Fall 2015
Marc Coutanche received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Marc's research examines learning through fast mapping, concept learning, memory consolidation, the role of sleep in memory formation, fMRI analysis methods, informational connectivity, and applications of machine learning methods to brain data.
Karina Schumann earned her PhD from the University of Waterloo. Her research studies conflict resolution, emotions, intellectual humility, religion, and motivation.
Spring 2015
Tristen Inagaki acquired her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research investigates the areas of social affective neuroscience, social relationships and health, and social connections.
Fall 2014
Kevin Binning earned his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. His research includes observations of self and social identities, the social psychology of education, and political psychology.
Scott Fraundorf obtained his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on topics such as psycholinguistics, memory, cognitive aging, metacognition, statistical modeling, cognitive development, attention, decision making, and educational technology.
Spring 2014
Aidan Wright received his PhD form Pennsylvania State University. His research is grounded in understanding the defining features of personality pathology, and examine the processes and outcomes of personality in order to clarify what distinguishes adaptive and maladaptive personality functioning. Aidan strives to learn what aspects of thinking, feeling, and behaving allow some to effectively manage and have rewarding relationships, and achieve their life goals, where others seem to struggle.
Fall 2013
Melissa Libertus earned her PhD from Duke University Melissa's research examines cognitive development, math abilities, numerical cognition, working memory, differences in cognitive abilities in infancy and childhood, and developmental cognitive neuroscience.
Amanda Forest acquired her PhD from the University of Waterloo. Her research explores close relationships, emotional expressivity and self-disclosure, self-esteem, embodied cognition, mood contagion, and interpersonal .communication
Benjamin Rottman received his PhD from Yale University. His research examines causal learning, reasoning, and judgment, medical diagnosis and decision-making.
Fall 2012
Edward Orehek obtained his PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Maryland. Prior to moving to Pitt, he spent two years as an assistant professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Ed’s research investigates topics related to social cognition, goals and motivation, and social support. Ed is teaching a new graduate course on Foundations of Social Psychology.
Jennifer Cousins obtained her PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Arizona. She completed her post-doctoral work here in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department in the School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the integration of social and biological changes of sleep across vulnerable developmental periods and the subsequent outcomes that impact learning, emotion regulation and behavior. Jennifer will teach Introduction to Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology and Human Sexuality.
Sybil Streeter earned her PhD in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and BPhil from Pitt’s Honors College. Driven by an interest in evolutionary psychology and the “why” behind people’s choices, her research has focused on the relationship between sensory perception and mood, mate choice, and perceptions of physical attractiveness. Sybil brings several years of private-sector research and consulting expertise using an interdisciplinary approach that draws on such diverse fields as cognitive science, literary analysis, evolutionary and social psychology. In addition to teaching Introductory Psychology, Biopsychology, Research Methods, and Sensation and Perception, she will direct the Psychology Advising Office, where she plans to expand experiential learning opportunities.
Fall 2011
Pete Gianaros obtained his PhD in Psychology from Penn State. He completed his post-doctoral work here at Pitt in the Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine Training Program. Also at Pitt, he served as faculty in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine before joining us. His research focuses on neurobiological and socioeconomic risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Pete will teach Human Cardiovascular Psychophysiology and Introduction to Biopsychology.
Kathryn Monahan obtained her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Temple University. She then completed post-doctoral work at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Washington. Kate’s research examines adolescent development, with a focus on externalizing psychopathology and health risk behavior, including antisocial behavior, substance use, and high-risk sexual behavior. She is especially interested in the policy and prevention implications of research on adolescent development.