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Makeba Wilbourn honored by President Obama, receives Presidential Early Career Award

Congratulations to P&N's Makeba Wilbourn, who has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). This is the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research. She was one of 102 scientists and researchers to receive the award. President Obama made the announcement on Friday, January 9th, according to a press release from whitehouse.gov. "I congratulate these outstanding scientists and engineers on… read more »

Tomasello Study a Top Breakthrough of 2016

Congratulations to P&N Professor Mike Tomasello and his colleagues, whose study on mind reading in great apes has been chosen as one of the top 10 breakthroughs of 2016 by Science Magazine. The Breakthrough of the Year is widely recognized as one of the highest distinctions in science. The mind-reading skill, known as theory of mind, was previously thought to be present only in humans. The study challenges that assumption, using a man dressed in a King Kong outfit who pretends to be misinformed about… read more »

Matt Scult: Emotion Regulation, Mathmatical Skills Linked

Data from a recent P&N brain imaging study found that subjects who had a relatively greater activity in the prefrontal cortex while completing math problems from memory also reported having better emotion regulation skills compared to their peers. “Our work provides the first direct evidence that the ability to regulate emotions like fear and anger reflects the brain’s ability to make numerical calculations in real time,” said Matthew Scult, a 5th-year P&N Graduate Student in the lab of the study’s senior… read more »

Jennifer Acosta receives Bruner Award

We are pleased to announce Jennifer Acosta as this year’s winner of the Bruner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research.  Jennifer is a Psychology major and is also completing the certificate in Child and Family Policy. She serves as a Teaching Assistant in Introductory Psychology.  She is particularly interested in the experience of 1st generation college students, and worked with Dr. Mark Leary to analyze data relevant to this population from the you@duke program. She spent a summer at… read more »

Job Opening: SINS Faculty Position

The Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience, to start in summer 2018. We seek outstanding applicants with the potential to develop an innovative and externally funded research program and motivation to engage in undergraduate and graduate teaching. Candidates from any area of behavioral and systems neuroscience, including sensory and motor systems, development, and learning and plasticity, are… read more »

Job Opening: Assistant Professor of the Practice

Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. The Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University, invites applications for an Assistant Professor of the Practice position to begin in July 2017. This full-time regular-rank (non-tenure-track) position will have a primary focus on undergraduate instruction; the exact area of expertise is open. The ideal candidate would be a teacher-scholar with a Ph.D. in Psychology who can contribute to a wide range of undergraduate instructional needs, including… read more »

Who is White?

The latest episode of the Sanford School's radio show Ways & Means features new faculty member Sarah Gaither's comments on race and her research on cross-racial communication. You can listen to it here: http://www.waysandmeansshow.org/episodes/2016/10/24/s2-episode-2-who-is-white Or subscribe to the podcast here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ways-means/id1061406250?mt=2. For more information on Dr. Gaither's work, check out her Duke Identity and Diversity Lab. read more »

Dr. Tovah Klein

P&N alumna Tovah Klein will be giving two talks for the Duke Graduate School on October 27th and October 28th.  Dr. Klein is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Barnard College, Columbia University and Director of the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development. Dr. Klein is the author of How Toddlers Thrive and and the parent of three children. Her appearances on “Good Morning America” to share her expertise earned her the nickname “toddler whisperer.” She has also appeared on CNN,… read more »

Mapping Emotions in the Brain

Work by P&N's Kevin LaBar and colleagues is featured as lead story today on CNN Health. LaBar and his team have mapped the distinct patterns of brain activity that correspond to seven different emotional states while subjects are resting without external stimulation in an MRI scanner.. “It’s getting to be a bit like mind-reading,” said  LaBar.  “Earlier studies have shown that functional MRI can identify whether a person is thinking about a face or a house. Our study is the first to show that specific… read more »

Welcome Gregory Samanez-Larkin

The Department welcomes Gregory Samanez-Larkin, who will be joining P&N as a new assistant professor on July 1, 2017. Dr. Samanez-Larkin received his PhD in Psychology at Stanford University, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Neuroscience at Yale University. His lab examines how individual and age differences in motivation and cognition influence decision making across the life span. Their research is at the intersection of a number of subfields within… read more »

Jerome S. Bruner, 1915-2016

Jerome S. Bruner, an eminent psychologist and 1937 Trinity College Graduate, died Monday, June 5 at the age of 100. His work was crucial to the establishment of cognitive psychology as a discipline, but is also remarkable for its breadth, with major contributions to learning theory, developmental psychology, and education. Scott Huettel and Beth Marsh, Chair and Associate Chair of the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, spoke with Bruner last year, after the department created the Bruner award in his honor… read more »

