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Graduate Student

layers@psych.udel.edu

Office

126 B Wolf Hall
(302) 831-0647

Lab

147 Wolf Hall

Primary Advisor

Jeffrey B. Rosen

Luke Ayers

language acquisition and processing, event representation, word learning

How do children learn to make sense of the world around them, and how do they learn to describe it? In my research, I use experimental methodologies like preferential looking and eyetracking to investigate the mapping between conceptual and linguistic representations of events. I am especially interested in understanding how event construal and description differ across languages and with linguistic and conceptual development. Specific areas of interest include how children represent and label multi-part events like causatives and motion events, what crosslinguistic patterns of linguistic encoding can tell us about event construal, and how early conceptual knowledge might provide a foundation for universal linguistic categories.

Music theoretical and perceptual correlates of successful musical composition

My current project attempts to account for the success of Cole Porter and Irving Belin's music by applying music-theoretical and music-cognitive techniques to analysis of their songs. In addition, the project addresses how the composers may have developed their skills over a period of intense learning and practice at the beginning of their careers.

Relationships between organizations and employees.

My Advisor, professor Eisenberger, and I are interested in the relationships between organizations and employees, how employees perceive organizaiton's ways of treating them and values their contibutions, what might be the possible factors that lead to job satisfaction, organizaiton commitment, turnover tendency and other related behavioral outcomes, issues including Percieved Organizational Support, Psychological Contract, Leader Exchange Membership, Intrinsic Motivation, Supervisor Organizational Embodiment and so on.

Emotion, attention, and working memory

I joined the Dr. Most's lab in the fall of 2007. I also work in Dr. James Hoffman's lab doing EEG and ERPs studies. My research interests include exploring mechanisms underlying interactions between attention and emotion, and interactions between working memory and emotion.

Intergenerational transmission of depression, positive affect, wellness, & prevention of relapse in depression

My research interests primarily focus on the role of positive affect (PA) in depression, how PA changes over the course of depression, and individual differences in PA. I’m especially interested in how PA can be influenced by caregivers, and how a caregiver’s PA and depression level effect children.

I also work as the project coordinator, as well as a therapist, on the Depression Treatment and Wellness Promotion Program in Adele Hayes’ lab. I am interested in how promoting wellness and healthy lifestyle can influence relapse in depression.

I am currently beginning my 3rd year in the program and have just begun work on my second year project. This project focuses on intergenerational transmission of depression in preschool aged children and their female caregivers.

Psychophysiological measures to understand emotion and cognition.

My research interests include using psychophysiological measures to understand emotion and cognition. Specifically, I’m interested in using ERPs to understand cognitive and emotional processing in patients with anxiety disorders. Eventually, I’d like to examine how that processing changes during the course of successful treatment.

Achievement and Psychosocial Functioning

I am currently a fourth year clinical student working with Dr. Roger Kobak. During my first two years at the University of Delaware, I assisted with data collection and data analysis on Dr. Kobak’s longitudinal study of parent-child relationships with a low-income sample of adolescents. Within this project, my interests focused on the relation between adolescent achievement and psychosocial functioning. In longitudinal analyses with this sample that followed students from 3rd through 9th grades, I found that in spite of low starting levels of achievement, students who showed achievement growth were less likely to develop conduct problems as adolescence. While this highlighted the importance of focusing on students learning or achievement growth, the longitudinal study did not allow me to identify factors that predicted achievement growth. My subsequent research has been designed to identify student and classroom factors associated with achievement growth.

I have been collecting data from late elementary school students in a local public school district to further explore the relation between achievement growth and psychosocial functioning. My Master’s Thesis examined the effects of interpersonal relationships on student achievement trajectories. My dissertation, “Student- and Classroom-Level Effects on Learning: A Multi-Level Model of Achievement Trajectories in Late Elementary School,” will expand on this project to investigate student and classroom-level predictors (as well as the interaction between student and classroom level predictors) on student achievement growth during a school year.

Clinical Training:

I am presently a practicum student extern at Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Child and Family Therapy Clinic in Baltimore, Maryland. There, I provide outpatient systemic and cognitive-behavioral family therapy to predominately low income families with children whose primary diagnoses include disruptive behavior disorders, mood disorders, and cognitive/learning disabilities.

Childeren's emotion regulation and utilization, parental emotion socialization, preventive interventions

I am a fourth year in the Clinical Science Ph.D. program working in the Human Emotions Lab with Dr. Carroll Izard. In our lab, we are studying the development of emotion processes in an at-risk population. We are at the start of a new project focused on implementing, evaluating, and identifying the mechanisms of the Emotions Course, an emotion-centered preventive intervention for preschool children. My research interests include the development of children’s emotion regulation and emotion utilization (how children use their emotions adaptively) and how parenting behaviors relate to and affect these abilities. This year, I am completing my practicum at the Centreville School, working with children in 3rd – 5th grades.

Investigating diverging trajectories of emotional development from the perspective of high risk verses low risk populations.

I am an incoming clinical graduate student studying with Dr. Carroll Izard. My past research experiences include studying: the relationship between attitude and memory, the neurobiological and cognitive basis of autism, the neurobehavioral and cognitive familial relationship with autism, and restrictive repetitive behaviors in autism. My research interests involve investigating diverging trajectories of emotional development from the perspective of high risk verses low risk populations. I will be joining the Human Emotions lab to help implement and evaluate an emotion-based preventative intervention program.

Peer Relations

I am a fifth-year student in the Peer Relations lab, working with Dr. Julie Hubbard. My research interests include children’s peer relationships, bullying, psychophysiology, and aggression. This year I am completing a supervised clinical practicum in Early Childhood Evaluation at the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children.

Lasting effects of recurrent depression on physical and mental health.

My fascination with disruptive vicious cycles has led me to examining clinical depression. Some of my recent work has examined the lasting effects of a history of recurrent depression on current physical and mental health. I am currently preparing my first year project for publication that examines how stress reactivity and coping styles are changed in individuals who receive cognitive therapy for depression.

Social value orientation, social interdependence, and social dilemmas

My research focuses on nonverbal communication of Social Value Orientation (SVO). Most people make choices following a Cooperative choice rule (or SVO “type”), maximizing Collective Gain. Fewer people follow an Individualistic choice rule, maximizing their Own Gain without regard to the outcomes of the other in interdependent contexts. Those following a Relative Gain choice rule (maximizing own outcomes relative to those of the other) constitute a still smaller portion of the population.

Literature regarding evolution of the Cooperative SVO as the most prevalent suggests, for example, that it may be advantageous for Cooperators to establish relationships with other Cooperators. If this occurs, it appears detection of strangers’ SVOs may occur quite quickly, and very early on in interactions (e.g., at zero-acquaintance).

Accordingly, my recent studies consider the possibility that perceivers are receptive to facial cues to the SVO of strangers in photographs. Initial findings generally suggest such SVO detection can be possible when strangers are posing expressions of emotion, and not when an emotionally neutral state is posed. In upcoming semesters I will further explore the role of different posed emotion expressions in providing cues to the SVO of strangers.

