Undergraduate Research

Name
Wayne Anderson AndersonWP@missouri.edu
Jamie Arndt arndtj@missouri.edu	Much of what excites me about psychological research is the collaborative process of studying "big" questions about fundamental aspects of the human condition. Following an existential tradition that draws heavily from such writers as Otto Rank and Ernest Becker, I am particularly fascinated by how our awareness of the transience of existence affects social behaviors, and how the pursuit of meaning and value in one’s life serves to protect the individual from deeply-rooted anxiety. Utilizing terror management theory as a vehicle, this interest has led me to examine such topics as aggression, unconscious and other cognitive processes, prejudice, stereotypes, creativity, political judgments, self-esteem processes, depression, consumer motivations, legal issues, parental and interpersonal attachment, physiological arousal and affect, self-awareness, and cultural identification and disidentification. Most recently, I have been particularly focused on trying to understand the cognitive architecture that underlies the psychological defenses that people use to protect themselves from both the conscious and unconscious awareness of death, the implications of such an analysis for elucidating health relevant decisions and behaviors, the dynamic interface between defensively oriented processes with motives for creativity, growth, and self-enrichment, and the psychological landscape of nostalgia. For more information on terror management theory, check out: http://www.tmt.missouri.edu/
Bruce D. Bartholow BartholowB@missouri.edu	My research generally is focused on two broad but related areas. First, I am interested in basic aspects of social cognition including person perception (e.g., stereotyping, prejudice, impression-formation and change) and aggression, and in how these processes are affected by alcohol consumption. In order to understand how alcohol influences cognition and perception, it is crucial to first understand how these processes operate normally. To this end, much of our experimental research is characterized by studies that investigate how people make sense of and respond to others’ behavior, and studies in which these processes are tested while participants are under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol is known to cause a number of cognitive impairments and affective changes that lead to deficits in behavioral control, many of which have implications for social behaviors (e.g., aggression, risk-taking). Contemporary models of many social-cognitive phenomena emphasize the role of cognitive and behavioral control in adaptive social functioning. Thus, studying the effects of alcohol on social cognition provides a way to understand not only the implications of intoxication, but also the function of various cognitive mechanisms that are important for flexible social cognition. The second broad line of research in the lab examines how social/environmental factors (e.g., peer influences, drinking context) and individual differences (e.g., personality, alcohol expectancies) contribute to alcohol involvement among young adults, and how neurocognitive reactivity to alcohol-related cues might predict vulnerability to alcohol abuse and related disorders. In most of our research, we employ a combination of behavioral and psychophysiological measures (especially event-related brain potentials; ERPs) to provide a broad basis for understanding how environmental contingencies and stimulus events are interpreted and processed at a basic neurocognitive level, and how these basic processes mediate or explain overt behaviors.
Debora Bell belldeb@missouri.edu	My primary research interest is twofold: (1) understanding social-cognitive aspects of youth anxiety, and (2) examining overlapping and distinctive aspects of youth anxiety and depression. First, much of my recent work investigates how social information processing (including interpretation, attribution, goal setting, response generation & selection, response evaluation) relates to youth social and general trait anxiety. Second, I am currently examining aspects of social-cognition that are common to both anxiety and depression vs. specific to one or the other. Using Clark & Watson’s (1991) tripartite model of depressed and anxious affect, I am examining the role of positive and negative social information processing styles in youth anxiety and depression. My graduate students and I are also examining whether the tripartite model can be extended across other domains of experience (e.g., behavioral, interpersonal) and the role of positive cognitive, affective, behavioral, and interpersonal experiences in protecting youth from anxiety and depression.
Ann Bettencourt bettencourta@missouri.edu	Intergroup processes; stereotype violations; social identity and well-being; women's well-being; meta-analysis and aggression.
David Beversdorf beversdorfd@health.missouri.edu	Dr. Beversdorf is currently involved in research on autism, drug abuse, dementia, cognitive effects of stress, the cognitive neuroscience of problem solving ability, functional neuroimaging, and pharmacological modulation of cognition. His work has been published in journals such as Neurology, Journal of Neurology Neuroscience and Psychiatry, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United State of America and Lancet. He is also actively involved in the Brain Imaging Center at the University of Missouri. His research has been funded by National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, National Institute On Drug Abuse, the Stallone Fund and the National Alliance for Autism Research . He has joined the University of Missouri in the departments of Radiology, Neurology, Psychology and the Thompson Center as an Associate Professor to focus on the field of autism, with particular interest in pharmaco-functional neuroimaging as a potential treatment marker, and gene/stress interactions in the development of autism.
