There's a New Doctor in the House!
Spring 2024
Congratulations to newly-minted Dr. Paige Kemp for her successful dissertation defense! Dr. Kemp presented her timely research on the cognitive mechanisms underlying corrections of fake news. We are excited to see what the future has in store!
Lab Director Elected to Memory Disorders Research Society
Summer 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Wahlheim for being elected to the Memory Disorders Research Society (MDRS). MDRS is a by-invitation-only professional society dedicated to the study of memory. Members engage in basic and clinical research into how memory works and why it fails. The society was founded by Dr. Laird Cermak in 1988. Read more about the society here.
Undergraduate URCA & NSF Grant Recipient
Fall 2022
Congratulations to undergraduate research assistant Aaron Goldman on receiving an URCA grant from UNCG's Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Office (URSCO) as well as a supplement from the National Science Foundation. Both of these grants will support his continued research in the areas of fake news corrections and source credibility. Aaron is grateful for this incredible opportunity and is excited to further contribute to this important work.
Way to go Aaron!
Graduate Student Receives Elizabeth Duffy Award
August 2022
Huge congratulations to graduate student, Paige Kemp on winning the Psychology Department Elizabeth Duffy Award. This award is named in honor of Dr. Elizabeth Duffy, former department faculty member, and leader in the field of physiological psychology, and recognizes exceptional scholastic and research accomplishments of female graduate students.
Great job Paige!
Lab Receives NSF Funding to Research Fake News Corrections
August 2022
In a huge win for the lab, the National Science Foundation has awarded Principle Investigator Dr. Wahlheim and Co-Investigators Dr. Robert Wiley and Dr. Andrew Engelhardt three years of funding to investigate when and from whom fake news reminders improve memory and belief accuracy. The award abstract is located here.
This funding will support research training for undergraduate and graduate students in a topically relevant area of applied cognitive psychology. Students interested in collaborating in this work should contact Dr. Wahlheim (cnwahlhe@uncg.edu).
Lab PI Earns Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
March 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Wahlheim on achieving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. This is a well-deserved accomplishment recognizing his commitment to excellence in research, teaching, and service. Dr. Wahlheim is grateful for the support from his students, collaborators, and mentors that helped him to this career milestone.
Graduate Student Defends Dissertation and Becomes Assistant Professor
March 2022
Congratulations to graduate student, Sydney Garlitch on her successful dissertation defense. Her disseration summarized a collection of three empirical studies on associations among aging, attention, and episodic memory updating.
Excellent work Sydney!
Sydney's stellar work also earned her a position as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Millikin University in Decatur, IL.
Good luck in your new position!
Graduate Student Wins Best Master's Thesis Award
March 2022
Well done to graduate student, Paige Kemp on winning the George and Beatrice Goldman Fisher Gerontology Master's Thesis Award for "Adult Age Differences In The Forward Testing Effect."
Way to go Paige!
MAC Lab Work Recognized by UNCG Research Magazine
September 2021
Dr. Wahlheim's research on correcting fake news has been featured in UNCG's Research Magazine. The Fall 2021 magazine spotlights a recent publication by Dr. Wahlheim and Timothy Alexander, a former graduate student, that focuses on how reminders of fake news can improve memory and beliefs for corrected misinformation. For more information on the featured article click here.
Reference:
Christopher N. Wahlheim, Timothy R. Alexander, Carson D. Peske. (2020). Reminders of Everyday Misinformation Statements Can Enhance Memory for and Beliefs in Corrections of Those Statements in the Short Term. Psychological Science, 31 (10): 1325 DOI: 10.1177/0956797620952797
Graduate Student Earns Master's Degree
May 2021
Sydney Smith graduated this Spring with an M.A. in Experimental Psychology. Her thesis project, "Spacing by retention interval interactions in retroactive effects of memory: The role of detecting and remembering change," was well received by her committee. Congratulations, Sydney!
Sydney is now a senior data analyst in the social listening department at Anexinet + Veristor.
Undergraduate Research Assistants Pursue Graduate Degree
May 2021
Danni Brower, an undergraduate research assistant and honors student, has graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Psychology.
Danni took her talents to the other side of the pond to purse a graduate degree at The University of Sheffield.
Congratulations on your fine achievements!
May 2021
Zachery Barnes, a former undergraduate research assistant has graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology while also making dean’s list in his final semester. He has been accepted into the Sport and Exercise Psychology Master’s program here at UNCG, within the department of Kinesiology. While enrolled in the program he will be teaching an introduction course as well as conducting research for the department. He also recently accepted a summer internship with Crosby Scholars, where he will advise and counsel to high school juniors and seniors on college paths and future plans. Congratulations on your achievements Zachery, and good luck on your next steps!