Behavioral and physiological correlates of episodic memory

My immediate interests are in the behavioral and physiological correlates of episodic memory. How does the hippocampus interact with associated areas such as the parahippocampal complex and prefrontal cortex? What role does the theta rhythm play in encoding and retrieval? How does one determine a causal relationship between physiological phenomenon in the brain and its functional organization in a declarative memory task?

My broader, long-term goals lie in using our empirical understanding of the brain to describe proximal causes of consciousness. Although science may not illuminate ultimate questions of why we possess consciousness, investigating proximal questions of cognition such as how memory and perception interact, may eventually guide a path toward a detailed description of neural mechanisms for the ontology of action and reflection or teleo-functional attributions of physical entities.

I am currently a pre-doctoral student at the University of Delaware working with Dr. Amy Griffin investigating episodic memory using in vivo electrophysiology in the rat. In the past I have worked in laboratories looking at the neurotoxic effects of the illicit drug, MDMA in the rodent, how age affects implicit and explicit memory in humans, genetic precursors of dyslexia, and the implementation of applied behavior methodologies to human autistic populations.

Previous Laboratories

http://www.bu.edu/cogneuro/index.html

http://www.rosenlab.net/

http://www.bio.umass.edu/mcb/faculty/Meyer.html

Developmental/behavioral neuroscience, learning and memory, neurodevelopmental disorders

My research has focused on learning and memory aberrations in two animal models of neurodevelopmental disorders, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Autism, in addition to ontogenetic and selective brain inactivation studies. A number of brain areas, including the hippocampus and cerebellum, are affected in FAS and our model of early postnatal ethanol exposure in the rat produces similar neuroanatomical and behavioral deficits. Using both Pavlovian conditioning methods, such as eyeblink conditioning and contextual fear conditioning, and appetitive learning tasks, such as delayed alternation t-maze, we are able to look at the how the pattern, timing, and dosage of ethanol exposure affects subsequent behavioral development. Our Autism studies are based on a gestational day 12.5 exposure to the anticonvulsant valproic acid (VPA) model. Our lab has demonstrated that rats gestationally exposed to VPA perform similar to human autism patients during eyeblink conditioning, giving further evidence to the theory that an early gestational insult can lead to Autism. A lot can be learned with both FAS and VPA animal models of developmental disorders. My particular interest is in developing interventions to these disorders that will act to attenuate or ameliorate the learning and memory deficits produced by these disorders and, in the future, translating these interventions from animal models to human populations.

Over the first two years of my graduate training, I have had the opportunity to deepen my understanding in a number of areas of neuroscience through the core courses offered to students in Behavioral Neuroscience (neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and neuropharmachology). Each year I’ve been able to present my research to students and faculty at our annual brown bags, a great opportunity to demonstrate research accomplishments, obtain helpful insight from others, and gain experience presenting in front of groups. I have also presented my research (both as a poster and as a platform presentation) at the Neurobehavioral Teratology Society (NBTS) conference for two consecutive years, obtaining a travel award during my 1st year, in addition to attending the Society for Neuroscience annual conference and will be attending additional conferences in the future.

Emotion competence, parental emotion socialization, preventive interventions

I am currently a 5th year in the Clinical Science program working with Dr. Carroll Izard at the University of Delaware. As part of the Human Emotions lab, we study emotion development with a Head Start preschool population. We are currently running an intervention project evaluating the efficacy and effectiveness of the Emotions Course (EC), an emotion based intervention program designed by our lab for preschool aged children.

My research interests involve examining the relation of parenting factors to children’s emotion regulation and their abilities to get along with other children. I also am interested in how children’s emotion regulation abilities affect their internalizing behaviors and their ability to use their emotions adaptively.

For my first year project, I examined the relation between family emotion expressiveness, emotion knowledge, and emotion regulation in preschool aged children. For my masters’ thesis, I studied how emotion coaching and physical punishment relate to adaptive and maladaptive behavior problems in toddlers and preschoolers. I also examined how the perception of physical punishment affected the relation between these parenting practices and children’s behavior.

For my practicum experience in my 3rd and 4th years of the program, I worked at Terry Children’s Psychiatric Center and the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Child and Family Therapy Clinic. I am very excited to begin my 5th year practicum at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Regional Center of Autism.

Clinical, Developmental

I am a fifth-year graduate student working with Dr. Mary Dozier. Our lab is currently evaluating the efficacy of an NIMH-funded attachment-based intervention for foster parents. We are currently evaluating the effects of the intervention on parent-child relationships and on the behavioral, social/emotional, and physiological outcomes of young children in foster care. More recently, the intervention has been extended to neglecting birth parents in Philadelphia as well as to families who have adopted children internationally. As a graduate research assistant in the lab, I conduct home and lab-based research visits with families, as well as code the data collected. Research visits involve conducting developmental assessments of infants; running the Strange Situation procedure with dyads (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978); and interviewing caregivers about their own childhood experiences, their parenting beliefs, and their relationships with their children. I code parent commitment, acceptance, and belief in influence, as assessed with the This is My Baby interview (TIMB; Bates & Dozier, 1998). I also code infant attachment security from the Strange Situation procedure as well as attachment state of mind from the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996).

I am particularly interested in the effects of early caregiving experiences on children’s development of self-regulatory capacities, at both behavioral and physiological levels. I am interested in associations between early risk variables, caregivers’ attachment state of mind, and children’s development of joint attention and theory of mind abilities, which are important components of social development. I am also interested in the effects of early adversity on children’s regulation of the stress hormone, cortisol. I am particularly interested in how early caregiving experiences affect stress hormone regulation over time, and in relation to psychopathology.

I have acquired clinical experience through training at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children, Delaware Guidance Services, and High Road School in Wilmington, as well as at the Psychological Services Training Center at the University of Delaware in Newark. Through these experiences, I have received training in therapy with children, adolescents, and adults, as well as training in psychological assessment with children between the ages of 2 and 15 years.

Clinical Psychophysiology

I am interested in the interaction betweeen cognitive control and emotion as it is reflected in event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and peripheral psychophysiology. Specifically, cognitive control of the emotional response itself (i.e. emotion regulation; Krompinger, Moser, & Simons, 2008), and the modulation of the cognitive control system in various affective contexts. Additionally, I am interested in examining both cognitive control dysfunction (Krompinger & Simons, in revision) and emotional biases (Krompinger & Simons, 2009) among individuals with clinical and sub-clinical levels of depression and anxiety, and the extent to which such dysfunction can be remediated.

Development of empathy in children.

I am a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in the clinical psychology program. My mentor is Dr. Carroll Izard of the Human Emotions Research Laboratory. My primary research interests are related to the development of empathy in children. More specifically, I am interested in how parenting practices relate to children’s experiences of empathy as well as their engagement in pro-social behavior. I am particularly interested in working with at-risk populations to help identify risk and resiliency factors in families and young children, with the goal of contributing to more effective prevention and intervention programs. In the Human Emotions lab, we are currently running an intervention project evaluating the efficacy and effectiveness of the Emotions Course (EC), an emotion based prevention program designed by our lab for preschool aged children. In the future, I hope to contribute to the design of the parent component of the Emotions Course through increasing our understanding about the effects of parenting styles on the development of children’s empathy and pro-social responding.

