In the News

Nov. 23, 2021
Dr. Aubrey Kelly awarded a 2021 Frank A. Beach Early Career Award
Congratulations to Dr. Aubrey Kelly on being awarded the 2021 Frank A. Beach Early Career Award. The Society of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (SBN)’s award recognizes an early-career scientist who has established an independent research program which exhibits the potential for continued significant impacts on the field of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology as well as demonstrating leadership in the society with a commitment to mentorship and outreach. Dr. Kelly's research focuses on the neural mechanisms of social behavior.

Nov. 10, 2021
Biological studies often misinterpret sex-based data, analysis finds
"At this moment in history, the stakes are high," says Emory neuroscientist Donna Maney, senior author of the analysis. "Misreported findings may affect health care decisions in dangerous ways."

Nov. 09, 2021
New Emory Institute for Liberal Arts program explores ‘LINCs’ between courses in different disciplines
“We see interdisciplinary study as the core of everything we want to accomplish in undergraduate education,” says Robyn Fivush, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology and director of the Institute for Liberal Arts (ILA). Dr. Kazama, a lecturer and director of undergraduate research in the psychology department, says the critical work is helping professors and students alike to think about a topic that will resonate differently in other fields.

Nov. 02, 2021
Aarhus University awards Dr. Bauer an honorary doctoral degree
Dr. Patricia J. Bauer’s connection to Aarhus University was established many years ago, and she works closely with researchers at the Center on Autobiographical Memory Research - CON AMORE under the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences.
Oct. 05, 2021
Supergenes on Steroids
By Emory Psychology Professor, Dr. Donna L. Maney and Dr. Clemens Küpper of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology.
Sep. 09, 2021
We know more than we ever learned: Processes involved in accumulation of world knowledge
Dr. Patricia J. Bauer, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Psychology, in Child Development Perspectives.

Sep. 07, 2021
Left-wing authoritarians share key psychological traits with far right, Emory study finds
"Having clarity about the appeal of authoritarianism may be relevant to help better understand what's going on in the political landscape today," says Thomas Costello, an Emory graduate student of psychology and first author of the study.
Aug. 12, 2021
Evolutionary theory prediction: Response rate as a joint function of reinforcement rate and reinforcer magnitude
Emory Psychology Professor Dr. Jack McDowell in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
Jul. 30, 2021
Developmental differences in reactivation underlying self-derivation of new knowledge through memory integration
The first author on this research article is Dr. Hilary Miller-Goldwater who is a postdoctoral fellow in the Bauer Memory Lab. Published in Cognitive Psychology.

Jun. 30, 2021
Genetic risks for nicotine dependence span a range of traits and diseases
"Genetic studies may help reduce some of the stigma society has against substance use disorders, while also making treatment more accessible," says Victoria Risner, first author of the new study on nicotine dependence, who did the work as an Emory undergraduate.

Jun. 17, 2021
Scott Lilienfeld memorialized as 'one of the most influential figures in contemporary clinical psychology'
His contributions were prodigious and spanned psychopathy and personality disorders, psychiatric classification and diagnosis, dissociation, memory and trauma, neuroscience, and cultural sensitivity.

Jun. 08, 2021
Study shows adaptive brain response to stress, and its absence in people with depression
"Learning more about how acute stress and chronic stress affect the brain may help in the development of treatment targets for depression," says Jessica Cooper, first author of the study and a post-doctoral fellow in Emory's Department of Psychology. Nature Communications published the research by scientists at Emory University.

May. 24, 2021
Even children think money can be 'dirty' money, study finds
Experiments led by Emory psychologist Arber Tasimi found that children prefer non-stolen money offered by a "bad" person over stolen money offered by an "okay" person.

