psychology

#681 Marjorie Prokosch: Harshness, the Immune System, and Climate Change

Sep 22, 2022

Dr. Marjorie Prokosch is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Disasters, Trust, and Social Change Lab at the University of Florida, and an incoming Assistant Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She studies social and health-related decision-making, with an emphasis on how environmental threats (such as the threat posed by infectious disease) and our own condition (e.g., our immune system, developmental experiences with harshness) motivate our perceptions and behavior. Specific areas of interest include risk perception, self-regulation, and close relationships. In her current role at UF, she is examining how environmental hazards (like hurricanes) and climate change threats intersect with social inequality to impact decision-making. More»
#675 David Sloan Wilson: Religion, Multilevel Selection, Group Selection, and Designing Society

Sep 8, 2022

Dr. David Sloan Wilson is SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He applies evolutionary theory to all aspects of humanity in addition to the rest of life, both in his own research and as director of the Evolution Institute, a unique campus-wide evolutionary studies program that recently received NSF funding to expand into a nationwide consortium. His books include Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society; and This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution. More»
#674 Bianca Acevedo: Attachment, Romantic Love, and Sensory Processing Sensitivity

Sep 5, 2022

Dr. Bianca Acevedo is an Instructor at New York University. She is a social neuroscientist whose research focuses on the neural basis of attachment, caregiving, sensory processing sensitivity (and related disorders), and mind-body interventions. She conducted the first neuroimaging studies of long-term pair-bonding in humans for which she was awarded the 2012 International Women in Science Award. She joined the NRI in 2016 where she has been examining empathy in caregivers of ADRD individuals. Dr. Acevedo is interested in understanding the biological basis of human attachment and sensory processing sensitivity. In addition, her research examines the neural and behavioral outcomes associated with engaging in mind-body practices in clinical and normative individuals and dyads. More»
#673 Moshe Bar - Mindwandering; Mental Drift, Mood, and Creativity

Sep 2, 2022

Dr. Moshe Bar is Head of the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at the Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan University. He does research in Cognitive Neuroscience, Biological Psychiatry, NeuroImaging, and Learning and Memory. He is the author of Mindwandering: How Your Constant Mental Drift Can Improve Your Mood and Boost Your Creativity. More»
#671 Victor Kumar - A Better Ape: The Evolution of the Moral Mind and How it Made us Human

Aug 29, 2022

Dr. Victor Kumar is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. He is director of the Mind and Morality Lab. He is also a member of the interdisciplinary Moral Psychology Research Group. His primary philosophical interests are in ethics, cognitive science, and evolutionary theory. He also has interests in epistemology, philosophy of mind, feminist philosophy, and philosophy of race. He is the author (with Richmond Campbell) of A Better Ape: The Evolution of the Moral Mind and How it Made us Human. More»
#668 Annie Wertz: How Children Learn About Plants; Core Knowledge, and Human Universals

Aug 22, 2022

Dr. Annie Wertz is Research Group Leader of the MPRG Naturalistic Social Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. Her research investigates how infants and young children think about and learn from other people in naturalistic circumstances. Her work provided the first evidence that human infants do indeed possess behavioral and social learning strategies that are selective to plants (e.g., infants avoid plant dangers and selectively learn that some plants are edible). Her research provides a window into the complex interplay of evolutionary and developmental factors that allow human beings to learn from others and accumulate cultural knowledge. More»
#665 Scott Grafton - Physical Intelligence; The Relationship Between the Body and the Mind

Aug 15, 2022

Dr. Scott Grafton is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California Santa Barbara. Dr. Grafton is interested in how people organize movement into goal-oriented action. The emphasis is on elucidating the cognitive architecture that underlies action representation. This is developed with studies of sequence and skill acquisition, motor simulation, sensorimotor transformation, on-line control and action observation experiments. He is the author of Physical Intelligence: The Science of How the Body and the Mind Guide Each Other Through Life. More»
#664 Summer Mengelkoch: Early Life Stressors, Life History, Physiology, and Decision-Making

Aug 12, 2022

Dr. Summer Mengelkoch has recently finished her PhD in experimental social psychology at Texas Christian University. She has just accepted a postdoc position at UCLA under George Slavich. She earned a B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 2013, and an M.S. From Texas Christian University in 2020. Dr. Mengelkoch seeks to better understand relationships between biology and behavior. To do so, she investigates relationships between biological factors (including hormones, hormonal contraceptive use, and immune function) and behaviors (including eating behavior, mate preferences, cognition, and decision-making). More»
#663 Johannes Mahr: Episodic Memory, Imagination, and their Social Functions

Aug 11, 2022

Dr. Johannes Mahr is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Schacter Memory Lab at Harvard University. He will be a professor of Philosophy at York University in Toronto. Before that, he was a Mind, Brain, and Behavior Fellow with a joint appointment in the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology at Harvard. He completed his PhD in Cognitive Science under the supervision of Gergely Csibra and Dan Sperber at Central European University. His work combines philosophical and empirical approaches to study episodic memory, imagination, and human communication. More»
#661 Kristina Durante: The Career-Family Trade-Off for Modern Women, and Changing Gender Norms

Aug 5, 2022

Dr. Kristina Durante is an evolutionary psychologist and Professor of Marketing, Marketing Department Vice Chair, and the marketing Ph.D. program coordinator at Rutgers Business School. She is a social psychologist interested in the biology of decision-making. Her research lies at the intersection of social psychology, evolutionary biology, and consumer decision-making. Her areas of expertise include women’s consumer choice and luxury spending, family consumer decisions, hormones and behavior, and the psychological consequences of ambiguity. More»