Perceived Organizational Support Theory

I am a second year Social Psychology PhD student currently working at Dr. Eisenberger’s lab on Perceived Organizational Support Theory. Specifically, my current research deals with the mechanisms by which support from the organization can be used as a tool for the socialization of newcomers. In our research at the lab we are also investigating the relationships between leadership, perceived organizational support and favorable work outcomes such as extra-role and in-role performance. Currently we are analyzing the data we collected last year for our leadership research.

Cross-Cultural Psychology and the Reconceptualization of the Individualism and Collectivism Construct

I am a second year graduate student working with Fang Fang Chen on various issues in the domain of cross-cultural psychology. Our main focus is on the reconceptualization of the individualism and collectivism construct. We are currently conducting research to validate a new measure of I/C which will take into account this new conceptualization. I am also interested in the areas of cross-cultural differences in self-enhancement and self-criticism, as well as ingroup bias and approach/avoidance motivation.

Speakers of different languages describe spatial scenes.

I am a second year graduate student working in Dr. Anna Papafragou’s Language and Cognition lab. We are interested in how speakers of different languages describe spatial scenes, whether or not these differences are able to influence thought, and if there are any universal conceptual representations of spatial relationships. Some of my other areas of interest include the cognitive benefits of bilingualism and investigating how sign languages compare to spoken languages regarding spatial information.

Developmental Psychobiology, ontogeny of learning and memory processes .

My research has primarily focused on examining individual differences in exploratory behavior through measuring reaction to novelty across the lifespan in an experimental paradigm known as novel object recognition. Spatial configuration recognition tasks have also been incorporated to further investigate the development of the ability to learn about and integrate background contextual information, as well as understand the neural basis of memory-guided performance. Since employing these tasks, I have used novelty recognition procedures as a means of examining age differences in memory, in addition to retention across time and impulsive behavior.

Development of psychopathology among parents and adolescents and the relationship between academic achievement and adjustment.

I am a first year clinical student working under the advisement of Roger Kobak and Brian Ackerman. Our research is with the Parent-Teen Project, an ongoing NIMH-funded study that investigates the development of psychopathology among parents and adolescents in a low income sample. My particular interests are in the relationship between academic achievement and adjustment. For my first year project, I am investigating the developmental trajectories of disadvantaged children from the start of middle childhood, when the child first enters school, through early adolescence. I am also examining the diversity found among our disadvantaged sample. For example, I am interested in how income poverty and cofactors of poverty such as parent maladjustment (i.e. criminal activity and parent psychopathology) affect the child differently. In addition, I am assisting with data collection for a separate, but related project investigating student and classroom factors associated with achievement growth in late elementary school.

Causes of varying effects of a perceived dual identity upon intergroup bias.

I am a 2nd year graduate student working with Dr. Samuel Gaertner. My recent research has investigated the causes of varying effects of a perceived dual identity upon intergroup bias. Some of my other interests include antecedents and consequences of intergroup conflict.

Damaging effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the medial prefrontal cortex.

I am a second year behavioral neuroscience graduate student working with Dr. Anna Klintsova. My current research explores the damaging effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on a still developing brain. This is done using a rat model of fetal alcohol syndrome. In particular I focus on the medial prefrontal cortex, as this is one of the last brain regions to develop. Brain plasticity is analyzed using the Golgi technique wherein both dendritic length and dendritic spines are analyzed.

Influence of the classroom and home environment on externalizing behavior

I am a second year student in the Clinical Science program working with Dr. Carroll Izard in the Human Emotions Lab. My primary research interests are related to the impact of the home and classroom environments on preschool children's behavior. In the Human Emotions Lab, I am currently helping to implement and evaluate an emotion based prevention program designed by our lab for preschoolers in the Wilmington area. My research interests include how the Emotions Course and emotional support by both teachers and parents contribute to externalizing behaviors in preschool children. In the next few years, I plan to help evaluate the effectiveness of an Emotions Course for parents, with a focus on how it affects the home environment and children's externalizing behaviors. Additionally, I hope to contribute to the design of a teacher training program focusing on improving the classroom environment.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Evidence-Based Treatment, and Psychophysiology

I earned my Masters Degree from Wesleyan University working on two clinical trials examining effects of environmental stimuli on symptoms of geriatric insomnia and Major Depressive Disorder. While in Connecticut I worked as a clinical therapist in a residential treatment center and a therapeutic foster care agency. These clinical experiences, along with my becoming a foster parent, inspired a focus on childhood trauma and PTSD. For two years I conducted research at Yale University with Dr. Joan Kaufman on a longitudinal study examining developmental consequences of maltreatment. I was exposed to fMRI technology, biochemical methods of examining cortisol, and polymorphism genotyping examining the allelic variant of the serotonin transporter gene. I was struck by findings that high levels of social support not only buffered the risk of psychopathology conferred by maltreatment, but also the risk conferred by the high-risk allelic variant. While at Yale I also became active in transporting research to public policy and served on the board of a grassroots agency offering comprehensive psychological evaluations to foster children.

I moved to Delaware with interests in trauma and human relationships, and eager to study psychophysiological methodology with Dr. Robert Simons. One line of work employs psychophysiological methods towards better understanding the biological underpinnings of relationships. In three studies I found that processing facial pictures of relatives vs. familiar and unfamiliar individuals elicited enhanced event-related brain potentials (ERPs) associated with attention and arousal. In two of these studies, greater perceived parental support predicted greater ERP enhancement to parent faces.

For the past four years I have collaborated on a grant awarded by SAMHSA to the Delaware Division of Child Mental Health Services (DCMHS) to implement Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) statewide and gather effectiveness data. Dr. Charles Webb has directed this work. Preliminary data show significant reductions in symptoms, which are maintained for up to a year. My dissertation research, which is funded by a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F31 MH 86227-01), extends this study by: (a) comparing physiological responses to threat-related stimuli in traumatized and non-traumatized youth; (b) determining if TF-CBT is associated with reductions in physiological reactivity; (c) examining potential relationships between parental support and pre- to post-treatment changes; and (d) examining session-by-session patterns of physiological activation and symptom change across treatment. Dr. Adele Hayes’s expertise in process research informs the latter aim.

Two additional projects are worth mentioning. The first involves collecting psychometric data on a computer program (The Computer-Assisted UCLA PTSD Reaction Index) I developed to screen for trauma-exposure and PTSD in children. It is based on the UCLA PTSD RI (Pynoos et al, 1998). The second involves managing data collection for an ongoing collaboration between Dr. Edna Foa at the University of Pennsylvania, and Drs. Robert Simons and Lawrence Cohen at the University of Delaware. Since 2003, incoming students have been recruited to complete a survey assessing stress, coping, and psychopathology and are asked to complete a two-year follow-up interview. The primary aim is to identify potential predictors of PTSD by examining students who experienced trauma between baseline and follow-up.

Visuomotor function and neuronal modelling

Dr. Northmore is a neuroscientist interested in synthesizing nervous systems in computer simulation and neuromorphic hardware for behaving animats. The aim is to "incubate" artificial systems capable of developing along biologically realistic lines, extracting information from the environment, and behaving adaptively. The principles are derived from neurobiology, including his own behavioral and electrophysiological work on the visual system, particularly the midbrain optic tectum and nuclei associated with it. He is currently recording activity from these structures in response to motion flow fields.

