PSYCHOLOGYat Barnard College

Senior Thesis Presentations 2006

Psychology Department Alumnae E-Newsletter
June 2006

FROM STEVEN STROESSNER, DEPARTMENT CHAIR We are pleased to send you this Spring 2006 electronic newsletter from the Barnard Psychology Department! We were delighted to hear from so many of you after our inaugural newsletter last spring and are pleased that it has allowed former majors and minors in psychology to stay connected to professors, fellow alumnae, and the College. Below, you will be able to learn about recent events and news, including this year’s senior theses, faculty activities, recent publications by professors, fall courses open to auditors, and much more. We would like to thank the Office of Development & Alumnae Affairs for their assistance in assembling the newsletter. Please e-mail your reactions and suggestions for future issues to newsletter@barnard.edu. We also hope that you will consider funding something on our "wish list," consisting of items and initiatives to enhance research, teaching, and community within the Psychology Department. Please stay in touch with us. If you’d like to contact a professor directly, visit our faculty directory. We hope to hear from you soon, and often. Best regards, Steven Stroessner Associate Professor of Psychology Chair, Barnard College Psychology Department

SENIOR THESES BY THE CLASS OF 2006

Our students continue to impress us with their intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and insightful research. In May, we graduated another class of extraordinary women whose senior theses explored a wide variety of topics, ranging from neuron death in diabetes to the human motivation to eat. Below is a list of senior projects by the Class of 2006, along with their faculty mentors.

• SUPPORT THE NEXT GENERATION OF BARNARD WOMEN An investment in Barnard is an investment in the future. Our graduates go on to benefit and impact communities around the globe. To continue this important work, Barnard relies on the generous support of alumnae. Please click here for more information or to make your gift online today. Every gift makes a difference!

  Elizabeth Alf (Drs. William Fifer/ Dana Byrd), "Blinking babies: Can newborns acquire classical conditioning?”
• Jessica Bauer (Dr. Michael Myers), "Drug treatments for depression during pregnancy: A risky business?"
• Emily Berkman (Drs. Jeffrey Burce/Allen Waziri), "Tumor growth termination: Not as easy as AB CD81"
• Moria Borys (Dr. Carl Hart), "Marijuana and the workplace: What is going on in this joint?"
• Vivian Chin (Dr. Paul Currie), "Does Grhelin induce feeding in distinct hypothalamic sites?"
• Diana Dakhlallah (Drs. Don Hood/ Joy Hirsch), "Binocular Vision: An examination of fMRI and mfVEP signal correlation"
• Madeline Gross (Drs. Bruce Luber/Peter Balsam), "Conditioned responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation"
• Nawshin Hogue (Dr. Rae Silver), "Time to eat: The food clock"
• Renata Khelemsky (Dr. Paul Currie), "Is your brain starving AND stressed?"
• Sarah McNally (Dr. Harry Kissileff), "Measuring human motivation to eat"
• Andrea Medel (Dr. Shao-Ying Hua), "Mechanism of adaptation in stretch receptors"
• Tiffany Moadel (Dr. Alex Dranoovsky), "Tracking neurogenesis in adults"
• Nelly Parisot (Dr. Holly Moore), "Short Circuited: The brain in schizophrenia"
• Jasmine Sasanian (Dr. Rae Silver), "Puberty: A time of change"
• Yocheved Schwartz (Dr. Carol Troy), "Neuron death in diabetes"
• Shira Serpico (Dr. Sandy Comer), "Abuse liability of prescription opioids"
• Morgan Sessoms (Dr. Harry Shair), "Expression of attachment"
• Merilee Teylan (Dr. Shao-Ying Hua), "The role of synaptotagmin in neurotransmitter release"
• Danna Trachtenberg (Dr. John Martin), "Networking in the brain for voluntary movement control"
• Mary Vernov (Dr. Paul Currie), "Melting fat: It's all in the brain"

If you are interested in contacting recent graduates or other alumnae, you may search the online alumnae directory at Barnard's Alumnae Online Community.

HUGHES SCIENCE PIPELINE PROJECT SUPPORTS STUDENTS' INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
The Hughes Science Pipeline Project (HSPP) is a multi-faceted program that enhances nearly every aspect of science education at Barnard College. Initiated in 1991, the HSPP has been supported by four generous awards (1991, 1996, 2000, and 2004) from the Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Program of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Each year, the HSPP sponsors Research Internships for 14 Barnard undergraduates distributed among five science departments: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics and Astronomy, and Psychology. Research Interns spend 10 weeks during the summer working with a Barnard faculty mentor to initiate a year-long research project. Most Research Interns receive credit toward their science majors for their academic year efforts. All Research Interns present their work at the annual Student Research Symposium in April. Many also present their work at off-campus scientific meetings and in publications in scientific journals.

