically you would enter the lab via an apprenticeship model, learning the basics of these techniques by joining the research team on an ongoing project, combined with independent readings and discussions about the central aims and theoretical issues at stake in these ongoing studies.  As things progress, you would eventually be asked to help identify a set of ideas you think are particularly interesting, and in collaboration with Dr. McCandliss, pursue a project either grounded in the ongoing studies, or a project carried out in parallel using related techniques.   You would also be expected to be an engaged participating member of the research team, during weekly lab meetings and through sideline conversations and between the post-docs, grad students, program coordinator, and the principal investigator.

More on Prof. Laura Novick’s Research interests

My research program is directed toward understanding human problem solving, with particular emphases on (a) differences due to expertise and (b) thinking with diagrams. For the past 8 years, I have been collaborating with Kefyn Catley, an evolutionary biologist and science educator at Western Carolina University. Our research, which sits at the interface of cognitive science, Gestalt perception, and biology education, is focused on understanding and improving students’ knowledge of biological (taxonomic) categories and their ability to interpret and reason with evolutionary trees (particularly, cladograms), a skill that is referred to as tree thinking. Our research on tree thinking falls into three broad categories: (a) Influences of diagram design on interpretations of evolutionary relationships, (b) assessing and improving students’ tree-thinking skills, and (c) effects of prior knowledge about taxonomic relationships on tree thinking. Studies in the first group have a primarily cognitive psychological basis, with strong applications to education. Studies in the second group are rooted in science education while being informed by cognitive psychology. These studies led to the development of a tree-thinking instructional booklet and laboratory that have been used in undergraduate biology classes across the country. Studies in the third group reflect a more even mix of psychological and educational foundations. All studies are informed by expert knowledge of evolutionary biology.

More information on Prof. Sean Polyn’s Research Interests

My lab is interested in the cognitive and neural dynamics of the human memory system, and more specifically, how we use this system to search through our memories of recently learned material. Every day, we store hundreds of new memories; sometimes these memories can be retrieved and examined effortlessly, but sometimes, to our frustration, we find our efforts blocked, and our memories inaccessible. The brain contains sophisticated neural machinery allowing us to target particular memories. How does this machinery work, and why does it fail? I believe in a multi-tiered approach to the study of human memory, combining neurorecording techniques (fMRI and EEG), with behavioral investigations and computational modeling. These multiple levels of analysis inform one another, and allow us to constrain our understanding of human memory.

Contact Professor Polyn at sean.polyn@vanderbilt.edu

More information on Kris Preacher’s Research

Preacher’s research concerns the use of structural equation modeling and multilevel modeling to analyze longitudinal and correlational data. Other interests include developing techniques to test mediation and moderation hypotheses, bridging the gap between theory and practice, and studying model evaluation and model selection in the application of multivariate methods to social science questions.

More information on Gavin Price’s Research

My research focuses on numerical processing and math learning. I use behavioral and brain imaging methods to investigate how basic numerical processing (for example knowing which of two numbers is larger) relates to the development of math skills. In the past I have investigated this in children with math learning disabilities as well as typically developing individuals. In addition I am interested in exploring how Arabic digits come to represent numbers over the course of developing through a symbolic mapping process, and what brain mechanisms support that. Going forward I will be using mainly eye-tracking methods and fMRI to look at the above topics in typically and atypically children and adults.

More information on Prof. Bethany Rittle-Johnson’s Research Interests

How do people learn? What are sources of knowledge change? My research is aimed at answering these questions and contributing to both basic theories on learning and educational innovations that improve learning.

Learning is often hampered by inert knowledge - knowledge that is not transferred to new contexts or problems (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2001). For example, fourth graders who are taught how to solve equations such as 4 + 6 + 8 = 4 + __ often fail to transfer this knowledge to very similar equations that vary only in the position of the blank (e.g. 5 + 3 + 7 = __ + 7; Rittle-Johnson & Alibali, 2001). In my research, I seek to understand and overcome this inert knowledge problem by concentrating on sources of knowledge change.