I am a second year clinical graduate student working with Dr. Jean-Philippe Laurenceau. One area of my research examines the effects of gratitude on close relationships using a daily diary methodology designed to capture everyday events and emotions. A second line of research utilizes behavioral observation to examine the importance of positive and negative affect expressed during newlywed couples’ interactions to predict long-term relationship outcomes.

Memory, Spatial Representation

I joined the Intraub lab in the fall of 2005. I have a bachelor of science in Psychology from the University of Arizona with a minor in Biology. I am interested in how the visual system integrates incoming perceptual information with previously stored cognitive representations. My research interests include memory, scene perception, information integration and spatial cognition. My current projects focus on the role of attention in the perception of a scene's spatial layout.

Racism, ideologies, cultural narratives

My research interests, broadly defined, focus on the relationship between ideologies or belief systems and racial prejudice. I approach this issue from two directions:

In my primary line of research, I am exploring and developing an individual difference measure called the Universal Context of Fairness (UCF). The UCF frames the race narrative for Whites and emphasizes universal fairness as the default basis of judgment and interpretation of race-based events. The UCF asserts that fairness is an accessible and active construct for Whites that places the individual at the center of an explanatory framework. The motivational consequences of the UCF serve to preserve a belief in fairness. For example, when the fairness narrative is challenged (e.g., due to historical reminds of racial discrimination), Whites may guard against this threat by (1) Justifying the status quo, or (2) Enhancing justice by reinstating fairness. The former often leads to antisocial behaviors and the latter to prosocial behaviors.

My secondary line of research focuses on the nature and prevalence of various intergroup ideologies and the implications of these different belief systems for intergroup interactions, socio-economic policy support, and interracial attitudes. Specifically, my research examines three ideologies: Colorblindness, Multiculturalism, and Critical Multiculturalism. Critical multiculturalism challenges us to address racial and cultural issues as a problem endemic to the legacy of colonialism and slavery, and rooted in economic inequities and longstanding cultural stereotypes.

Daily Stress and Coping

I study stress and coping, with a particular interest in coping's effect on emotional outcomes. My current research focuses on the moderating effect of coping on affective differentiation (the relationship between negative and positive affect) among breast cancer patients.

Stress and Depression, Wellness, Process of change in psychotherapy...

...Prevention of relapse in depression, Adjustment to stressful life events and stress-related growth, Daily Diary methodology

My research interests primarily focus on the role of stress in the onset, maintenance, and relapse of depression. I am particularly interested in stress-generation and the role played controllable stress. My first and second year projects examined controllable stress from the perspective of a daily diary method as well as behavioral mechanisms that may contribute to controllable stress.

Recently, I have begun to work on the Depression Treatment and Wellness Promotion Program in Adele Hayes’ lab. In particular, I am interested in the prevention of relapse for sufferers of chronic depression and the role of residual depressive symptoms in recurrent depression. Also, we are conducting research examining the role of therapeutic alliances and alliance ruptures in treatment for personality disorders.

Additionally, I am interested in Wellness and positive Mental Health. Specifically, I am interested in stress-related growth and benefit finding following major life stress and variables associated with positive growth following difficult events.

Inter-group relations, immigration policies in Europe, societal norms in the US

My research interests are focused in the domain of inter-group relations, specifically looking at the roles of group identification and normative behavior upon inter-group bias and group discrimination. I am also interested in varying topics such as immigration policies in Europe, societal norms in the U.S., status differentials between groups, and the projection of one's own norms upon larger, more diverse groups.

TRIOS, Racial Sensitivity and Racial Identity

My basic research question addresses; What factors determine whether, in the face of perpetual threats posed by racism and racial discrimination, African Americans maintain positive psychological health, achieve success and reach personal goals or adopt negative self images and other destructive behaviors? A substantial body of empirical research has shown how perceiving and experiencing racial discrimination can be detrimental for the victims. But not all targets of race-based discrimination are susceptible to the negative consequences of racism, be it real, perceived or anticipated. We believe that the psychological concepts of TRIOS and the Universal Context of Racism play crucial roles in determining whether or not the degree to which one's reaction to racial discrimination undermines or enhances psychological well-being. I further believe that dimensions of racial identity also play a role.

The Universal Context of Racism (UCR) proposes that historical targets of racism and discrimination constantly access the possibility that their racial status may contribute to an unjust explanation or outcome (Jones, 2003). The UCR acts as a monitoring system for the detection, interpretation or avoidance of racism (Jones, Engelmen, Turner & Campbell, 2009).

TRIOS is a life view exploring the dual processes of self-protective and self-enhancing motivations of targets for whom threats posed by racism are chronically accessible (Jones, 2003). It is derived from attitudes, beliefs, and values concerning the dimensions of Time, Rhythm, Improvisation, Orality and Spirituality. As a cultural life view, each TRIOS dimension reflects human capacity developed from the fabric of experience, necessity, belief and evolutionary success.

My dissertation assesses college success and satisfaction for African American students. Specifically, I am examining how TRIOSic students and the dynamics of racial identity and perceptions of racial discrimination can influence their psychological well-being.

Interventions for infants in foster care, bio-behavioral correlates of bond formation between foster parents and infants

I am a fourth year doctoral student in Mary Dozier’s lab. I came to the University of Delaware because of my interest in interventions that promote the healthy developmental of infants in foster care. I am also interested in the behavioral and biological factors associated with bond formation between biological and non-biological parents and infants. A recent study that I conducted revealed that mothers produce more oxytocin when they engaged in a close physical interaction with a child they do not know, when compared with their own child. For my dissertation, I will continue this research by investigating whether this trend exists when foster mothers bond with their foster infants. I hope that such research will further our understanding of how bonds form and how bio-behavioral factors may be related to the quality of the bond between foster mothers and foster infants. In the long term, I hope that my research will be useful for identifying healthy or at-risk bonds between foster mothers and children on behavioral and bio-behavioral levels.

Attachment, intervention, foster care, child development

I am a third-year graduate student working with Mary Dozier in the Infant Caregiver Project Lab. I am involved with several projects examining the effectiveness of the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up intervention for children who have faced early adversity. I am interested in the effects of early disruptions in care on child outcomes, such as attachment, behavior, and biological regulation. I am also interested in how having a committed foster caregiver influences a child’s development.

Intimacy processes in close relationships; diary methods and multilevel models for studying close relationship processes

Being in close relationships is a primal human experience. Indeed, many of the activities and goals most central to humans involve the initiation, development, and maintenance of close relationships. My primary area of scholarly interest concerns close relationships. This work has two facets: basic research on close relationship processes (e.g., intimacy processes, relational approach/avoidance sensitivities) and applied research on interventions targeting the prevention of the real-world problem of relationship dysfunction. A secondary area of scholarly interest is in the application of modern quantitative methods for the assessment and analysis of change. The study of change processes cuts across several areas and is the basis of much empirical psychological inquiry. In sum, I believe that my major interests lie at the intersection of clinical psychology and social/personality psychology.