Three psychology students were awarded Hughes Research Internships for the 2005-06 academic year. Sarah Becker '07 is working with Prof. Larry Heuer on a project titled "Favoring a Norm of Benevolence over a Norm of Self-Interest." Mentored by Prof. Lisa Son, Shoshana Osofsky '06 is working on "Illusions of Confidence in the Study Habits of Elementary School Children." And Gauri Saxena '06 is working with Prof. Eshkol Rafaeli on "Reading Minds: Measuring Empathic Accuracy with Daily Diary Questionnaires and Dyadic Interactions."

GET INVOLVED IN BARNARD'S PSYCHOLOGY CLUB
From Bailey Huguley '07, Co-President of the Psychology Club:
The Barnard Psychology Club is a student group that facilitates faculty/student interaction, arranges events with interesting speakers, and provides thought-provoking and helpful information to fellow psychology students and those thinking of entering the field. This year alone the club has organized a graduate school panel, a neuroscience panel, movie nights, and get-togethers with professors. Another important goal of the club is to keep up with alumnae in the field of psychology and to keep them active in the Barnard community. We would love to hear from alumnae interested in sharing their experiences and/or advice with current and graduating students—you are our best resource! We look forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to contact us with any questions, comments, or recommendations at psych.club@gmail.com.

COURSES AVAILABLE TO ALUMNAE AUDITORS
Continue the Barnard experience by auditing a course! Barnard alumnae may attend most Barnard classes for no credit and free of charge, including courses offered by the Psychology Department. (Auditors have the privilege of attending the class and listening, but are asked to refrain from participating in classroom discussions or other activities.)

• To view descriptions of upcoming courses, visit the Psychology Department's Course Offerings web page.
• Check a course's availability by visiting Columbia University's Directory of Classes.
• Contact the professor to see if the course is open to auditors and to secure permission to enroll.
• Barnard magazine recently highlighted the College's alumnae auditing program—you can read it by clicking here. For technical instructions regarding how to audit a course, visit the Alumnae Affairs web page about auditing.
  

SUPPORT THE PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT—BUY AN ITEM ON OUR “WISH LIST”
The Psychology Department constantly seeks to improve students' experience at Barnard—by offering research opportunities, inviting guest lecturers, and showing our support in other ways. Alumnae can help make a difference to today's students by funding an item on our "wish list," consisting of items we'd love to have but can't afford, given the department's limited funds. Here are some of the things we wish for:

• Travel grants for students to present at national conferences (10 needed) $400 each ($4,000 total)
• Picture frames for portraits of Barnard alumnae who put their psychology background to use $2,000 each ($10,000 total)
• Internship grants for students to pursue summer research experience (5 needed) $2,000
• A yearly lecture series organized by the department and the Psychology Club $5,000

Your support is much needed and deeply appreciated. To fund an item on the wish list, or to make a general gift to the Psychology Department (your gift will make a difference, no matter the size), please contact Amy DeRobertis in the Office of Development at aderobertis@barnard.edu or 212-854-2004. Or, to make a gift to The Barnard Fund, which helps meet critical needs throughout the College, click here.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS BY PSYCHOLOGY FACULTY

• Balsam, P. D., Fairhurst, S. & Gallistel, C. R. (in press). Pavlovian contingencies and temporal uncertainty. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes.
• Cagniard, B., Balsam, P. D, Brunner, D. and Zhuang, X. (in press). Mice with chronically elevated dopamine exhibit enhanced motivation, but not learning, for a food reward. Neuropsychopharmacology,
• Rick, J. H., Horvitz, J. C. & Balsam, P. D (in press). Dopamine blockade unlike extinction affects behavioral variability. Behavioral Neuroscience. Choi, W-Y. , Balsam, P. D. & Horvitz, J. C. (2005). Dopamine mediation of an appetitive behavior decreases with extended training. Journal of Neuroscience, 25, 6729-6733.
• Drew, M. R., Zupan, B., Cooke, A., Couvillon, P. A. & Balsam, P. D. (2005). Temporal Control of Conditioned Responding in Goldfish. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes. 31, 31-39.

