2008-09 Erlbaum Winners' Biographies
Th e chair of the Psi Chi/Erlbaum Awards in Cognitive Science Committee,
Maria Lavooy, PhD, has announced the winners of the 2008-09 Erlbaum
Awards. Psi Chi congratulates these winners of the Erlbaum Award and
wishes them continued success in their education and careers.
Read abstracts of these award-winning papers here.
Darya L. Zabelina, An artist herself, Darya Zabelina’s personal
interest in creativity dates many years
back. Academically, she became involved
in creativity research as an undergraduate
sophomore under the Advanced
Undergraduate Research Award (AURA)
from the NIH/EPSCoR Foundation.
Ms. Zabelina is currently a secondyear
master’s student at North Dakota
State University working with Dr. James
Council and Dr. Michael Robinson. Her
research interests primarily revolve around
cognitive processes, affective processes,
motivation, and personality aspects involved
in creativity and intelligence. She also
has a keen interest in exploring ways of
enhancing and fostering the development
of creative thinking and problem-solving
ability. Ms. Zabelina is an NSF Graduate
Research Fellow, and plans on entering a
PhD program in the fall of 2010.
Nina Gold Nina B. Gold, originally from Newton, MA,
graduated summa cum laude with a BA
in psychology from Colby College in May
2009. At Colby, she became passionate
about cognitive development and pediatric
medicine. Ms. Gold has pursued these
interests in a variety of clinical and research
settings. She volunteered on a pediatric unit
at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)
under the guidance of Child Life Specialists
Marilyn Gifford and Ashley Reardon, and
Chief of Child Psychiatry Consultation
Service to Pediatrics, Dr. Paula Rauch.
Ms. Gold also served as coordinator of
MGH’s Junior Volunteer Program. In 2008,
she collaborated with Professor Tarja
Raag on an investigation of the social
ramifi cations of mindfulness. In 2009,
Ms. Gold wrote and illustrated a book to help
pediatric patients cope with the experience
of long-term hospitalization. She currently
works as a clinical research assistant in the
Department of Teratology at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital in Boston.