Bruce Biddle BiddleB@missouri.edu
Charles M. Borduin borduinc@missouri.edu	Development, evaluation, and dissemination of a multisystemic model for the treatment and prevention of serious mental health problems in children and adolescents Social policy issues in children's mental health services Family therapy process and outcome Socialization in the context of the family Systemic correlates and causes of child and adolescent psychopathology The ecology of child and adolescent maltreatment
Nicole Campione-Barr campionebarrn@missouri.edu	My research interests focus on family relationships during adolescence and how multiple relationships impact one another as well as how they impact the adolescent's development. My current areas of interest are: the impact of sibling relationships and sibling ordinal status on adolescent autonomy, interaction and communication differences in multiple parent-child dyads in the family, and the content of sibling conflicts during adolescence.
Shawn E. Christ christse@missouri.edu	Research in my lab is primarily aimed at increasing our understanding of the cognitive and neural processes underlying typical and atypical development. As such, much of our work focuses on the development of cognitive abilities in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (primarly autism, but also other disorders such as phenylketonuria). In addition to conducting behavioral studies, we also utilize neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, sMRI, DTI) to better elucidate the neural substrates of cognition in individuals with and without early brain injury.
Lynne Cooper cooperm@missouri.edu	My research focuses broadly on issues of risk-taking and adjustment, particularly among adolescents and young adults. I am especially interested in understanding how personality, efforts to manage or regulate one's emotional experience, and distinct motivations and goals individually and collectively drive risk-taking behaviors and promote or undermine adjustment. More recent work focuses on understanding the interplay of individual level factors such as these with close relationship dynamics as they influence sexual behavior and both individual and dyadic adjustment.
Nelson Cowan CowanN@missouri.edu	- Working memory, the small amount of information held in mind - How much can be held in working memory - How the amount in working memory can be measured - Childhood development of working memory - The role of selective attention in working memory - Life span development of working memory - Consciousness and its relation to working memory
Clintin P. Davis-Stober stoberc@missouri.edu	My primary research interest is behavioral decision-making. I am interested in studying how people make decisions between choice alternatives with multiple attributes, often in contexts where these attributes trade-off with one another, e.g., risk versus reward. I use an integrative approach to decision making research, emphasizing both theoretical and experimental perspectives. I also have related interests in developing statistical methodologies to test formal models of decision-making.
David C. Geary GearyD@Missouri.edu	Learning Disabilities In 2002, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development developed a new program area entitled Mathematics and Science Cognition and Learning, Development and Disorders. The objectives of this program are to explore the critical genetic, neurobiological, cognitive, linguistic, socio-cultural, and instructional factors that influence normal and atypical development in math and science. The Cognitive Development Lab in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri was one of a select few research centers that were initially funded under this program area. We are in the sixth year of a ten-year study on Mathematical Development – The MU Math Study – from kindergarten to high school algebra. The goals are to identify the mechanisms that contribute to mathematical learning through algebra and the mechanisms that underlie learning disabilities in mathematics. As part of these efforts, we are collaborating with Vinod Menon at Stanford University School of Medicine on brain imaging studies of children's mathematical problem solving, and Lynn Fuchs at Vanderbilt University on the effects of interventions on children's mathematical cognition. Evolution Theoretical projects include attempts to integrate sexual selection (e.g., male-male competition) and life history research in evolutionary biology to empirical research in developmental psychology. Current projects examine hormonal changes that occur during men's competitive activities, and men's sensitivity to fertility changes in women.
Steven A. Hackley HackleyS@missouri.edu	Research at Dr. Hackley’s lab is concerned with the neural basis of attention and action in neurologically normal adults and in people with Parkinson’s disease. Methodology includes surface electrophysiology (ERPs, ERDs, EMGs, polysomnograms), brainstem reflexes (startle blink, postauricular reflex), neuroimaging (fMRI, NIRS), and behavioral measures (choice RT, PRP, psychophysics). Topics currently under investigation include reward anticipation, warning effects, deep brain stimulation, evolution of reflex modulation, visual memory and motor memory.