• Currie, P. J., Mirza, A., Fuld, R., Park, D., & Vasselli, J. R.  (2005). Ghrelin is an orexigenic and metabolic signaling peptide in the arcuate and paraventricular nuclei.  American Journal of Physiology, 289, R353-358.
• Currie, P. J., Braver, M., Mirza, A., & Sricharoon, K. (2004). Sex differences in the reversal of fluoxetine-induced anorexia following raphe injections of 8-OH-DPAT . Psychopharmacology, 172, 359-364.
• Currie, P. J., Mirza, A., Garel, V., Rigsbee, E., & Niedle, P. (2004). Nitric oxide synthase inhibition attenuates the orexigenic and metabolic action of ghrelin. Program No. 194.4. Abstract Viewer/Itinerary Planner . Washington, DC: Society for Neuroscience, CD-ROM. [P resented at the 34th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, 23-27 October.]
• Currie, P. J., Mirza, A., Mihes, A., Sricharoon, K., Tal, N., & Niedle, P. (2004). Ghrelin and neuropeptide Y: orexigenic and metabolic signaling molecules exhibiting an interaction with urocortin in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. Appetite, 42, 351. [Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, Cincinnati, OH, 20-24 July.]

Larry Heuer (click here for bio and recent news)

• National Science Foundation grant for "An investigation of a decision maker-decision recipient disparity in the meaning and importance of procedural justice" (2006).
• Heuer, L. (2005). What's just about the criminal justice system? A psychological perspective. Journal of Law & Policy, 13, 209-228.
• Robbennolt, J., Groscup, J. & Penrod, S. & Heuer, L. (2005). Evaluating Jury Competence in Civil and Criminal Cases. In I. Weiner & A. Hess (ed.), Handbook of Forensic Psychology (23nd Ed.). New York: Wiley.
• Sgambati, S., Friedman, I., Aliphas, T., Falcone, M., & Heuer, L. (2004). On the Role of Self-Interest and Modesty for Evaluations of Pro-Social Behavior: A Challenge to the Norm of Self-Interest. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.
• Kattan, A., Gottesman, S., & Heuer, L. (2004). Authority-Subordinate Disparities in the Meaning and Importance of Procedural Fairness. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.
• Heuer, L., Penrod, S., Tyler, T., Eckberg, D., & Podkopaz, M. (2004). Testing the Role of Procedural Fairness for Satisfaction and Compliance with the Law: Two Experiments in a District Court. American Psychology-Law Society, Scottsdale, AZ.

Tovah Klein (click here for bio and recent news)

• Klein, T. P., Pope, A., Getahun, E., & Thompson, J (in press). Mothers' Reflections on Raising a Child with a Craniofacial Anomaly. Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal.
• DeVoe, E. R., Bannon, W., Klein, T. P., & Miranda, C. M. (in press) The relationship between posttraumatic stress symptoms and helpseeking in parents of young children in New York City following the September 11th terrorist attacks. Families in Society.
• DeVoe, E. R., Bannon, W., & Klein, T. P. (in press). Post-9/11 Helpseeking by New York City parents on behalf of highly exposed young children. Journal of Orthopsychiatry.
• Pfefferbaum, B., DeVoe, E. R., Stuber, J., Schiff, M., Klein, T.P., & Fairbrother, G. (2005). Psychological impact of terrorism on children and families in the United States. Journal of Maltreatment, Aggression and Trauma, 305-318.
• Klein, T. P., Wirth, D., & Linas, K. (2004). Play: Children's context for development. In D. Koralek (Ed). Spotlight on Young Children and Play, 28-36. Wash. DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
• Grimes, C., Klein, T. P., & Putallaz, M. (2004). Parents' relationships with their parents and peers: Influences on Children's Social Development. In J. Kuperschmidt & K. A. Dodge (Eds). Children's Peer Relations: From Development to Intervention, 141-158. Wash. DC: APA Press.