Close relationship processes

Throughout my graduate and faculty career in both research and clinical work with close relationship dyads, I have been continually struck by the reciprocal relationship between marital/interpersonal interactions and individual problems/psychopathology. Developing and maintaining close, confiding, and intimate relationships with significant others has dramatic effects on emotional and physical quality of life. I hold the view that in order to understand dysfunction, we must also understand adaptive functioning and the normative processes that lead to adaptive outcomes. Thus, understanding basic factors that influence relationship processes from a normative and developmental perspective will contribute to improved understanding of how and when such processes go awry.

Researchers in relationship science have argued that the field may profit from the development of models of close relationship functioning that incorporates a diversity of important interpersonal processes and influencing factors. Thus, I am moving toward a conceptualization of adaptive relationship functioning and maintenance that integrates the role of both negative and positive relationship processes. Negative processes such as conflict, spousal support in face of stressors, and dysfunctional communication patterns have received much theoretical attention and empirical study. Nevertheless, when these negative processes are well managed in relationships, that may not necessarily indicate healthy relationship functioning. In current and forthcoming work, I draw from self-regulation approaches that incorporate goals, behaviors, and emotions into conceptions of how individuals function in daily life, and has potentially important implications for relationship functioning. I argue that the functioning of intimate relationships consists essentially of directed action oriented toward central goals such as achieving intimacy and avoiding painful interpersonal conflict. This analysis may guide us to a new understanding of emotions such as passion, excitement, depression, anxiety, distress, contentment, and serenity as they are experienced in relationships, and have them linked as a function of behavioral processes directed towards central relationship-related goals.

Applied methodological and quantitative interests

In addition to the work described above, I have also developed knowledge and interest in using diary methods (i.e., experience sampling, social interaction records, electronic daily diaries). I am also interested in the application of multilevel data analytic techniques (i.e., HLM; Hierarchical Linear Modeling) to dyadic and longitudinal data. I have also become involved in exploring the use of modern methods for the analysis of change are important tools for elucidating change processes in psychological interventions with Dr. Adele Hayes at the University of Delaware. Most recently, I have turned toward the application of dynamical systems modeling (i.e., analysis of self-regulating systems) to dyadic interpersonal processes in collaboration with Dr. Steve Boker at University of Notre Dame. If one conceptualizes individuals as dynamic systems, I am particularly interested in analyzing the inherent interdependencies between married partners as dynamical coupled systems.

(1) Individual differences in social value orientation and (2) Fundamental personality dimensions

Dr. Kuhlman studies social interdependence, with special emphasis on the role of individual differences in social value orientation (SVO) in: (a) choice in social dilemmas, (b) social judgment and person perception, (c) interpersonal trust, and (d) emotion. His present focus is on the detection of SVO at “zero acquaintance” based on emotionally “neutral” photos of strangers. In addition he does work on fundamental personality dimensions in the context of Zuckerman’s “Alternative Five” model. This work involved the development of the Zuckerman Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ). Presently Dr. Kuhlman is involved in research on the cross cultural generality of the ZKPQ (http://web.udl.es/usuaris/e7806312/zkpq-50-cc/index.htm)

Attachment related trauma, stress regulation, developmental psychopathology

During the past decade, my research has focused on family and school factors that increase risk for anti-social and mood disorders among low-income adolescents. Using longitudinal data from our NIMH funded longitudinal study of over 200 families, we are mapping children’s trajectories of academic achievement, externalizing and internalizing symptoms from ages 8 to age 17 and examining how family risk and school engagement moderate these trajectories. Our family model focuses on how the caregiver-child attachment bond may enhance or diminish the child’s capacity to cope with interpersonal stressors. Our school model focuses on interpersonal factors that promote school engagement and achievement growth.

We use several methods for assessing children’s exposure and ability to manage interpersonal stressors. Diary methods make it possible to assess the degree to which children’s mood and self-esteem fluctuate in response to negative interpersonal events. Laboratory studies using repeated measures of cortisol and blood pressure allow us to examine adolescents’ physiological reactivity to interpersonal challenges. While some reaction to challenge is typical, we are testing the hypothesis that children who show excessive or attenuated stress responses will be at increased risk for psychopathology.

Our efforts to understand children’s capacities to manage interpersonal stressors point to new ways of thinking about family and school based interventions. The findings have the potential to inform school policies and contribute to classroom management strategies that promote better peer and teacher-student relationships. Our approach to family interventions begins with an understanding of the caregiver’s difficulties in managing stress. In particular, caregivers with unresolved loss or problems with supporting their children’s autonomy need interventions that target these difficulties. As a result, we prioritize goals for helping the caregiver manage enduring sources of stress and increasing the caregiver’s availability to the child.

Emotional Development

In the Human Emotions Lab, we study emotions, indexed by a wide variety of procedures, in relation to the development of emotion knowledge, emotion regulation, social and emotion competence, personality, and behavior problems. The theoretical notion that drives our work is that the emotions are central in motivating and organizing perception, cognition, and action.

Much of the current research in the lab concerns the development of emotion knowledge, emotion regulation, and key components of emotion competence. Four graduate students are active in this research. Each has primary responsibility for particular studies, and they collaborate with each other and with the principal investigators on other studies.

A principal goal of our research is to develop a scientific basis for emotion-based intervention programs that prevent behavioral disorders and facilitate the development of social and emotion competence.

A relatively new activity in the lab consists of translating research into practice--clinical, school, and community programs. Based on differential emotions theory and findings from basic research in our lab and others, we have constructed an emotion-centered prevention program for preschool children, particularly children at risk for behavior problems and psychopathology. Graduate students may choose to participate in basic research that strengthens the scientific basis of the program, the development of auxiliary program materials, program implementation, or program evaluation research.

Graduate students in the lab present papers at regional and national conventions and publish as first or later authors on a number of papers and book chapters. Current graduate students have presented at SRCD and APA and are authoring or coauthoring several papers. For example, some of these papers showed that a child's ability to detect emotion signals and understand the causes of emotion feelings was associated with indexes of the child's emotion competence and academic competence. These activities of our graduate students reflect their goal of preparing for research-oriented careers in clinical psychological science.

Experience-dependent developmental and adult brain plasticity

My major research interest is the evaluation of plasticity of the normal/healthy vs. damaged nervous system on behavioral and system/cellular levels. I am currently using a rat animal model of alcohol abuse during pregnancy, to study the damaging effects of alcohol on the developing brain and on the altered behavior. The major questions that I address in my current research are the extent of the alcohol-related damage and whether behavioral intervention can ameliorate that damage on both behavioral and structural levels. In attempt to improve behavioral (motor) performance and increase brain plasticity in alcohol-exposed animals I am using different conditions (motor task learning, physical exercise) that are known to facilitate brain synaptogenesis. The evaluation of plasticity is done on the behavioral (testing the motor abilities and memory), cellular (light microscopy, immunohistochemistry, optical densitometry, neuronal tract-tracing) and sub-cellular (electron microscopy) levels. For more information, see this recent article, courtesy of the University of Illinois.

The major questions that I am planning to answer are:

Is the brain more susceptible for rehabilitation at an earlier age?

