I am interested in cognitive processes that may influence the development, maintenance, and treatment of social phobia and other anxiety disorders.  In particular, my research focuses on memory biases, global/local processing, and post-event processing.  I am also interested in how anxiety affects perception and the ways in which different modes of anxious responding (i.e., perceptual, affective, behavioral, cognitive, and physiological) are related to one another.

Currently on internship at Brown University.

I am interested in the way that controlled, strategic cognitive processes interact with more automatic processes in maintaining anxiety and mood disorders, as well as in the context of healthy emotion regulation.  My long-term goal is to develop and test new intervention techniques that effectively harness our understanding of these complex processes. As a first step, I am currently developing a study that will examine the use of conscious, deliberate mental planning statements called “implementation intentions” to strategically automate one’s future emotional and cognitive responses to distressing stimuli.

I study cognitive biases associated with anxiety problems from developmental psychopathology and family systems perspectives. In particular, I am interested in how children's cognitive biases and parental coping expectations may interact to influence the development, maintenance, and treatment of children’s anxiety difficulties. I'm currently designing an intervention study involving cognitive bias modification for both children and parents that aims to alleviate young children's fear of novel stimuli. 

I am interested in the symmetry between the biological development of the frontal cortex and the corresponding rise and fall of controlled processing across the lifespan. My research focuses on how frontally mediated changes in controlled processing inform our understanding of behavior in applied settings. For example, my dissertation examined how individual differences in executive attention moderate the impact of stereotype threat on senior driving performance. In the PACT lab, I am investigating how individual differences and age-related changes in controlled processing may help us to better understand the occurrence of intrusive thoughts and distress.

Research Assistant Professor

Fred Smyth

I work with the PACT lab on web-based study design, especially for implicit cognition measures, and on advanced data analyses.  My graduate training at UVa was in Quantitative Psychology and I studied implicit social cognition as a post-doctoral associate with Brian Nosek. My substantive research focuses on implicit cognition that promotes--or interferes with--students' academic engagement, persistence and success, and is informed by more than a decade of work in college admission counseling, both at the collegiate and high school levels. http://www.projectimplicit.net/smyth/

I am currently interested in examining attentional and memory biases associated with the positivity effect - that with increasing age individuals tend to look more towards and have a better memory for positive, as opposed to negative, features in their environment.  These biases are hypothesized to be in service of emotion regulation goals, typically associated with aging.  In addition, I am also interested in examining the role of an individual's health on their cognitive biases and emotion regulation abilities and tendencies.

Lab Alumni

Elise Clerkin

My primary research interests involve evaluating a) cognitive processing and perceptual biases that characterize anxiety and related disorders; and b) mechanisms of change in anxiety treatment in order to develop brief, experimental interventions.  I  have also recently begun to examine questions tied to comorbid Anxiety and Susbstance Use, as well as health risk behaviors more generally.  Please see http://www.clerkin.org/ for more information.

Currently on post doc at Brown University.

Tynessa Gordon

Cross-cultural research highlights the influence of ethnicity and culture in emotional processes. Specifically, previous studies suggest important differences in the experience of anxiety across groups. I am interested in investigating how ethnicity and culture influence the triggers, symptoms, and development of anxiety pathology for diverse populations. In addition, I have recently become involved in designing a project that will examine age differences in the appraisals of somatic sensations of anxiety.

Currently on staff at Emory.

Joshua Magee

My research investigates the ways people process common unpleasant mental experiences like unwanted thoughts.  I attempt to use cognitive theories to explain why unwanted thoughts seem to vex some people while sparing others.  I am particularly interested in lifespan factors that may influence the development and maintenance of emotion dysregulation after experiencing these unwanted thoughts.  I am currently also involved in several lines of research with various collaborators involving the role of anxiety in the usage of internet interventions and the management of diabetes, among other topics. Please see www.jmagee.org for more information.

Currently on post doc at Brown University.

Jena Saporito

My interests lie in the role of stigma in affecting individuals’ attitudes toward and likelihood of seeking mental health treatment.  I currently have two studies underway investigating this link.  The first, “Thoughts about Mental Health”, investigates the association between stigma attitudes toward mental health/mental health treatment and individuals’ attitudes about and willingness to seek mental health treatment with specific mental health professionals.  The second study, “Health Education”, extends the results of the first study, to consider the impact of an educational intervention for high school students.  This intervention is aimed at reducing stigma toward mental health/mental health treatment and increasing behavioral intentions to seek mental health treatment.

Currently on staff at Cherokee Health Systems.

Shannan Smith-Janik

My primary research interests involve the role of information processing biases in the onset and maintenance of emotional dysregulation in anxious children and adults. Information processing biases refer to distortions in the way people attend to, interpret, and remember information.

Currently on staff at Penn State CAPS.