Eshkol Rafaeli (click here for bio and recent news)

• Green, A.S., Rafaeli, E., Bolger, N., Shrout, P.E., & Reis, H.T. (in press). Paper or plastic? Data equivalence in paper and electronic diaries. Psychological Methods.
• Cranford, J.A., Shrout, P.E., Iida, M., Rafaeli, E., Yip, T., & Bolger, N. (in press). A procedure for evaluating sensitivity to within-person change: Can mood measures in diary studies detect change reliably? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Rafaeli, E. & Revelle, W. (in press). A premature consensus: Are happiness and sadness truly opposite affects? Motivation and Emotion.
• Coifman, K.G., Bonanno, G.A., & Rafaeli, E. (2006). Affect dynamics, bereavement and resilience to loss. (Accepted pending minor revisions, Journal of Happiness Studies).
• Rafaeli, E. & Gleason, M.E.J. (2006). Skilled support in stressed relationships: A review and proposal for intervention. (Under review).

Robert E. Remez (click here for bio and recent news)

• Pardo, J. S., & Remez, R. E. (in press). The perception of speech. In M. Traxler and M. A. Gernsbacher (Eds.), The Handbook of Psycholinguistics, 2nd ed. San Diego: Academic Press.
• Remez, R. E. (in press). Three puzzles of multimodal speech perception. In E. Vatikiotis-Bateson, G. Bailly & P. Perrier (Eds.). Audiovisual Speech Processing. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
• Remez, R. E. (2005). The perceptual organization of speech. In D. B. Pisoni and R.E. Remez (Eds.), Handbook of Speech Perception (pp. 27-50). Oxford: Basil Blackwell
• Pisoni, D. B., & Remez, R. E. (2005). (Eds.). The Handbook of Speech Perception. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
• Sensory and Perceptual Factors in Spoken Communication. Grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, now in its 19th year.

Sue Reimer Sacks ( click here for bio and recent news)

• Sacks, S.R. (2004, March). Why should we join our daughters in science? Panel presentation at Expanding Your Horizons in Science, Math & Technology, American Association of University Women, NY.
• Sacks, S.R. (2004, October). Sexing Dr. X-Ray: Assessing adolescents' attitudes towards science. Paper presented at the Research on Women and Education Conference, Cleveland, Ohio.
• Sacks, S.R. (2005, April). Supports sustain creative contemplations of urban teachers. Paper and panel presented at the American Educational Research Association meeting in Montreal.
• Sacks, S.R. (2006, April). Strengthening urban communities through active engagement. Discussant. American Educational Research Association meeting in San Francisco.

Ann Senghas (click here for bio and recent news)

• Senghas, A., and D. Roman (in press). La Comunidad Sorda de Nicaragua y su Idioma: Lo que hemos Aprendido de ellos [The Nicaraguan Deaf Community and its Language: What we have learned from them].  (Edited volume).  London/Managua: Leonard Cheshire International.
• Senghas, A. (in press). ¿De dónde proviene el Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua? [Where did Nicaraguan Sign Language come from?]  To appear in A. Senghas and D. Roman, (Eds.), La Comunidad Sorda de Nicaragua y su Idioma: Lo que hemos Aprendido de ellos. London/Managua: Leonard Cheshire International.
• Pyers, J. E., and A. Senghas (in press). Referential shift in Nicaraguan Sign Language: A comparison with American Sign Language. To appear in P. Perniss, R. Pfau, and M. Steinbach, (Eds.), Visible variation: Comparative studies on sign language structure. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Senghas, A. (2005). Language emergence: Clues from a new Bedouin sign language.  Current Biology, 15:12, 463-465.
• Senghas, A., S. Kita, and A. Özyürek (2005). Linguaggio e evoluzione: I bambini sordi del Nicaragua mostrano come nasce una lingua. Darwin, 2:8, 88-96. [This is an Italian translation of Senghas et al. 2004, with additional text and graphics].
• Senghas, A., A. Özyürek, and S. Kita (2005). Language emergence in vitro or in vivo? Response to comment on ?Children creating core properties of language: evidence from an emerging sign language in Nicaragua? Science, 309: 5731, 56.
• Senghas, A., S. Kita, and A. Özyürek (2004). Children creating core properties of language: evidence from an emerging sign language in Nicaragua. Science, 305: 5691, 1779-1782.

Rae Silver's recent research has led to several Journal of Neuroscience publications. Click here for more news.

Lisa Son (click here for bio and recent news)

• Kornell, N., Son, L. K., & Terrace, H. (in press). Transfer of metacognitive skills and hint seeking in monkeys. Psychological Science.
• Son, L. K., & Sethi, R. (in press). Metacognitive control and optimal learning. Cognitive Science.
• Son, L. K., & Metcalfe, J. (2005). Judgments of Learning: Evidence for a Two-Stage Model. Memory & Cognition, 33, 1116-1129.
• Son, L. K. (2005). Metacognitive control: Children's short-term versus long-term study strategies. Journal of General Psychology, 132, 347-363.