How persistent is the behavioral and morphological rehabilitation / compensation?

What are the "players" underlying the mechanism of developmental damage by alcohol and possible rehabilitation (e.g.neurotrophic factors, glial activation)?

What are the limits for partial rehabilitation if the damage from developmental alcohol exposure is more widespread in the brain (in case of alcohol exposure during all three trimesters)?

Is there a suppression of neurogenesis and/or cell genesis in the alcohol-exposed brain (cortex and hippocampus)?

And in case the neuronal proliferation is down after developmental exposure to alcohol - is it possible to stimulate it by learning and exercise?

Cultural psychology, temporal orientation; prejudice & racism, coping and stress

Professor Jones' major interests concern psychosocial mechanisms for adapting to and coping with the chronic accessibility of racism as a potential explanation for life’s experiences. This “Universal context of racism” (UCR), has motivational consequences that include both self-protection (reducing the negative effects of stigma and discrimination) and self-enhancement (social comparative and individual mechanisms for maintaining self-worth). Research in our lab focuses on the cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses to activation of the UCR for both targets of racism and members of groups historically viewed as the perpetrators of racism.

The second major area of work explores the implication of TRIOS, a psychological worldview that combines African-inspired processes of Time, Rhythm Improvisation, Orality and Spirituality as an individual differences construct that predicts overall positive psychological states, and effective coping with challenging circumstances. A self-report measure of TRIS has been developed and is to assess individual variations in TRIOS level and their effects on responses to and coping with the UCR.

The third area of research is the social psychology of time. That interest is concerned with individual orientations toward the past, present and future, and how those differences in temporal perspective may influence the development of achievement motivations and personal expressive styles. The Temporal Orientation Scale (TOS) shows reliable differences between Past (high neuroticism, pessimism and depression), Present(optimism, extraversion, and impulsivity and lack of concern with future consequences) and Future (conscientiousness, concern with future consequences, goal-directed behavior and optimism). This interest also involves determining how cognitive and emotional factors influence the perception of the passage of time.

Cultural and Social Psychology

Recently I have investigated the concept of psychological control from a cultural psychological perspective. I am interested in how people choose to adjust to environmental realities. My research focuses on cultural, subcultural, and role demands that influence people’s control choices. I have investigated the impact of cultural (specifically, Japanese and North American) and individual variables on control. We are currently working on reviews of cultural psychological studies that measure "cultural products" such as advertising, newspaper coverage, songs, or other culturally constructed environments.

Neurobiology of Emotion

My research interests in emotion are in understanding the physiological, neuroanatomical and molecular bases of fear and anxiety. To approach these problems, we study fear-related behaviors that have defined neuroanatomical circuits, such as fear-potentiated startle and fear-induced freezing or immobility in rats. Experiments are designed to study the pharmacology, biochemistry and molecular biology of fear within the neural circuits that mediate these fear-related behaviors. We use numerous techniques including brain stimulation and lesions, anatomical tracing, administration of drugs, and detection of proteins and messenger RNA using in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, and Northern and Western blotting.

Our current research has found specific, rapid changes in gene expression of transcription factors in fear circuits that are associated with learned fear in rodents. Other studies are finding that the neuroanatomical substrates of learned and innate fear may be different. In addition to delineating the neurobiology of fear, these studies should have important implications for our understanding of the neural basis of anxiety disorders.

I teach undergraduate and graduate courses and direct the Psychological Services Training Center.

As a clinical supervisor, my goal is to assist students in generalizing the theoretical information contained in their coursework to the work in the clinical setting. I encourage students to think critically about material and to pursue empirically supported treatment techniques. I use my research training in the clinical setting to gather data when empirical evidence is not available.

My research experience and areas of clinical interest focus on high-risk patient populations. I have worked with suicidal individuals as well as in the treatment of borderline personality disorder from both dialectical behavior therapy and cognitive therapy approaches. These disorders typically involve experiential avoidance. This coping strategy has been an interest of mine and I worked to create a measure of dissociative activities (SODAS; Scale of Dissociative Activities). Additionally, I have an interest in women's mental health issues and have done research on theoretical models of depression and how they apply to postpartum mood disturbance.

Clinical Psychophysiology

Psychophysiological approaches to human emotion and cognition. Currentstudies utilize event-related brain potential (ERP) components to study cognitive characteristics of patients with anxiety disorders such as OCD and social phobia. Specifically, we use error-related negativity (ERN) to study response and error monitoring in adult and pediatric OCD patients and the P300 to study attribution biases in social phobia. In our newest set of experiments, we are exploring the utility of late positive potentials (LPP) and more traditional autonomic nervous system measures to study self-regulation of positive and negative emotional reactions to emotion-provoking pictures. Much or our work with anxiety patients is done in collaboration with Edna Foa at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania.

Development and plasticity of the olfactory system

Dr. Skeen is a neuroscientist who joined the University in 1977 after completing postdoctoral studies and serving on the research faculty at Duke Medical Center. He uses computerized morphometrics, metabolic mapping, receptor binding, and enzyme histochemistry to study the laws that govern neural development. The neurons composing the phylogenetically old olfactory systems are sequentially produced during ontogeny, exquisitely organized in their various synaptic affiliations, and biochemically diverse. Dr. Skeen and his students have exploited olfactory deprivation paradigms in neonates to reveal a remarkable plasticity: the elaboration, biochemical expression, and very survival of many neurons in the olfactory system depend critically on the sensory circumstances of the neonate's early world. On the basis of these findings, his research has recently expanded to include studies aimed at understanding the mechanisms through which these epigenetic influences operate on neural development. Aspects of Dr. Skeen's research are relevant to the treatment of developmental disorders.

Spatial representation (visual and haptic), scene perception, and memory

Viewers perceive their surroundings by making ballistic eye movements (called saccades) as rapidly as 3 times per second. Yet, these discrete glimpses of the world somehow yield a seamless perceptual experience. What does the viewer extract from each glimpse? How does it become integrated to yield a coherent representation? Why do we sometimes misremember what we've seen? In my lab we approach these questions in a variety of ways. We present photographs at high speeds to test scene perception and memory. We study memory distortions and perceptual illusions because such "breakdowns" provide important insights into the nature of cognitive processes.

For example, viewers frequently remember seeing information from just outside the boundaries of a view -- an area they've never seen! We've found that this anticipatory "supplement" to scene memory also occurs following haptic exploration of real scenes studied by blindfolded-subjects, and a deaf and blind observer. We are attempting to determine the factors that constrain anticipatory spatial representation so there is just enough predicted layout to enhance comprehension, but not so much that memory becomes dangerously unreliable. Other projects focus on memory for movement, and for occluded objects, and the effect of action plans on mental representation.