Kristin M. Hawley hawleyk@missouri.edu	Youth Mental Health Services and Interventions: moderators of treatment engagement and outcome, therapeutic change processes, core components of effective interventions Dissemination and Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices: provider training and application of research-supported assessment and treatment, streamlining and enhancing research-supported therapies for clinical practice
John G. Kerns kernsj@missouri.edu	The psychological and neural basis of cognitive and emotional control and their role in the development of schizophrenia and its symptoms (e.g., disorganized speech, negative symptoms). Treatment of cognitive and neural deficits in schizophrenia.
Laura A. King kingla@missouri.edu	Personality Psychology, Well-being, Motivation, Meaning in Life, Narrative Approaches to Personality and Identity, Positive Psychology and The Good Life
Hans-Friedrich Köhn koehnh@missouri.edu	My research concerns applications of combinatorial optimization methods to scaling/unfolding, clustering/ tree-fitting, and order-constrained matrix decomposition problems, with particular focus on the analysis of individual differences based on sets of multiple proximity matrices, as might be collected from distinct data sources in the context of cross-sectional or longitudinal studies. I have also worked on algorithms for the p-median clustering of large data sets and the clique partitioning problem. A most recent line of research explores the application of complex clustering and optimization routines to item selection and test assembly problems.
Yuyan Luo luoy@missouri.edu	I study cognitive development, with a focus on infant cognition. My research examines what infants know about the world around them. For example, what do infants know about agents' intentions and perceptions? What do infants know about physical objects and substances? By finding out answers to questions like these, I hope to better understand how infants acquire knowledge and how this development influences cognition more generally.
Denis M. McCarthy mccarthydm@missouri.edu	* Cognitive factors that influence alcohol use disorder, alcohol-related problems (e.g., drinking and driving), eating disorders, and other addictive behaviors. * Genetic, personality, and environmental factors related to additive behavior, particularly how these factors influence alcohol-related learning. * Expectancy-activation models, studying effects of the activation of alcohol-related concepts in memory.
Dennis K. Miller millerden@missouri.edu	My research is in neuropsychopharmacology, with an interest in the development of pharmacotherapies for drug addiction and neurodegnerative disorders. Our current research is investigating novel targets for treatments for methamphetamine abuse and addiction. We have recently determined that ligands for sigma receptors can alter methamphetamine's neurochemical and behavioral properties. We are conducting collaborative research to understand this interaction better. A second recent project has determined the polyphenols, such as apocynin, can also diminish methamphetamine's effects. Our research is investigating how polyphenols might work with stimulants and how they might be protective against drug-induced neurotoxicity. A rat running in the automated activity monitor My second research focus has been on the causes of and treatments for neurodegenerative disorders. Our research has determined that environmental exposure to “heavy” metals, such as cadmium, can cause a degeneration of striatal dopamine neurons (Miller, Dopheide et al., 2005), which might contribute to the development of Parkinson disease and schizophrenia. Ongoing research is investigating how drugs of abuse, such as tobacco, that inherently contain “heavy” metals may contribute to cadmium exposure and, subsequently, neurodegenerative disorders. Finally, my laboratory has established a collaborative research program to investigate the development and progression of Alzheimer disease and stroke. Collectively, we have investigated how ethanol, polyphenols and lobeline can be neuroprotective and prevent behavioral impairments in rodent disease models (Wang et al., 2005, 2007). Dennis Miller and Matt Will discuss a new research project (January, 2009)
Moshe Naveh-Benjamin navehbenjaminm@missouri.edu	Research at our laboratory concerns fundamental issues regarding human memory processes and structures. One line of this research explores the interplay between attention and memory, with the intention of determining the role of attention as a part of Working Memory in encoding and retrieval processes. Another line of research investigates the mechanisms responsible for the adult-age changes in episodic memory. Finally, we are also interested in questions relating to the role of memory processes in real-life settings, including the relationships between the acquisition and retention of knowledge. Adult-age changes in episodic memory A major line of our research investigates the decline in memory efficiency that comes about with age. A major empirical and theoretical effort in our research over the years has been to understand age-related changes in encoding and retrieval processes. Recently, we have suggested an associative deficit framework that attributes an important part of age-related changes in episodic memory to the deficiency of older adults in creating and retrieving links between individual units of information. In recent studies we have shown that older adults can encode and retrieve the components of an episode reasonably well, but have problems in merging those components into a cohesive unit. In our current