Steven Stroessner (click here for bio and recent news)

• Sherman, J. W., Stroessner, S. J., Conrey, F. R., & Azam, O. (2005).  Prejudice and Stereotype Maintenance Processes: Attention, Attribution, and Individuation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 607-622.
• Stroessner, S. J., Mackie, D. M., & Michalsen, V. (2005). Positive mood and the perception of variability within and between groups. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 8, 5-25.
• Plaks, J. E., Levy, S. R., Dweck, C. S., & Stroessner, S. J. (2004). In the eye of the beholder: Implicit theories and the perception of group variability, entitativity, and essence. In V. Yzerbyt, O.Corneille, & C. Judd (Eds.), The Psychology of Group Perception: Contributions to the Study of Homogeneity, Entititavity, and Essentialism (pp. 127-146). New York: Psychology Press.

Patricia Stokes ( click here for recent news)

• Stokes, P. D. (in press). Creativity and operant research: Selection and reorganization of responses. In M. Runco (Ed.), Handbook of creativity research. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
• Stokes, P. D. (2006). Creativity from constraints: Math, music, and painting. Honors College Alumni Lecture. Michigan State University. East Lansing, MI.
• Stokes, P. D. (2006). Book reading and signing. Columbia University Book Store.
• Stokes, P. D. (2005). Creativity from constraints: The psychology of breakthrough. NY: Springer.
• Stokes, P. D., & Fisher, D. (2005). Selection, constraints, and creativity case studies: Max Beckmann and Philip Guston. Creativity Research Journal, 17, 283-391.

Barbara Woike (click here for bio and recent news)

• Woike, B. A. (in press). Content coding of open-ended responses. In Robins, Fraley, & Krueger (Eds.). Handbook of Research Methods in Personality Psychology. Guilford Press.
• Woike, B. A., & McAdams, D. P. (2005). Motives. In Derlega, Winstead, & Jones (Eds.). Personality: Contemporary theory and research. 3rd Edition. Wadsworth, pp. 156-189.
• Woike, B.A., & Matic, D. (2004). The role of motives in the organization of traumatic events in memory. Journal of Personality, 72, 633-657.
  

ALUMNAE DIRECTORY, YELLOW PAGES, AND MORE AT BARNARD'S ONLINE COMMUNITY
Psychology alumnae may search for friends and make new connections through Barnard's Online Community. Membership is free and exclusive to alumnae. All you need to do to take advantage of all the community has to offer is to proceed through the registration process to establish a User ID and password. The service also offers free permanent email forwarding for Barnard graduates. To register, visit the Alumnae Online Community page and click on "Log-in or Register" in the blue box on the upper right corner of the page.

FACULTY NEWS

Peter Balsam, Samuel R. Milbank Professor of Psychology. Prof. Balsam's research analyzes the mechanisms of learning with an emphasis on learning about time. His current work in animal cognition suggests that interval timing plays a very important role in guiding learning and behavior. There is an emerging consensus that most animals perceive and encode temporal information about their experiences. They seem to automatically store quantitative information about event durations and precise temporal information about the relationship between events. Furthermore, this information can be used in very flexible ways to solve problems. The ongoing work asks how is time perceived, encoded and retrieved? How is temporal information used to make decisions about whether, when, and how to respond? Our projects are aimed at answering these questions in behavioral studies with mice, rats, pigeons and humans. We are also doing studies in mice and rats analyzing how the brain controls this very important aspect of adaptive behavior. In other projects we are studying how timing can be distorted by anticipating and using drugs of abuse. We are also looking at whether temporal anticipation of transcranial magnetic stimulation (a new experimental treatment for psychiatric disorders) affects its efficacy. He is the past president of the Eastern Psychological Association. Current grants: Time and Associative Learning NIMH (2003-2008).

Paul Currie, Assistant Professor. Prof. Currie's lab is interested in investigating the role of brain mechanisms in ingestive behavior and energy metabolism. He and his students are exploring the relationship of several key hypothalamic peptides including ghrelin, neuropeptide Y and urocortin. Some of this work is being carried out in collaboration with the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital. Prof. Currie was recently awarded a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to examine the role of ghrelin in eating and anxiety-related behaviors. The goal of this work is to increase our understanding of the neuropeptide control of eating and eating-related disorders. Recent students in his lab have received funding for internships from the Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Program of the Howard Hughes Institute. In 2004, Prof. Currie was the recipient of the Gladys Brooks Junior Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award. A story about this appeared in the Barnard magazine (click here).

