Current Faculty Research
The Department of Psychology faculty members include accomplished researchers, authors, and presenters who are actively engaged in contributing to the civic, economic, and social foundations of society. Research programs within the department aim to advance theoretical understanding of the brain and mind, and to provide a foundation for practical applications in areas such as education and health. Specific research interests range from the study of single cells within the brain to interpersonal processes within groups.
Dr. Lawrence J. Ryan investigates neural activity in brain areas related to movement and time perception.
Dr. John Edwards studies the relations between personality, motivation, and social cognition.
Dr. Mei-Ching Lien examines the relationship between attention and human performance as well as cognitive changes associated with aging.
Dr. Frank Bernieri studies the social and cognitive processes involved in impression formation.
Dr. Scott Safford researches the relationship between cognitive styles, negative life events, and internalizing problems.
Dr. David Kerr studies depression, delinquency, suicide risk, and health-risking sexual behaviors in adolescence.
Dr. Aurora Sherman studies social development across the lifespan, especially the role of social relations in well-being.
Please take a moment to browse undergraduate research, including links to each lab and summaries of the work done by our undergraduate researchers.
Irwin Horowitz, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, has been honored for his numerous contributions to the study of psychology and law. The American Judicature Society has recognized him as one of the foremost jury scholars in the country.
Frank Bernieri, Associate Professor of Psychology, was recently cited in two issues of the American Psychological Association's publication, Monitor on Psychology. In the January 2005 issue, Bernieri contributed to a dialogue on charisma, where his research adeptly highlighted that high-rapport interactions often have high synchrony and expressivity. In the March 2005 issue of the publication, Bernieri's expertise in first impression research was consulted to decipher what first impressions can reveal. As Bernieri states, "I believe that personality is truthfully encoded within the first 30 seconds of behavior, but that doesn't mean we're going to accurately get all of it all the time." To check out the full text of the articles click here: January 2005or here: March 2005.
Mei-Ching Lien, Assistant Professor of Psychology, recently authored a study, which found that when switching from one task to another, people's performance often slows because they fail to fully prepare to perform the new task. Such findings fly in the face of previous research and are compelling researchers to re-assess this problem, which is confronted by anyone who uses their cell phone while driving. Lien's research is part of a larger program designed to help NASA crews perform better when multitasking and was highlighted in the April 2005 edition of the American Psychological Association's publication, Monitor on Psychology.
Is it true that cognitive abilities decline with age? If so, which specific functions are typically impaired? Is the speed of cognition the main change? And how do the changes impact activities of daily life?
Mei-Ching Lien, of the Department of Psychology, is approaching such questions in her study, "Cognitive Aging and Dual-Task Performance." She hopes that the findings will eventually lead to answers such as how our society can enable people, as they get older, to still drive safely.
"There's a rule that after 60, a person can't pilot commercial aircraft," says Lien, who worked for NASA before coming to OSU. "That's because of our common belief that cognitive ability declines. And yet, older adults have more valuable experience to draw upon. So can we design equipment and environments to compensate for lessening cognitive abilities? Maybe - if we first pinpoint the abilities."
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Lien considers tasks that require divided attention, such as driving. Even without a cell phone, she says, driving is multi-tasking. For instance, one has to interpret traffic signs, pay attention to other vehicles, think about the route, use the car's controls, maybe talk with a passenger, etc. There are various theories about the difficulties an older person may have, according to Lien. "There could be 'generalized slowing' of all cognitive processes. Or it could be difficulty in recognizing signs and symbols, retrieving information from memory, and selecting an appropriate response. Or it could be related to performing dual tasks: How soon can you switch attention from task A to task B? Do you have a problem performing A and B at the same time?" |
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Dr. Lien, left, instructing a volunteer. |
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Although she cannot observe her subjects in cars in her lab in Moreland Hall, Lien has developed effective experiments. With paper and pencil, computer screens, and questionnaires, she simulates specific cognitive challenges, and times and analyzes the subjects' responses. She hopes to have some conclusive results this winter. People from ages 60 to 80 from the community have volunteered for Lien's studies. "They are so helpful and so nice," she says. "My students say they only want to work with older people now!" |
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Zach Goodin, left, assists David Kuhns in donning an EEG cap. Both are research assistants in Dr. Lien's lab: Goodin is an undergraduate student, funded by URISC; Kuhns is a graduate student, funded by the Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium. note: Goodin's bandana is not wired. |
Lawrence Rosenkoetter, Department of Psychology, and his wife, Dr. Sharon Rosenkoetter, have devoted time to studying the effect of media violence on children.
Click now to kill. Press to select stab or rape.
"The violence in video games children see on their own is so bad, we'd probably never get the Human Subjects compliance okay to show that stuff in the lab!", says Sharon Rosenkoetter, associate professor in Human Development and Family Sciences. "Violent video games are debilitating to the child using them-more so than are violent television shows, it seems."
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"That's probably because the child is 'doing' the action, in exciting and rewarding ways, instead of passively watching," adds Larry Rosenkoetter, associate professor in Psychology. "And if you haven't seen a video game since the little cartoon-face PacMan, you would be astounded at how very realistic the graphics are now." |
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Justin and Patrick Yun, playing one of the less-violent games |
The OSU couple is working on a proposal for a study of the effects of video games on children. They hope for major funding from the National Institutes of Health, through a special competition for research related to violence.
The Rosenkoetters and their colleagues have had promising results in mitigating the harmful effects of violence on television. In a yearlong intervention program, children learned how the medium distorts reality. Girls changed viewing choices, and boys reduced behavioral aggression, after becoming "literate" in their TV viewing.[link to press release]
The researchers have almost completed a two-year expansion and extension of that program and study, with a wider age-range, and have very promising results to-date.
In the meantime, they say society should be even more concerned about video games.
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"Every major review has said that this type of study is needed," says Sharon.
And video games are proliferating, they say, because the product is more profitable than are TV or even motion pictures. They also observe that as more children become attracted to the active aspect of video games, there is stronger peer support to use them, and it appears that older children are increasingly choosing them over TV.
