Tamar Kushnir, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, has been named a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. As an APS Fellow, Kushnir becomes part of a distinguished group of psychologists whose work has influenced the field of psychological science in important and lasting ways. Fellow status is awarded to APS members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application. Elizabeth… read more about Tamar Kushnir named as Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science »
We are excited to announce the 2021-2022 Bruner Awardee, Jingxuan Liu! She is a double-major in Psychology and Statistics and is confident that knowledge of statistics will complement her passion for research in psychology. Jing learned about the Award through her mentors Dr. Elika Bergelson and Dr. Bridgette Hard. She was encouraged to apply because of her exemplary demonstration of her passion for psychology, which started in the classroom. “Although I didn’t come to Duke as a psych major, I took Psych 101 during… read more about Senior Jingxuan "Jing" Liu Receives 2021-2022 Jerome S. Bruner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research »
It is our pleasure to feature Sophie Hurewitz in the resurgence of our Student Spotlight! While some of you all may already know her as the president of the Neuroscience Majors Union (NMU), here is a chance to learn more! She hails from our nation’s capital and has been a shining star in the Neuroscience Department. “I am fascinated by early childhood neurological development and behavior with a particular interest in neurodevelopmental disabilities. Majoring in neuroscience has allowed me to pursue… read more about Student Spotlight: Sophie Hurewitz, '22 (Neuroscience) »
Most multiple-choice questions do not assess higher-order thinking—you either know the answer or you don’t—and if you do know the correct choice, it does not reveal depth of knowledge. Minna Ng, Assistant Professor of the Practice of Psychology and Neuroscience, discusses how to construct multiple-choice questions to better assess learning in an article published in The Teaching Professor. The full text of the article is available in .pdf form below… read more about Six guidelines for making the most of your multiple-choice questions »
From how we say ‘hello,’ to the side of the road we drive on, all societies have conventional norms – or ‘rules’ – that shape people’s everyday lives. A new study shows that children worldwide will challenge peers who break the ‘rules’: children not only conform, but want others to conform too. But how they challenge rule-breakers varies between cultures. Led by the University of Plymouth, UK and Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, the study analysed the behaviour of 376 children aged 5 to 8 eight different… read more about Children Challenge ‘Rule-Breakers’ Differently Across Cultures »
DURHAM, N.C. – You’re starting to tell that old story to a couple of new friends, and suddenly another person who was there says ‘no, it wasn’t like that!’ Without a video recording to settle the dispute, it’s pretty hard to know who has the real memory and who has an adapted version. Perhaps it’s no big deal to ‘misremember’ like this in a social setting, but it’s quite another in a courtroom or classroom. It turns out that human memory can be edited on the fly, creating memories that are nowhere near set in stone. A… read more about An Element of Surprise is the Recipe for Creating False Memories »
In her nearly six years as an assistant professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke, Sarah Gaither has become an influential voice in diversity scholarship. While prioritizing teaching and undergraduate research in her Duke Identity & Diversity Lab, Gaither has also published articles in mainstream news outlets like CNN, Today and Vox, appeared on National Public Radio’s The State of Things and Code Switch and received a career award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Now, she can add a… read more about How Your Sense of Self Affects the Choices You Make: Sarah Gaither Awarded NSF CAREER Grant to Study How Considering Multiple Identities Can Lead to Flexible Thinking »
Lise Wertheimer Wallach passed away on November 7, 2021 at the age of 93. Lise was a long-time, esteemed faculty member of the Psychology Department at Duke. She was a deep thinker, inspiring teacher, and generous mentor. In her research, she and her late husband Michael Wallach tackled big problems with important implications for the field of psychology and for improving society as a whole. Lise was born on … read more about In Memoriam, Lise Wertheimer Wallach (1928-2021) »
Professors Shani B. Daily and Gregory Samanez-Larkin have been selected to lead faculty engagement within Duke’s new residential living and learning model, QuadEx. As Levitan Faculty Fellows and special assistants to the vice provosts for undergraduate education and student affairs, Daily and Samanez-Larkin will foster student-faculty engagement and opportunities for student intellectual exploration. Their initial work will include developing the QuadEx Faculty Fellows program, which will honor a select group of faculty… read more about Daily and Samanez-Larkin to Lead Faculty QuadEx Engagement »
Eleven faculty members from the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience have been awarded Research Seed Grants via philanthropic support from The Charles Lafitte Foundation Program in Psychological and Neuroscience Research at Duke University. The faculty projects – all chosen by review committee – show great promise both for generating exceptional research and for providing opportunities for students. “We had to make some tough decisions this year,” said… read more about Department of Psychology & Neuroscience announces 2021-2022 Faculty Seed Grant recipients »
In a large national survey, adults who struggled with picky eating habits as children overwhelmingly said they benefitted more from positive and encouraging strategies their parents used than forceful or coercive approaches. The research, led by a team at Duke Health, was conducted among a generation of people who struggled with food avoidance before it was identified in 2013 as a psychiatric condition called Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). The researchers said their findings, appearing online Nov… read more about Supportive Strategies Help “Picky Eaters” Deal with Food Aversions »
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in the summer of 2020, graduate students in the Duke Clinical Psychology Program came together to create an environment that prioritized anti-racist training and education at a department level. As part of those efforts, Ph.D. candidates Nicolas Camacho and Joseph Diehl spearheaded a lunchtime talk series to address racism, inequity, and injustice, with support… read more about Duke graduate students create clinical psychology anti-racism lecture series »
This fall, Tamar Kushnir joined the Psychology & Neuroscience faculty along with Assistant Professor Cristina Salvador. Kushnir, an expert on social learning and social cognition in young children, received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and joins Duke from Cornell University where she was Professor in the Department of Human Development. We spoke to Kushnir about her research, the Early Childhood Cognition Lab she will run at Duke, her approach to… read more about Tamar Kushnir, Bringing New Ideas on Learning and Cognition in Young Children »
A new $5 million gift from the Charles Lafitte Foundation will bolster Duke Science and Technology, the university’s signature effort to elevate excellence in the sciences, and support students’ aspirations in pursuing the study of artificial intelligence, fintech, cybersecurity, neuroscience and more. This is the second major gift to Duke from the family foundation of Duke parents and philanthropists Jeffrey and Suzanne Citron of Hobe Sound, Fla., who donated another $5 million to Duke in 2018. The largest portion of the… read more about Charles Lafitte Foundation’s $5 Million Gift Furthers a Shared Goal of Solving Challenges through Innovation »