Department of Psychology & Neuroscience
Growing up in the Bronx only three blocks from Yankee Stadium, it’s no surprise that baseball is in Harris Cooper’s DNA. So much so the retired dean of social sciences and chair of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke found a new lab for his tireless study of people: Working as an usher at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. “One night game, I saw a guy who had on a shirt that said ‘Rebel Scum,’” Cooper says. “He had on baggy camo shorts, a scruffy beard, hat backwards. He walks by me and a little later, another guy walks… read more about Harris Cooper: Psychology, Baseball and the History of Whiskey »
read more about 2023 Dean's Award: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Anti-Racism Community »
The Trinity Language Council and the student-led American Sign Language (ASL) Club hosted “Signing 101” on the Quad to share the richness of sign language and Deaf culture. Over three days, they taught members of the Duke community and helped raise awareness for ASL and its place among world languages. The sessions were student led, but had the support of faculty on the Trinity Language Council. “Our interest was piqued after learning that the ASL house course led by the student club leaders filled within… read more about ‘Signing 101’ Showcases the Richness of ASL »
Elliott Loverin, a junior majoring in Psychology with a minor in musical theater, is focused on the intersections of developmental, abnormal and social psychology. He’s also intrigued by the interactions between individual psychopathology and group dynamics, especially in young people. “Gaining insight into the processes that govern human behavior inspired me to pursue psychology, and its diverse applications allow me to investigate the topics I find interesting within the field.” Loverin’s theater career began with an… read more about Psychology Student Hones Critical Thinking Skills in Theater »
read more about Misophonia: how ‘sound rage’ destroys relationships and forces people to move home »
In 2016, film directors and American University professors Caty Borum and Leena Jayaswal, contacted Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Sarah Gaither about a documentary film they were creating called MIXED. The film would explore the status of mixed-race identity and inclusion 50 years after the landmark Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case ended legal persecution of interracial marriage in America. The film makers learned about Gaither’s research—which explores how multiple racial or… read more about Sarah Gaither Featured in Documentary Film on Mixed-Race Identity »
DURHAM , N.C. -- We’ve all been there. You made a promise you couldn’t keep. Or something came up, and you didn’t follow through on what you said you’d do. It turns out children pay attention to what we say when we don’t deliver. A new study shows that by the time they reach preschool, kids understand that some reasons for reneging are more defensible than others. Leon Li earned his Ph.D. from Duke's Department of Psychology & Neuroscience in 2022. “At 3 to 5 years old, kids… read more about Even Preschoolers Can Spot a Cop-Out »
One Duke alumna and a Duke senior have been named in the inaugural class of Quad Fellows, a new scholarship that provides funding for graduate research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This scholarship is supported by the governments of the United States, India, Australia, and Japan. Alumna Raahina Malik, and current senior Jenny Huang will be a part of a cohort of 100 masters and doctoral STEM students studying in the United States. The fellowship develops a network of science and… read more about Alumna, Senior Selected for New Quad Fellowship in STEM Fields »
DURHAM, N.C. -- Hummus. Chewbacca. Tofu. Belly button. These are just a few of the thousands of words scientists at Duke painstakingly decoded from over 2,000 hours of infants’ daily lives. They recently used these data to determine if the amount of language kids hear might explain why girls have bigger vocabularies early in life than boys. It doesn’t. Instead, Shannon Dailey, Ph.D., a Duke University postdoctoral scholar and lead author of the new study, found that rather than caregivers talking more to their young… read more about Parents Talk More To Toddlers Who Talk Back »
DURHAM, N.C. -- “How many fingers am I holding up?” For vision-sensing brain cells in a monkey’s visual cortex, that answer depends on whether the digits are next to each other or partially overlapping. A new study from Duke University finds that single neurons conveying visual information about two separate objects in sight do so by alternating signals about one or the other. When two objects overlap, however, the brain cells detect them as a single entity. The new report is out Nov. 28 in the journal eLife. The… read more about Brain Cells Use A Telephone Trick To Report What They See »
DURHAM, NC -- More than half of all women in the United States are overweight or obese when they become pregnant. While being or becoming overweight during pregnancy can have potential health risks for moms, there are also hints that it may tip the scales for their kids to develop psychiatric disorders like autism or depression, which often affects one gender more than the other. What hasn’t been understood however is how the accumulation of fat tissue in mom might signal through the placenta in a sex-specific way and… read more about Mom’s Dietary Fat Rewires Male And Female Brains Differently »