Most of my research focuses on two key learning processes: comparing multiple examples and generating explanations. Most of my work is with elementary- and middle-school students learning mathematics. In one representative project, we are working to assess elementary school children’s early algebraic thinking, and we will go on to evaluate the role of generating and receiving explanations for promoting learning in this domain. I have published two journal articles with undergraduates:

Rittle-Johnson, B. & Kmicikewycz, A. O. (2008). When generating answers benefits arithmetic skill: The importance of prior knowledge. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 101, 75-81.

Rittle-Johnson, B, Saylor, M. & Swygart, K. (2008). Learning from explaining: Does it matter if mom is listening? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 100(3), 215-224.

More on Prof. Adriane Seiffert’s Research Interests

The Perception, Attention and Control lab explores how people see and direct their attention to moving objects. The ability to follow the movement of multiple objects is an important skill for many activities, such as driving through a busy intersection, keeping up with your friends at an amusement park, or watching a football game. Our methods include human psychophysics, eyetracking, human neuroimaging (fMRI) and virtual environments.We investigate research questions such as: How does attention track object movement?What is the neural implementation of this process?Why do errors in tracking occur?How is attention involved when people control the motion of objects?The long-term objective of this work is to understand how visual attention interacts with motion perception and visuo-motor systems to track the motion of target objects.

More Info on Prof. Craig Smith’s Research Interests

My research is focused on the study of human emotion. I am very interested in the varieties of emotions we experience as well as the motivational and adaptational functions that emotions serve. In my study of emotion I use a theoretical approach known as appraisal theory. This theory proposes that emotions are elicited on the basis of a cognitive evaluation of what our circumstances imply for our personal well-being. Different evaluations result in the experience of different emotions. The types of questions we have explored using this theoretical framework have included: attempts to identify the issues or questions that are evaluated in emotion-eliciting appraisals; how the outcomes of these evaluations map onto emotional experience, as well as how these evaluations are related to the facial and physiological activities (e.g., electrodermal and cardiovascular activities) associated with emotion; and efforts to understand the motivational and adaptational functions served by these emotions, once elicited.

The main line of research my students and I are most actively pursuing is the differentiation of, and motivational functions served by, positive emotional experience. Most emotion theories emphasize the existence of negative, unpleasant emotions such as anger, fear, guilt, sadness, disgust, etc., and allow for only a couple of positive/pleasant emotions such as happiness and interest. We are finding evidence for the existence of a much broader array of pleasant emotions, including (but not limited to) happiness, interest, hope, challenge/determination, pride, gratitude, serenity, and awe. We are currently intensively examining both the appraisals responsible for eliciting these different positive emotions, as well as the motivational functions served by the emotions once elicited (e.g., challenge/determination seems to foster or motivate persistence and mastery, whereas happiness and pride both seem to psychologically “reward” success.

More Info on Prof. Georgene Troseth’s Research Interests

Georgene TrosethAssociate ProfessorDepartment of Psychology and Human DevelopmentPh.D. 2000, University of Illinoisgeorgene.troseth@vanderbilt.edu

Program affiliations: Developmental Psychology, Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience

My research focuses on young children's symbolic development, including their understanding of symbolic artifacts (e.g., pictures, video images, scale models) and of the intent to symbolize. In the general area of knowledge representation, I am specifically interested in children's representations of the mental states - the intentions, beliefs, desires, and knowledge - of other people.

Several current projects examine infants’ and toddlers’ learning from video: How efficiently do very young children learn from video compared to direct experience? Other projects involve young children’s learning from e-books and touchscreen devices (smartphones and tablet computers). My students and I are also looking at the effect of exposure to verbal bullying on children’s TV and on the internet on children’s perceptions of bullying behavior.

Recent Publications

Troseth, G.L., O’Doherty, K., & Strouse, G.A. (in press). Trusting the tube: Current information about an established technology. Zero to Three.