Child clinical psychology and developmental psychology

Basic and intervention research on childhood peer rejection, aggression, emotion regulation, and social cognitive processes

Visual Cognition, Selective Attention, Williams Syndrome, Event-related Brain Potentials

It may not be obvious but the visual world contains much more information than we can perceive in a “single glance”. For example, experiments on “change blindness” indicate that observes have detailed information about only 3-4 objects following a single fixation on a typical scene. Luckily, we have sophisticated selection mechanisms that help us choose objects of importance based on our current goals and expectations, and we are rarely aware of our limited capacity to process more than a few objects at a time. For example, overt attention mechanisms consist of changes in the orientation of our head, eyes and body to concentrate on regions of interest. They are overt because they are visible to other people and, indeed, we are extremely sensitive to the direction of gaze of those around us as this provides an important social clue about their interest in us. There is also a “covert attention” mechanism whose operation is not visible to others which allows us to pay attention without any changes in the location of gaze. This is accomplished through specialized circuits in various areas of the visual system which act to amplify the signals associated with attended regions of space.

How do these two selection systems work together to guide our behavior? We (Hoffman and Subramaniam, 1995) found that they are closely linked; in particular it appears that eye movements directed to a location in space are preceded by a covert shift of visual attention to that same location. Indeed, it appears that a variety of different kinds of eye movements, including saccades and pursuit and vergence movements are preceded by covert shifts of attention (Hoffman, 1998).

Covert attention experiments usually require observers to pay attention to an empty region of space in anticipation of an object that will appear there. These experiments suggest that spatial attention has a coarse grain and encompasses the attended object as well as nearby objects. This feature of attention places strict limits on our ability to pay attention to one object in a crowded field, a phenomenon known as “crowding”. However, under the right circumstances, we are quire good at disentangling an object from surrounding clutter using a mechanism known as “object-based attention”. We have recently used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to show that object-based attention can help us select one of two overlapping objects that are both contained with in the coarse-grained spotlight of spatial attention. In other words, these two systems appear to work together with the spatial system using a coarse grained “spotlight” to choose an area of interest in the visual field. Objects of interest within the attended region are then highlighted by the object-based system. Studying how these two attention systems operate and interact is a current research focus of my lab

Williams Syndrome

Together with Barbara Landau, who is in the Cognitive Science Department at Johns Hopkins University, I have been attempting to use what we have learned about spatial cognition in adults to help us understand the nature of spatial deficits in children with Williams Syndrome. Williams Syndrome (WS) is a rare (1 in 20,000 births) genetic disorder that results in a unique phenotypic pattern that includes a characteristic facial profile, disorders of the heart, and anomalies of the viscera. I addition, they display an unusual and distinctive cognitive profile consisting of strong language abilities and severely impaired visuo-spatial skills. This unique pattern of sparing and impairments in the cognitive domain has been taken by some investigators as support for the idea that the human mind consists of separate modules that are responsible for different areas of mental life such as talking, seeing, and thinking.

Our current hypothesis is that spatial deficits associated WS may be due to delayed and arrested development of certain structures in the dorsal stream of the visual system, particularly regions of the parietal cortex that are concerned with a wide variety of visual functions including visually guided action. In contrast, the ventral visual stream, which is concerned with recognition of objects and faces, appears to be largely intact in people with WS, consistent with their ability to identify faces and common objects.

Developmental psychobiology of learning and memory

Dr. Stanton is interested in the developmental psychobiology of learning and memory and its applications to developmental neurobehavioral disorders. His current research focuses on the developmental analysis of eyeblink conditioning from a multiple memory systems perspective in rodents and humans. Eyeblink conditioning offers the opportunity to (a) analyze the ontogeny of associative learning in relation to a well-characterized brainstem-cerebellar circuit; (b) study cognitive and affective development in relation to interactions with this circuit of forebrain structures such as the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex; and (c) better compare these aspects of memory development in humans and animal models. Abnormal development of the cerebellum and hippocampus is implicated in a number of neurobehavioral disorders. Dr. Stanton and his colleagues are using eyeblink conditioning to better understand the etiology and developmental determinants of disorders such as autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, and other environmental or genetic conditions.

Process of change in psychotherapies for depression and anxiety disorders; treatment development and prevention research

My research focuses on identifying principles of change in cognitive behavioral treatments for depression and anxiety disorders. More specifically, I am interested in the roles of experiential avoidance and rumination as inhibitors of change and cognitive/emotional processing as a facilitator of change. I am developing a therapy for depression that is based on exposure principles that are used effectively in the treatment of anxiety disorders. My research on mindfulness focuses on understanding and measuring the conceptual opposite of experiential avoidance and rumination.

The general foundation from which I study change is dynamical systems theory from other sciences. A common principle across a number of sciences and systems is that periods of disturbance can herald system transition and that the study of these nonlinear discontinuities can reveal factors that underlie change. In a recent special issue of Clinical Psychology Review, Debra Hope and I present a collection of papers that demonstrate how these principles can be applied to the study of change in psychotherapy.

Three ongoing projects are related to this work:

Exposure-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: Treatment Development Research

In this line of research, I am developing an exposure-based cognitive therapy (EBCT) for depression. My research team and I have completed the first open trial of this therapy to examine its efficacy, and the results are promising (Hayes et al., 2005; Hayes, Feldman, Beevers, Laurenceau, & Cardaciotto, 2007). Exposure-based techniques coupled with cognitive analysis are methods of creating disturbance and increasing flexibility and openness for change in those suffering from chronic avoidance, rumination, and hopelessness, all of which inhibit change. Using growth curve modeling, we demonstrated that, as in treatment of anxiety disorders and in dynamic systems models of change, the shape of symptom change in EBCT was cubic. There was an initial decrease in symptoms that was followed by a period of increased disturbance (transient spikes in depression) during the exposure phase, and then another decrease in depressive symptoms.

Applying the principles of dynamic systems modeling, we studied patient changes that occurred at the discontinuities in the course of symptom change (Hayes, Laurenceau, Feldman, Strauss, & Cardaciotto, 2007). Two patterns that predicted treatment response were a rapid early decrease in depression symptoms and a transient period of symptom exacerbation (depression spike). To study what might be changing at these points of transition, we coded the content of weekly essays that patients wrote about their depression each week across the course of therapy. The CHANGE, an observational coding system that my colleagues and I developed to study therapeutic change processes (Hayes, Feldman, & Goldfried, 2006), was used to examine the roles of hope, avoidance, and cognitive/emotional processing as predictors of change. Hope was associated with the early rapid response pattern. Avoidance was associated with overall worse outcomes and with less cognitive\emotional processing. Processing, on the other hand, predicted better outcomes and occurred in the vicinity of the depression spikes. Thus, it appears in this initial study that exposure principles can be applied to the treatment of depression and that the pattern of change looks similar to that in exposure-based therapies for anxiety disorders. A combination of cognitive and emotional processing, the theorized mechanism of change in exposure therapies for anxiety disorders, might also play an important role in treating depression.

In the next stage of this program of research, we are examining the extent to which attentional control, emotional processing, and cognitive reactivity change with EBCT. We are including psychophysiological measures to study more carefully the role of arousal in the change process.