Larry Heuer, Professor. Prof. Heuer's research focuses on the psychology of procedural fairness. Procedural fairness research has demonstrated that being treated fairly is an important determinant of people's satisfaction with their treatment and satisfaction with the outcomes they receive in various allocation settings (e.g., satisfaction with a judge's decision in a trial or an employer's decision about a pending raise) as well as with the decision makers (e.g., satisfaction with their judge or their boss) and the institutions they represent (e.g., satisfaction with the U.S. Courts or their places of employment). Often, being treated fairly can be as important, or even more important, than getting fair or favorable outcomes. Prof. Heuer and his students are currently investigating whether authorities (such as cops, judges, or bosses) think about fairness in the same way as the subordinates who interact with them. This work suggests that the authorities focus more on obtaining beneficial outcomes, while the subordinates focus more on fair treatment. Another area of recent research is concerned with the motives that lead people to focus on fair treatment. So, whereas most fairness theorizing asserts that fairness matters to people because it provides important information about their standing in valued social groups (e.g., "Do the other members of my group value me?"), our work suggests that fairness is also important because it provides important information about what members of other groups think of our group (e.g., "Do students think favorably of professors?").

Tovah Klein, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology and Director of the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development. Prof. Klein's research focuses on parents and young children. She is interested in understanding how parents influence the early social and emotional development of their children. Most recently she has turned to studying the complexities of parenting young children, especially issues around juggling family and career. What are the decision points parents face? How do they make the decisions they are faced with? What influences those decisions and how satisfied are they with the outcomes? Her current work includes a qualitative study of parenting young children. Nearly 200 mothers and fathers have participated in this study, which includes questions about the changes experienced when one becomes a parent, balancing work and parenting, and challenges and pleasures of parenting young children. Her other research passion involves understanding how the events of 9/11/01 effected parents and young children near Ground Zero. Videotapes of preschoolers describing their experiences on 9/11 are currently being analyzed to better understand how young children respond to and make sense of a trauma of this magnitude. As Director of the Center for Toddler Development, Prof. Klein enjoys working with students, toddlers and parents, and is widely quoted as a toddler and parenting expert in parenting magazines. And, Prof. Klein is a developmental advisor to Sesame Street!

Eshkol Rafaeli, Assistant Professor. Prof. Rafaeli will be on sabbatical during the 2006-7 academic year. He will be visiting at Bar Ilan University in Israel, where he will collaborate with several clinical and social psychologists on two studies of affect and relationships. Prof. Rafaeli is a clinical psychologist whose research interests include the study of relationships and affective experience. Much of his current research is focused on the interplay between positive and negative, good and bad. In studying affect, Prof. Rafaeli's lab asks questions such as: Are positive and negative moods such as happiness and sadness truly opposites for everyone, or would some people tend to experience them in synchrony? Is it more or less adaptive to experience positive and negative emotions in discrete or nuanced ways? Are individuals who are less successful at regulating their own moods characterized by different patterns of mood fluctuations, and are these patterns different for positive and negative moods? One major project examining affect has been funded by the Borderline Personality Disorder Research Foundation. This project applies recent developments in diary research and multi-level data-analysis to the questions of the diagnosticity of affective fluctuations, affective instability, and affective structure, in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This study is being run in collaboration with colleagues at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School and at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Prof. Rafaeli and his colleagues are examining circadian rhythm instability, reactivity to social situations, and the link between schema-driven cognition and affect in BPD. In their relationship studies, he and his students are looking at partners' attempts to make sense of each others' thoughts, feelings, and needs, as well as at the interplay of good (supportive) and bad (hindering) actions that happen in the life of any couple. They ask questions such as: What is it that makes well-meaning support less effective than it could be? And can we do anything about that, maybe by coaching couples in supportive skills? Prof. Rafaeli was an invited scholar at the 2004 Positive Psychology Summer Institute, which took place in the Italian village of Orta San Julio.