Strouse, G.A., O’Doherty, K.D., & Troseth, G.L. (in press). Effective Co-viewing: Preschoolers’ Learning from Video After a Dialogic Questioning Intervention. Developmental Psychology.

O’Doherty, K., Troseth, G.L., Shimpi, P., Goldenberg, E., Akhtar, N. & Saylor, M.M. (2011). Third-party social interaction and word learning from video. ChildDevelopment, 82, 902-915.

DeLoache, J.S., Chiong, C., Vanderborght, M., Sherman, K., Islam, N., Troseth, G.L., Strouse, G.A., & O’Doherty, K. (2010). Do babies learn from baby media? Psychological Science. 21. 1570-1574.

Troseth, G.L (2010). Is it life or is it Memorex? Video as a representation of reality. Developmental Review, 30, 155-175.

More Info on Prof. Lynn Walker’s Research Interests

Lynn S. Walker, Ph.D.Professor of Pediatrics and Psychology

Opportunities for Undergraduate Honors Students

www.walkerlab.orgLynn.Walker@Vanderbilt.edu

The overall goal of our laboratory is to understand how psychosocial factors influence the experience of pain. We focus particularly on chronic pain without disease or injury (e.g., functional abdominal pain, fibromyalgia, headache). Ongoing studies examine (a) chronic pain, psychiatric disorder, and disability in adolescents and young adults with a childhood history of functional abdominal pain; (b) the effects of laboratory stressors on blood pressure, heart rate variability, and galvanic skin response in patients with functional pain versus controls; (c) pain sensitivity (theshold, tolerance, and “windup”) in patients with functional pain versus controls; (d) the relation of pain beliefs and coping strategies to outcomes in patients with chronic pain; and (e) the role of family stress and parent-child interaction in children’s somatic complaints and disability.

Honors students in our lab join a team of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and resident physicians. Recent honors students in the lab have gone on to medical school or to graduate school in psychology or child development.

As an Honors student, you may be involved in the following research activities: 1. Assist in conducting laboratory studies of stress response. You will be trained in how to interact with patient participants and to place physiological sensors to assess their heart rate, blood pressure, and skin conductance). 2. Conduct health interviews with participants in a prospective study of pediatric pain. 3. Learn how to code and enter data into the computer and do simple data analysis. Learn how to prepare physiological data for analysis. 4. Attend weekly team meetings directed by Dr. Walker and additional meetings with graduate students related to specific laboratory tasks. 6. Write an honors thesis using data collected from hundreds of pediatric patients who have participated in our research. Dr. Walker will supervise your thesis with the assistance of a graduate student who will help you with data analysis and writing. Time commitment: Honors students spend 10 hours/week working in the lab. Hours are flexible and can usually be arranged to fit your schedule. Some of your lab time may be on the weekend or in the evening when children and adolescents are out of school and can participate in our laboratory studies.

More Info on Prof. Geoff Woodman’s Research Interests

Research in Geoff Woodman’s Laboratorygeoff.woodman@vanderbilt.edu

http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/woodman/Lab.html

The goal of much of the research in the Woodman Lab is to understand the interactions between attention and memory by recording event-related potentials noninvasively from the scalps of participants in addition to collecting behavioral responses while observers perform tasks that are similar to simple video games. Many of the experiments in the lab study cognitive processing during two types of tasks. One is visual search, a task like looking for your keys on the ground. The second type are memory tasks, typically remembered a set of objects for a very short period. We use these simple tasks to understand how we learn to attend to certain objects in our environment and how we learn to store certain things in memory.

When we process information in these tasks, such as remembering events or objects, our brains generate very small electrical potentials that can be recorded with sensors placed near the scalp. Analyses of event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by specific stimuli or cognitive operations have been crucial in the study of perception, memory, attention, language comprehension and production, decision-making, cognitive control, sleep states, and many clinical disorders.