May. 11, 2021
Dr. Jessica M. Barber named a 2021 Honoree of the Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award
This award is presented annually as part of Commencement to faculty members in each of Emory’s four undergraduate schools. It recognizes a record of excellence in undergraduate teaching, and was established by Emory Williams, a 1932 Emory College alumnus and longtime trustee
Apr. 23, 2021
Integration of Evidence across Human and Model Organism Studies: A Meeting Report
Dr. Rohan Palmer et al. in Genes, Brain, and Behavior

Mar. 30, 2021
Screams of 'joy' sound like 'fear' when heard out of context

Mar. 26, 2021
Dr. Philip Kragel is designated an APS Rising Star
The APS Rising Star designation recognizes researchers whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions.

Mar. 21, 2021
Heritable traits that appear in teen years raise risk for adult cannabis use
Feb. 17, 2021
Continuity and Stability of Parenting of Infants by Women at Risk for Perinatal Depression
Sherryl H. Goodman et al.

Feb. 04, 2021
Multi-omic and multi-species meta-analyses of nicotine consumption
Child Study Center News
We know more than we ever learned: Processes involved in accumulation of world knowledge
Dr. Patricia J. Bauer, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Psychology, in Child Development Perspectives.

Even children think money can be 'dirty' money, study finds
Experiments led by Emory psychologist Arber Tasimi found that children prefer non-stolen money offered by a "bad" person over stolen money offered by an "okay" person.

Earliest look at newborns' visual cortex reveals the minds babies start with

Skeletal shapes key to rapid recognition of objects

Gender gap in spatial reasoning starts in elementary school, meta-analysis finds

Young children alter behavior to please others, Emory grad student's research finds

Schadenfreude sheds light on the darker side of humanity

Sensitivity to how others evaluate you emerges by 24 months

From the Mouths of Babes: Baby teeth may reveal the impact of maternal stress on a developing fetus

How babies see faces: New fMRI methods open window into infants' minds

Babies' spatial reasoning predicts later math skills

Student's research zeroes in on fine line between fear and disgust

Babies have logical reasoning before age one, study finds

Decatur-Avondale Patch: How do babies and children think and learn?

