2004-2005 Erlbaum Winners' Biographies
The chair of the Psi Chi/Erlbaum Awards in Cognitive Science Committee, Christopher Koch, PhD, has announced the winners of the 2004-05 Erlbaum Awards. The graduate winner is Dianne M. Learned of Kent State University (OH) for her paper entitled "Mere Exposure Increases Confidence in Counterfactual Life Events." The undergraduate winner is Haley Stapleton of George Fox University (OR) for her paper entitled "Sex Differences in Lateralization of Stroop Interference." Psi Chi congratulates these 2004-05 winners of the Erlbaum Award and wishes them continued success in their education and careers. Cash awards of $500 each were presented to Ms. Learned and Ms. Stapleton as the winners of this award.
Read abstracts of these award-winning papers here.
Dianne M. Learned, the first place winner, was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada and graduated magna cum laude at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). While attending UNLV, she was the Psi Chi secretary and also helped organize fundraisers for their trips to the WPA conferences. She was involved in Dr. Sean Lane's eyewitness laboratory for five years while Dr. Lane was a professor at UNLV.
Ms. Learned is currently working on her dissertation at Kent State University with Dr. Maria Zaragoza and plans on graduating in the spring of 2006. She studies cognition with an emphasis on confidence inflation for counterfactual life events and the development of false memories as a direct result of the confidence inflation. Her thesis dealt with confidence inflation for counterfactual childhood events as a direct result of merely being exposed to the events. In her thesis, she found evidence that merely exposing participants to counterfactual life events (as deemed by the participants themselves) by having them watch the events occur to other children, increased their own confidence that the events occurred to themselves.
Upon graduation, Ms. Learned plans to work in the industry as a researcher and help formulate ideas and products for companies. Ms. Learned feels that her strong research background would make her a great candidate to run research in the industry.
Haley Stapleton, the first place undergraduate winner, has attended George Fox University for the past three years. She was inducted into Psi Chi in April 2004. Ms. Stapleton worked as a research assistant for Dr. Susan O'Donnell during her freshman and sophomore years. They researched parental influences on children's motivation. During her junior year, Ms. Stapleton was Psi Chi president for her chapter and was a research assistant for Dr. Christopher Koch. They examined the basis for the cognitive difference in certain disorders (e.g., eating disorders). Ms. Stapleton presented a poster at the WPA conference in Portland, which received a 2005 Psi Chi Regional Research Award. In addition to research and involvement with Psi Chi, she has played volleyball for three years at George Fox and was elected captain for this past season as well as next season.
In addition, Ms. Stapleton has served as president of the George Fox Student Athletic Advisory Committee and a student representative to the Northwest Conference. She also coached a club volleyball team of 16- and 17-year old teenagers. After graduating next December, Ms. Stapleton plans to pursue her graduate degree and research the influence of social cognition on family relations.