Extreme Avoidance and Rumination: The Study of Change in Cognitive Therapy for Personality Disorders

In this NIMH-funded project, we coded the content of therapy sessions from an open trial of cognitive therapy (CT) for avoidant and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders, using the CHANGE observational coding system (Hayes et al., 2006). The study of these personality disorders, which are highly comorbid with depression and anxiety disorders, provides a unique context to examine extreme levels of avoidance and rumination that are pervasive and rigidly maintained. Cognitive therapy can be conceptualized as a method of increasing perturbation and inducing system change. It therefore provides an opportunity to study how avoidance and rumination decrease and to identify predictors of change. As in our research on exposure-based cognitive therapy for depression, the pattern of symptom change in CT for personality disorders was cubic, indicating an initial reduction in symptoms, followed by a period of increased distress and then symptom reduction (Hayes, Laurenceau, Feldman, et al., 2007). Cognitive/emotional processing during this spike in distress was a strong predictor of improvement in personality symptoms and also in depression and anxiety symptoms. Exposure to corrective information preceded this processing. In contrast, avoidance and rumination seemed to inhibit movement toward processing. We found a similar discontinuous pattern in patient ratings of the therapeutic alliance, which appeared as a transient worsening and then improvement in the therapeutic alliance. This pattern predicted treatment response beyond early levels of alliance and early symptom reduction (Strauss, Hayes, Johnson, Newman, Brown, Barber, Laurenceau, & Beck, 2006). Dr. Aaron T. Beck at the Beck Institute of Cognitive Therapy and Research and Dr. Cory Newman of the Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania are our collaborators on this project.

The Study of Change in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Depression in Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Maltreated Children and Adolescents:

This ongoing study piggybacks on a SAMHSA-funded project to disseminate Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) for children and adolescents who have experienced trauma (physical and sexual abuse, violence) to mental health facilities across the state of Delaware. We will examine change in PTSD and depression symptoms in this population, which is at especially high risk for developing chronic depression. To study the process of change, we are using the CHANGE coding system (Hayes et al., 2006) to examine avoidance, poor early alliance, and rumination as predictors of early dropout and poor treatment response, and emotional arousal, cognitive/emotional processing, and corrective information as predictors of positive treatment response. We are also adding acoustic startle assessment at pre and posttreatment and psychophysiological measurement across the course of therapy. Consistent with our previous research, we predict a nonlinear pattern of symptom change and a period of disturbance that is characterized by physiological arousal and more cognitive\emotional processing. We are collaborating with Dr. Charles Webb at the Delaware Department of Children, Youth and Families, Dr. Esther Deblinger of the New Jersey Child Abuse Research Education and Service Institute, and Dr. Robert Simons in the Psychology Department of Psychology at the University of Delaware.

Neural basis of learning and memory

The hippocampus has been shown to be crucial for episodic memory, but also plays a larger role in a system of brain structures that allow for memory-guided behavior. Of particular interest is the medial prefrontal cortex, which receives direct projections from hippocampus and is thought to use retrieved memories to construct a plan of action during task performance and to aid in memory consolidation following learning. In my laboratory, we utilize the technique of in vivo electrophysiology in conjunction with inactivation of discrete brain regions to answer questions about the nature of interplay between key structures known to be involved in learning and memory processes. Understanding the nature of complex cognitive processes such as learning and memory will have important implications, including the possible treatment of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and schizophrenia.

Intergroup relations: Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination.

I am interested in intergroup relations and in particular, how prejudice, discrimination and intergroup conflict can be reduced. My current research explores the possibility that inducing the members of two groups to conceive of themselves as a single, more inclusive group or as subgroups within the same inclusive group structure (i.e., a “dual identity”), can harness cognitive and motivational processes that encourage more harmonious intergroup relations. This work has led us back and forth from the laboratory to more applied settings such as corporate mergers, blended families, and public school classrooms. Related to this research, I am also continuing to study "Aversive Racism" that exists among "Well-intentioned" people, who often express their racial attitudes in subtle, indirect and rationalizable ways that preclude them from recognizing their racial biases. The current research is attempting to learn if such subtle forms of racism can be eliminated by inducing an enhanced sense of partnership or common ingroup identity. This work has been recognized by the 1986 and 1998 Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize (together with John Dovidio, University of Connecticut) awarded by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (Division 9 of the American Psychological Association). Also, in 2004 this work was awarded the Kurt Lewin Memorial Award (with John F. Dovidio) by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (Division 9 of the American Psychological Association). This award is presented annually for “outstanding contributions to the development and integration of psychological research and social action.”

Visual Attention, event-related potentials (erp)

Our ability to “pay attention” to certain aspects of the environment seems simple and effortless, but this intuition can be misleading. Selective attention can be accomplished by the visual system in a variety of ways. For example, attention may be allocated certain locations in the environment (i.e., space-based attention) or attention may be allocated to entire objects (i.e., object-based attention). My current research uses event-related potentials and behavioral measures to investigate the interactions between these two modes of selection.

People's motivation at work and leisure

My research interests involve people’s motivation at work and leisure.

Employee Motivation. My organizational support theory (http://pos.psych.udel.edu) holds that (a) employees form general beliefs concerning how much the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being (perceived organizational support), and (b) based on the norm of reciprocity, employees reciprocate such support with emotional commitment to the organization, work effort in standard job activities, and extra-role performance such as innovative problem solving.

Intrinsic Motivation and Creativity. I study psychological determinants of interest in activities for their own sake and creativity with students, employees, and visitors to museums and parks. My recent research suggests that (a) there is a basic desire for pleasurable sights, sounds, and smells (need for sensory experience) whose magnitude differs from one individual to another, and (b) reward can be used effectively to increase perceived control over one’s actions, perceived competence, task enjoyment and creativity.

Learned Industriousness. Some individuals generally work harder than others. My learned industriousness theory states that if an individual is rewarded for putting a large amount of cognitive or physical effort into an activity, the sensation of high effort takes on secondary reward properties that lessen effort’s general aversiveness. In accord with this view, research indicates that reward for high effort involving one or more activities increases the subsequent effort exerted in other activities by rats, depressed mental patients, learning-disabled and regular pre-adolescent students, and college students.

Intervening with young foster children and maltreated children; attachment; neuroendocrine regulation

In our lab, we study the adjustment of infants and young children who have experienced maltreatment and disruptions in their relationships with caregivers. Over the past 10 years, we have developed a training program that targets the needs of these young children. We are assessing the efficacy of this intervention in a randomized clinical trial. We are studying a range of outcomes, the attachments that children form with their caregivers, and their ability to regulate physiology, behavior, and emotions.

Grant Funding

National Institute of Mental Health R01 MH74374 award, “Specialized mental health services for birth parents.” Period of support: January 1, 2006-December 31, 2011. Total amount: $3,379,668. (Dozier: Principal investigator).

Recent Publications

Bunger, A., Trueswell, J., & Papafragou, A. "Event apprehension for language production in children." Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Baltimore, MD, January 7-10, 2010.

Bunger, A., Trueswell, J., & Papafragou, A. 2009. "Seeing and Saying: The Relation Between Event Apprehension and Utterance Formulation in Children." Paper presented at the Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA, November 6-8.

Bunger, A., Trueswell, J., & Papafragou, A. 2009. "What You See is Not What You Get: Event Apprehension and Utterance Formulation in Children and Adults." Paper presented at the 15th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP), Barcelona, Spain, September 7-9.

Bunger, A. 2008. How We Learn to Talk About Events: Linguistic Constraints on Verb Learning. Language Acquisition, 15.1.