Science explains why your mom calls you by your brother's name

P&N's Samantha Deffler, Cassidy Fox, Christin Ogle, and David Rubin of the Noetics Lab explored why familiar individuals may call each other by the wrong name. For example, why does your mom call you your sister's name? They found that people tended to misname members of the same group - family members using the (wrong) name of other family members, and friends misnaming a friend with another friends name. They even found evidence that dogs are considered a part of the family... people called their family members by the… read more »

First Year Festival 2016

Congratulations to our students for a successful P&N/CNAP first year festival, which was held Friday in Perkins 217. The following students presented a diverse array of research topics:David Murphy, "Oscillatory Saccadic Eardrum Associated Responses"Emily Cherenack, "Sexual violence and self-efficacy for HIV disclosure among newly diagnosed HIV-positive  men who have sex with men and transgender women"Zach Monge,  "Functional Network Architecture Differences… read more »

Clinical Psychology Internships 2016-2017

The Clinical Psychology Program is pleased to announce our doctoral student internship sites for academic year 2016 – 2017.   The stress of “Match Day” is over!  This year, P&N had a 100% match in clinical psychology internships. Congratulations to the following students, and best wishes as they prepare to move forward to the final stage of doctoral training in clinical psychology. Lindsay Anderson Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Karmel… read more »

2015 P&N Year in Review

In 2015,  members of the P&N community made news headlines on a weekly basis, including everything from groundbreaking research studies, news editorials, and numerous awards and honors. Here is a month-by-month glance at 2015. January Courtnea Rainey on goal-setting on the Graduate School's professional development blog February Kevin LaBar quoted in USA Today on Brian Williams's false memories Huffington Post: Ahmad Hariri's lab uses amygdala function to predict later… read more »

Martha Berg wins Jerome S. Bruner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research

The Psychology and Neuroscience department is pleased to announce that Martha Berg is the inaugural winner of the Jerome S. Bruner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. Dr. Bruner is an eminent psychologist who did his undergraduate work at Duke, graduating in 1937.  His work was crucial to the establishment of cognitive psychology as a discipline, but is also remarkable for its breadth, with major contributions to learning theory, developmental psychology, and education. When remembering… read more »

Spotlight on Undergraduate Education

Given that now is the time of year when students are declaring majors and choosing courses for Spring term, we want to highlight some of the people crucial to the Psychology Major. Pictured above, from left to right are Dr. Angie Vieth (Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies and Visiting Assistant Professor), Dr. Rick Hoyle (Director of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of Psychology), and Ms. Natalia Silva Harwood (Assistant to the Director of Undergraduate Studies). Advice for Students Considering the… read more »

Mark Leary co-recipient of the 2015 Scientific Impact Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology

Dr. Mark Leary, Garonzik Family Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, was co-recipient of the 2015 Scientific Impact  Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology.  The Scientific Impact Award recognizes a specific article in social psychology that has proven particularly influential over the last 25 years.  Dr. Leary received the award with Dr. Roy Baumeister for their article, “The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation,” which was published… read more »

P&N establishes new award for Duke Undergraduates

The Jerome S. Bruner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research will recognize an undergraduate in their senior year at Duke for his/her excellence in research activities, intellectual curiosity, and future potential for scholarly activity. Eligible applicants will be engaged in research, either as part of the Psychology major or under the supervision of a primary faculty member in Psychology and Neuroscience. To apply, applicants must submit (A) the names and contact information for two references, (B… read more »

Honoring Bob Thompson

On May 8th the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience held a thank you reception for Professor Bob Thompson at Bostock Library.  Thompson will be retiring in June but will continue to teach classes at Duke. Thompson was lauded for his far-reaching impact on the University in a number of areas, from undergraduate education to campus culture to clinical psychology, as well as his personal integrity as a scholar and mentor.  "Perhaps more than any other individual, Bob Thompson created the opportunities for… read more »

P&N Welcomes Elika Bergelson

The Department welcomes Elika Bergelson, who will be joining P&N as a new assistant professor on July 1, 2016. Dr. Bergelson received her PhD in Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently a Research Assistant Professor in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at the University of Rochester. Her research examines word learning in infants, using eyetracking and corpus methods. Her work focuses on the interactions between language acquisition and cognitive development, and on the influence of… read more »

Welcome Mike Tomasello

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Michael Tomasello will be joining Duke’s faculty as a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience. Dr. Tomasello is currently the Co-Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. He is a world-renowned scholar on social cognition, social learning, and communication/language in human children and great apes. Dr. Tomasello did his undergraduate work at Duke and we are excited to welcome him back to campus! Current Web Page:  http… read more »