Fall 2009 Newsletter

Students working with Bob Barnet have been investigating the long term consequences of ingesting nicotine during adolescence.  Some of their findings suggest exposure to nicotine during adolescence can cause long-term changes in brain regions important to memory.  Importantly, their research suggests these changes may persist into adulthood despite smoking cessation and long periods of abstinence.

Chris Ball and his students continue their work on memory and its role in the development and treatment of some clinical disorders. They are conducting collaborative research with colleagues in Australia to examine the relationship between memory processing and chronic dieting that may lead to a better understanding of the role that memory plays in the development of eating disorders. They are also conducting studies to explain why performing rapid bilateral horizontal eye-movements can benefit people suffering adversely from the memories of traumatic events in their lives.

Students in Josh Burk's laboratory have been studying the role of neuropeptides in attention. These experiments are part of a collaboration with the University of South Carolina Medical School and are funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging. Prof. Burk had two manuscripts concerning this research accepted for publication over the summer.

Two students assisted Joe Galano in preparing a report and recommendations to the State (Virginia) Board of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. The report presented information on evidence-based prevention programs that can reduce the incidence of mental, emotional, and behavioral problems in youth. Seven other students are helping Prof. Galano evaluate the Healthy Families Virginia statewide initiative. The goal of Healthy Families is to prevent child abuse and neglect, promote child health and child development, and promote positive parenting practices.

Peter Vishton and his students have invented a motorized wheeled chair for infants. The BabyKart responds to the baby's arm, leg, and head movements. With as little as a few minutes of practice, very young, pre-crawling infants learn to drive around the room. You might enjoy the fun video of an infant in the chair.

Two M.A. students and two undergraduate students are working with Glenn Shean this year, using visual stimuli and short clips from films to study the relationship between personality traits, emotions, physiological markers of arousal and efficiency of cognitive processing. Another undergraduate major is studying the accuracy of EEG evoked potential responses as an indicator of deception.

In Paul Kieffaber's "Cognitive Psychophysiology Lab," students have been investigating the neural basis of attention. They are currently using event-related potential and quantitative EEG analyses to address questions about the separability of perceptual and response conflict in the context of task-switching. They are also currently investigating the nature and neural basis of age-related changes in attentional functioning. Students from the lab will be presenting some of their most recent research at the upcoming meeting of the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience.

Finally, John Nezlek has been focusing his attention more on cross-cultural issues over the past few years. For example, in 2008 he published 3 articles in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, the premier journal in the discipline. Over the past few years he has also given numerous talks abroad and has written numerous papers with colleagues abroad. In addition, he has been a visiting scholar at universities in Marseilles and Leuven, Belgium.