research, we are trying to provide convergent validity to this hypothesis, as well as discriminant validity, by contrasting and testing competing predictions made by the associative deficit hypothesis and by alternative hypotheses. Our plans are to further test specific predictions made by this hypothesis, as well as to identify the brain correlates associated with this deficit. The interaction of attention, Working Memory and long-term memory For several years now, we have been investigating the role of attention in memory processes and memory outcomes. Originally, this research focused on encoding processes, and the results showed complex relationships between the amount of attention paid at encoding and later memory performance. Recently, we have extended this research to memory retrieval processes and showed, together with our collaborators, that there are marked asymmetries between these processes and the processes of encoding. In particular, the damaging effect of withdrawal of attention is much greater at encoding than at retrieval. This suggests that “attentional resources” are needed during the learning of new information, but are less necessary during retrieval. Nonetheless, retrieval processes do exact a performance cost on the secondary task in a dual-task situation, so retrieval cannot be "automatic" as suggested earlier by several researchers. Our view over the years has been that to understand encoding and retrieval processes, one must isolate their basic components. To this end, we have used online measures of performance to learn about the component processes of encoding and retrieval and to relate them to memory outcomes. In recent years, we have implemented this approach using secondary tracking tasks that allow temporal micro-level analysis, which permits the identification of several basic component processes at encoding and retrieval. These basic components, and the characteristic attentional costs associated with each, seem to predict both the patterns of vulnerability of encoding and retrieval to disruption in divided attention tasks, and the attentional costs incurred in these tasks. We are presently conducting further research along these lines, with the aim of generalizing this approach to normal subjects, as well as to other populations, including the aged and people who have suffered from brain damage. The role of memory processes in real-life settings, including the relationships between acquisition and retention of knowledge Over the years I have focused on applying concepts derived from basic memory and cognitive research to understanding real life behavior outside the laboratory, particularly in educational settings. Working with several collaborators, I have studied processes involved in the acquisition and retention of materials in formal settings. Moreover, I have developed several methods of measuring students knowledge structures, and evaluated how these structures change over time, what factors mediate their access and use, and how encoding and retrieval in real life interact with individual differences variables. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equipment in the lab includes appropriate software packages to run the different types of experiments in the six testing rooms. We have also established a pool of community-dwelling older adults that participate in our experiments. The current team in the lab includes 15 graduate and undergraduate students, and we welcome interested graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. More information about the Memory and Cognitive Aging Laboratory can be found at http://macal.missouri.edu
Thomas M. Piasecki piaseckit@missouri.edu	Individual differences in drug motivation, especially processes related to negative reinforcement such as alcohol hangover and tobacco withdrawal symptomatology. Measurement of key drug-related individual differences (e.g., tobacco dependence, withdrawal, alcohol hangover). Relapse to drug use.
Amanda Rose RoseA@missouri.edu	Research Interests • the development of friendships and other peer relationships during childhood and adolescence • gender differences in friendships and other peer relationships during childhood and adolescence • the impact of peer relationship processes on psychological adjustment in childhood and adolescence
Jeff Rouder rouderj@missouri.edu	People can identify words, letters, shapes, and objects quickly and effortlessly. Although these are ostensibly simple tasks, they require tremendous perceptual and cognitive processing. Research in the Perception and Cognition Lab centers on how people process and combine new perceptual information with pre-existing knowledge such that they can reach these quick, effortless decisions about the world around them. I study memory, attention, perception, categorization, and letter recognition. Much of my research in these domains is methodological in nature.
Todd R. Schachtman schachtmant@missouri.edu	My primary specialization is information processing in animals. Much of my work has been aimed at differentiating the processes of acquisition, retention, and retrieval of information as causes of test performance deficits. Relatedly, my research interests concern understanding the mechanisms by which processing and behavioral control by a target event are influenced by treatments involving nontarget cues. I am also currently engaged in research examining the effects of metabotropic glutamate receptors on learning. Moreover, I am working on collaborative projects involving research with human subjects on intrinsic or internalized motivation and the reflective processing of values and personal responsibility.