Susan Riemer Sacks, Adjunct Professor and Director of Education Initiatives. Prof. Sacks retired in June 2005 as Professor of Education and Director of the Education Program which she had chaired for over 30 years. She continues teaching her signature Educational Psychology course and last year initiated a senior seminar on Adolescent Psychology. From 1993 until 2003, she directed the Institute for Urban Education, which involved seventh grade and college students and teachers studying forest ecology in New York City and at Black Rock Forest. In 2003, she founded the New Teacher Network which meets bi-monthly to support urban teachers. Her research and publications involve the study of women and girls making transitions from students to teachers, from teachers to mentors, from pre-teens to thirteen, from dependent to interdependent. Her current work examines girls' and boys' attitudes in science classrooms, and she has helped implement a science curriculum to study the effects of pollution using sandtank models of plumeflow. She has served as Co-Chair of the Women's Studies Department, as Chair of the Open Symposium of Research in Psychology and Women of the American Psychological Association, Div. 35; and as Coordinator of the first Scholar and Feminist Conference at Barnard in 1973. She has devoted her efforts at Barnard to teaching and to educating teachers for urban classrooms who are knowledgeable about the psychology of learning and development and sensitive to the needs of students for equity and fairness. She has been invited to present at the Oxford University July 2006 Roundtable on Child Psychology. She will be in England to discuss her paper, "Seeking the Right Fit: Training Bras to Self Identity, Adolescents Search for Self."

Ann Senghas, Assistant Professor. Prof. Senghas directs the Language Acquisition and Development Research Laboratory. She is interested in the abilities that make children able to learn language so effortlessly. What is the nature of these abilities? Are they powerful enough to create new languages? To change language over generations? How do these abilities change as we age? She approaches these questions by studying Nicaraguan Sign Language, created over the past 25 years by a new generation of Deaf children and adolescents. She and members of her laboratory spend six weeks each year in Nicaragua, videotaping deaf people to document and analyze their continually changing young language. Her work is supported by a grant from the NIH: NIDCD (National Institutes of Health: National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders). Some of the students who have collaborated with Senghas include Jenny Pick BC '06, Deborah Mann BC '06, and Molly Flaherty CC '04 (who has worked as her lab manager since she graduated). Last year Professor Senghas was interviewed on a few radio programs, including NPR's "Talk of the Nation/Science Friday" and "All Things Considered" (hear it here), BBC Radio 4's "Leading Edge" (hear it here), BBC World Service's "Science in Action," and Canadian Public Radio. This year she and her Nicaraguan colleague Desiree Roman are editing a booklet with articles by several researchers who have all worked with the Deaf community in Nicaragua. The booklet will be published in Spanish and distributed in Nicaragua.

Rae Silver, Helene L. and Mark N. Kaplan Professor of the Natural and Physical Sciences. Prof. Silver's research has led to several Journal of Neuroscience publications. She has served as the chairwoman of an NIH review panel, and has received several grants on, among other things, circadian rhythms and the function of mast cells in the brain. Invitations to address scientific conferences have taken her to such far-flung places as Kyoto, Japan, and Eilat, Israel. In 2003, she was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the first Barnard scholar to get such honor.

Lisa Son, Assistant Professor. Prof. Son's research focuses on metacognition (how one knows about one's own knowledge) and its influences on learning and memory processes. While on leave over the past year, she has had the privilege of participating as a Visiting Member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Given that the 2005-06 Institute theme was "Psychology and Economics," she was able to attend many exciting seminars, present her own work, and have many fruitful discussions with other psychologists and economists also attending the Institute. While there, Prof. Son focused on several projects: In one study, conducted in collaboration with Nate Kornell (UCLA) and Herb Terrace ( Columbia), she found that monkeys are able to express what they know and do not know, and more importantly, that monkeys ask for "hints" appropriately when they are lacking information. In another study, she collaborated with Rajiv Sethi in the Economics Department at Barnard. The title of the project was "Metacognitive Control and Optimal Learning," and explored theoretically which time allocation strategies are optimal as a function of time pressure. In a third study, she worked on an empirical study testing whether it is more beneficial to allow individuals to control their own study behavior, as opposed to having been forced by others to use specific strategies. Finally, she has begun, in collaboration with Sam Gluscksberg ( Princeton), to investigate the question of how an individual knows that one does NOT know. In the fall, Prof. Son will be teaching "Human Learning and Memory" and a seminar on "Comparative Cognition," which will review some of the literature on self-awareness in a broad range of species, from human adults to young children, to patient populations, and non-human animals. Current grants: Spencer Foundation; Title: Cognition, Spacing Strategy, and Educational Policy.