New York Times: The Stories That Bind Us

Child Study Is Name of the Game
Current Graduate Students
Development of an online peer support program for adolescents with food allergies
Melissa Engel
Rhesus monkeys with damage to amygdala or orbitofrontal cortex perform well on novelty-based memory tasks
Joshua Krasney
Hippocampal Connectivity With the Default Mode Network Is Linked to Hippocampal Volume in the Clinical High Risk for Psychosis Syndrome and Healthy Individuals
Katrina Aberizk
Distribution of vasopressin 1a and oxytocin receptor protein and mRNA in the basal forebrain and midbrain of the spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus)
Jeanne Powell
Maternal Adversity and Epigenetic Age Acceleration Predict Heightened Emotional Reactivity in Offspring: Implications for Intergenerational Transmission of Risk
Brooke McKenna
Allele-specific cis-regulatory methylation of the gene for vasoactive intestinal peptide in white-throated sparrows
Mackenzie Prichard
Support for learning under naturalistic conditions
Lucy Cronin-Golomb
TNF-alpha Antagonist Infliximab Increases Willingness to Expend Effort in Patients with Depression and High Inflammation
Sarah Etuk
The Retrograde Memory for News Events Test (RM-NET) and the relationship between news event memory and performance on standard neuropsychological tests
Andrew Cawley-Bennett
Visual perception of apparent motion abides by minimization principles of geometry
Yaxin Liu
Behavioral trajectories of aging prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster): Adapting behavior to social context wanes with advanced age
Jeanne Powell
Characterization of social behavior in the spiny mouse, Acomys cahirinus
Brandon Fricker
When Anger Remains Unspoken Anger and Accelerated Epigenetic Aging Among Stress-Exposed Black Americans
Brooke McKenna
Paternal Borderline Symptoms and Offspring Outcomes in Young Adulthood
Elaine Johnson
Clarifying the structure and nature of left-wing authoritarianism
Thomas Costello
Psychological Distress Prospectively Predicts Later Sleep Quality in a Sample of Black American Postpartum Mothers
Madeleine F. Cohen
Intergenerational Impacts of Maternal Stress on Early Childhood Atopy in Black Americans
Melissa L. Engel
Examining the differential effects of latent impulsivity factors on substance use outcomes in African American men
Lauren Bertin
Concavity as a diagnostic feature of visual scenes
Annie Cheng
The Unmet Needs of Patients with Food Allergies
Melissa L. Engel
Alumni
C. S. Peirce's Forgotten but Enduring Relevance to Psychological Science
By Emory Psychology Alum, Dr. Brett A. Murphy, and Dr. Scott O. Lilienfeld (posthumously). Published in The American Journal of Psychology 134, no. 3 (2021): 347–61
Delta-modulated cortical alpha oscillations support new knowledge generation through memory integration
By Emory Psychology Alum, Dr. Nicole L. Varga and Emory Professor, Dr. Joseph Manns. Published in NeuroImage Volume 244, 1 December 2021, 118600
Attentional bias for faces, not scenes: neural and behavioral evidence
First author is Emory Psychology Alum Dr. Andrew Persichetti. Co-authored with the Dilks Lab. Published in Journal of Vision.
A Broad Internalizing Dimension Accounts for the Genetic Associations between Personality and Individual Internalizing Disorders
Emory Psychology Alumni, Dr. Holly E. Poore, Dr. Ashley L. Watts, and Emory Professor, Dr. Irwin Waldman,
Relating a picture and 1000 words: Self-derivation through integration within and across presentation formats
First author is Dr. Alena Esposito (Assistant Professor of Psychology, Clark University). Dr. Esposito was a postdoctoral fellow at Emory in 2018. This paper was co-authored with Bauer Memory Lab members Katherine Lee and Dr. Jessica Dugan. Dr. Jillian Lauer is an alum of Emory Psychology and a postdoctoral fellow at NYU.
Alum Emily Brown Wins Learning and Behavior's 2021 Best Article Award
Dr. Emily Brown, an alum of Dr. Robert Hampton's Laboratory of Comparative Primate Cognition, has won Learning and Behavior's 2021 Best Article Award for 'Cognitive control of working memory but not familiarity in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)', published in issue 4, vol 48. The Psychomomic Society will formally present the award at the 2021 Psychonomic Society annual meeting in New Orleans.
Optogenetic stimulation of the basolateral amygdala accelerates acquisition of object-context associations
The first author on this research is Lauren DiFazio who was a Research Specialist in the Manns Lab. Published in Behavioral Neuroscience.
Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying improvement of prosocial responses by a novel implicit compassion promotion task
This paper, published in NeuroImage, is authored by Dr. Shin Ah Kim and Dr. Sang Hee Kim (Department of Brain and Cognitive Engineering, Korea University) in collaboration with Emory Professor Dr. Stephan Hamann. Dr. Sang Hee Kim is an alum of the Hamann Cognitive Neuroscience Lab.
Multi-polygenic Analysis of Nicotine Dependence in Individuals of European Ancestry
BGA Lab (Emory alum Victoria Risner, current post-doctoral fellow Chelsie Benca-Bachman, current graduate student Lauren Bertin et al.)
Self-compassion and dissonance-based interventions for body image distress in young adult women
By Emory Psychology alumni Dr. Aubrey M. Toole and Dr. Devon LoParo in Body Image, Volume 38, Pages 191-200
Maternal Childhood Adversity Associates With Frontoamygdala Connectivity in Neonates
Recent alum Dr. Cassandra L. Hendrix in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging
The mouth matters most: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of how dogs perceive inanimate objects
Recent alum Dr. Ashley Prichard in the Journal of Comparative Neurology Volume 529, Issue 11, Pages 2987-2994
Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) monitor evolving decisions to control adaptive information seeking
Recent alum Dr. Ryan J. Brady in Animal Cognition 24, 777–785 (2021)
Evolving Views on Cognition in Animal Vocal Communication: Contributions from Scream Research
By recent alumni Dr. Jay W. Schwartz and Dr. Jonathan W.M. Engelberg. Published in Animal Behavior and Cognition, 7(2), 192-213.