Keith Schneider schneiderkei@missouri.edu	My research interest is the relationship between the architecture of the human visual system and the functions of attention, perception and awareness, both in normal and clinical populations. I have been primarily studying the visual subcortex—the lateral geniculate nucleus and pulvinar in the thalamus and the superior colliculus—with retinotopic mapping, spatial and feature-based attention and binocular rivalry experiments. Multiple streams of information arise from distinct ganglion cell populations in the retina; the subcortical nuclei play central roles in the recurrent regulation of visual function, and here, like nowhere else in the brain, these visual streams are spatially disjoint and their activity can be measured with high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging. Abnormalities in these structures may be important in clinical disorders such as dyslexia and congenital stationary night blindness that I am studying.
Ken Sheldon sheldonk@Missouri.edu	I primarily study goals, motivation, and psychological well-being. I am active in the "positive psychology" movement. Research questions include, "is it possible for people to become happier, and if so, how?" "Why do people pursue overly materialistic goals, and how can they be helped to select more satisfying goals?" "What is the nature of optimal motivation and optimal functioning?"
Kenneth J. Sher sherk@missouri.edu	etiology of alcohol dependence psychopharmacology of alcohol prospective research psychiatric comorbidity personality and psychopathology
Wendy Slutske slutskew@missouri.edu	My research interests are: (1) the etiology and comorbidity of alcohol use disorders and other addictive/disinhibitory disorders (e.g. pathological gambling, antisocial behavior disorders) among women versus men; (2) explaining the genetic and environmental underpinnings of alcohol use disorders and other addictive/disinhibitory disorders; (3) the description and classification of addictive/disinhibitory disorders -- recent work in this area has focused on better describing individual differences in the course of disordered gambling and disordered drinking behavior. Most of my research employs the study of twins, the families (offspring) of twins, or large representative epidemiologic surveys of the general population.
Doug Steinley steinleyd@missouri.edu	My research focuses on multivariate statistical methodology, with a primary interest in cluster analysis and social network analysis. My research in cluster analysis focuses on both traditional cluster analytic procedure (e.g., k-means cluster analysis) and more modern techniques (e.g., mixture modeling). In that the formulation of the general partitioning problem can be thought of in a graph theoretic nature, my research also involves combinatorics and social network analysis.
Timothy Trull TrullT@missouri.edu	Yes, I am considering admitting a grad student for Fall 2010* My research interests are in the areas of diagnosis and classification of mental disorders, personality disorders (particularly borderline personality disorder), substance use disorders, psychometrics and clinical assessment, the relationship between personality and psychopathology, professional issues in clinical psychology, affective instability, and ambulatory assessment methods.
Kristy vanMarle vanmarlek@missouri.edu	My laboratory investigates the nature and development of quantity and object representations across a range of ages, focusing primarily on infancy and early childhood. I am interested in identifying and characterizing the mechanisms that underlie early quantity representation and how they may provide the foundation for later-developing, uniquely human abilities such as the acquisition of verbal counting.
Matthew J. Will willm@missouri.edu	The focus of my laboratory is to apply methods of behavioral neuroscience towards the study of drug addiction and obesity. Using an animal model, we attempt to reveal the neural substrates that underlie the reinforcement process that contributes to the intake of addictive drugs and natural rewards, such as food. We also investigate the phenomenon by which exposure to environmental stress can augment the reinforcing value of both drugs of abuse and food. Our research addresses these concerns and questions through an integrative approach of behavioral, pharmacological, and molecular biological techniques. Graduate student Kyle Parker and Dr. Thakkar Missouri Chapter of Society for Neuroscience - poster session
Phillip K. Wood phillipkwood@gmail.com	structural equation modeling, longitudinal methodology (e.g. state-trait, growth mixture models) substance abuse research, especially in young adult populations adult intellectual development For those interested in the SAS examples I use in the Kutner's Applied Linear Statistical Models, I'm making them available at: http://sites.google.com/site/generallinearmodeling/ as I have time to make corrections and updates. I'm moving these to google sites since yahoo has closed down geocities.

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