Steven Stroessner, Associate Professor. Prof. Stroessner is a social psychologist whose research addresses stereotyping and prejudice. A social psychological approach to stereotyping begins with the assumption that an environment—and particularly the social environment—is sufficiently complex and ambiguous to preclude comprehensive awareness of all of its details. To function in a social setting, an individual must be attentive to the environment and must rely on personal knowledge and beliefs. When a person is unable or unwilling to focus on the properties of a situation, then reliance on existing knowledge and beliefs tends to increase. Stereotypes, although often inaccurate, are one type of knowledge structure that can be used to interpret and to act in the social environment. Prof. Stroessner's recent research focuses on two issues of central importance to stereotyping: i) what categories do people use when they encounter others? and ii) how do people stereotype under conditions of threat? In regard to the former question, he and his students have been developing an indirect measure of categorization that does not rely on self-report. Using this method, they have found that categorizations based on gender are most likely when individuals exhibit behavior that strongly confirms or strongly disconfirms existing stereotypes. These findings pose a challenge to exiting theories and suggest the conditions under which stereotype change might be possible. In regard to the latter question, Prof. Stroessner and his students have found that individuals who are concerned with safety and security are more likely to "jump to conclusions" (i.e., risk false alarms to insure hits) when processing negative information in the environment. Based on these findings, current studies are examining the endorsement of stereotypes for groups associated with threat.

Patricia Stokes, Adjunct Associate Professor. Her lab studies the relationship of variability to learning and creativity. Variability is a measure of how differently something is done. We think of it as a continuum, with high and levels at its extremes.

Reliability (say painting a still-life by number) goes near the low end. Novelty (painting a still-life from life) is nearer to the high end. Differences in variability levels occur between individuals on the same task and between tasks for the same individual. The latter, intrapersonal differences led to the theory that habitual or learned variability levels, like skills, are learned. The term habitual refers to a variability level that someone usually displays in a particular task or domain. The idea is this, along with learning how to do something, you also learn how differently to continue doing it. We use computer games to test predictions based on this theory. Our past research has shown two things: first, that these levels are acquired early in exposure to new problem or skill areas, and second, how early constraints determine whether an acquired level will be high or low. We are currently investigating how learned variability levels affect transfer to novel tasks.

Creativity appears on our variability continuum under novelty. This is because all creative responses are novel, but not all new ones are creative. To be called creative, the new thing must also be useful or generative or influential. Useful means that it solves a problem; generative, that it leads to other ideas or things; influential, that it changes the way other people do or think about things like it. Our creativity model is based on constraints. We contend that creativity depends on two things: one's expertise which means mastering the constraints that define an existing domain (like painting); two is devising new constraints that will expand the domain. For example, Impressionism is based on Monet's precluding an existing constraint (differences in value) and promoting a new one (differences in hue). Our work here is field based: we visit museums, galleries, and studios; read about past painters (architects, composers, etc.) and interview ones currently at work.

Giftedness is related to variability in the following ways. Compared to their peers, gifted children are more variable. In the area of a gift (or talent), a gifted child will use more strategies (and better ones) than an average child. In art, a gifted child will acquire skills more rapidly and produce more elaborate drawings and paintings than an average child. Findings like these led to our newest research project, developing an early test for giftedness based on high variability. Our hypothesis is this: ease in mastering novel nonverbal tasks with constraints that require focus and strategic thinking to meet high variability requirements may be an early marker of giftedness. Our research in this area is field based. We are currently testing 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders at the Washington School in Lodi, NJ, on a computer game that requires high variability. We will compare between-grade scores to devise age-norms, and then compare an individual child's score with those of her age-mates and those of older children. Finally, our predictions will be compared with results from current gifted evaluation procedures used in the school.

Barbara Woike, Associate Professor. A personality psychologist, Prof. Woike was promoted to Associate Professor in Spring 2003. She has recently been awarded a four-year research grant by the National Institute of Mental Health to study the influence of personality motivation on memory processes. She has recently been elected as Associate Editor of Journal of Research in Personality Psychology and as a panel member to the Scientific Review of the National Institute of Health, Personality and Social Cognition Study Section. Prof. Woike was on sabbatical leave for the 2005-06 academic year at the Columbia University Institute for Scholars at Reid Hall in Paris, France.

If you'd like to read the Spring 2005 Psychology Alumnae Newsletter, click here.

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