Former Research Assistant Pursues Ph.D.
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May 2021
Former undergraduate research assistant and honors student, Crystal Thinzar, has enrolled in the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology here at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. We are thrilled that she will remain here and are so proud of her achievement. Way to go Crystal!
MAC Lab Principal Investigator Wins Professorship Award
April 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Wahlheim on winning the Candace Bernard and Robert Glickman Dean's Professorship for 2021-2022. This professorship is awarded by the College of Arts and Sciences to assistant professors who with outstanding scholarly accomplishments, a commitment to excellent teaching, and the promise of a great future in academia.
Graduate Student Defends Master's Thesis
April 2021
Congratulations to our graduate student, Paige Kemp on the successful defense of her master's thesis, "Adult Age Differences in the Forward Testing Effect." Her project investigated how testing previously learned information can enhance subsequent learning by promoting integrative encoding of competing information. Specifically, her study examined the extent to which the forward testing effect differentially benefits older and younger adults. Excellent work Paige!
MAC Lab Principal Investigator Wins Mentorship Award
April 2021
Congratulations to our principal investigator, Dr. Christopher Wahlheim, on winning the Thomas Undergraduate Research Mentor Award. The Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creativity Office at UNCG established this award as a way to honor faculty members who engage undergraduate students in projects that contribute to the expansion of knowledge and understanding in their discipline, while demonstrating excellence and innovation in doing so. This award includes a plaque and $1,000 to support activities related to research and/or creative inquiry as it involves undergraduates during the following academic year. Way to go Dr. Wahlheim! Click here to read more.
MAC Lab Work Recognized by Forbes & Other Top News Outlets
October 2020
The newly published article by our very own Christopher Wahlheim, Ph.D., Timothy Alexander, M.A., and Carson Peske, has been recognized by major news outlets, such as Forbes and Science Daily. The article describes how sometimes reminding people of fake news can improve memory and beliefs for facts that correct misinformation.
Links to a few of the news articles:
Reference:
Christopher N. Wahlheim, Timothy R. Alexander, Carson D. Peske. (2020). Reminders of Everyday Misinformation Statements Can Enhance Memory for and Beliefs in Corrections of Those Statements in the Short Term. Psychological Science, 31 (10): 1325 DOI: 10.1177/0956797620952797
MAC Lab Alumna Pursues Passion for Research
October 2020
Ei (Crystal) Thinzar, an alumna of the MAC Lab, recently secured a full-time research position at UNC Chapel Hill where she will be serving as a lab manager for the Child Imaging Research on Cognition and Life Experiences (CIRCLE) Lab. The CIRCLE Lab is a research group in the Psychology and Neuroscience Department at UNC studying the impact of different life experiences on behavior and the developing brain. Congratulations on your new position, Crystal!
Graduate Student Wins Best Article Award
September 2020
Sydney Garlitch, a fourth year graduate student in the MAC Lab at UNCG, won the Psychonomic Society's Best Article Award for her paper, "The role of attentional fluctuation during study in recollecting episodic changes at test". This prestigious award honors individuals for the best paper published in each Psychonomic Society journal in the last year. Way to go Sydney!
Graduate Students Deliver at Graduate Research Colloquium
September 2020
MAC Lab graduate students Paige Kemp (above) and Sydney Smith (below) presented their first year projects via Zoom at the annual Graduate Research Colloquium hosted by the UNCG Psychology Department. Paige presented her project "Adult age differences in the forward testing effect." Sydney presented her project, "The Spacing Effect and Retroactive Effects of Memory: the role of recollecting and remembering change." Both talks were engaging and very well received by our local research community.
Nice work Paige and Sydney!
Undergraduate Research and Creativity Award
May 2020
Ei (Crystal) Thinzar, a recent graduate from UNC Greensboro, was a senior undergraduate research assistant at Memory and Cognition Lab. During her time in our lab, she led and conducted an independent research project, Updating Episodic Memory: The Role of Encoding Quality in Memory for Change, for her senior honors thesis under the mentorship of Dr. Christopher Wahlheim. Her study examined how a person’s encoding quality (subjective experience) of an event influences one’s ability to detect and recollect change when later presented with the same event, but with a changed feature. In Fall 2019, she was awarded the prestigious Undergraduate Research and Creativity Award for this project. She also presented her results at various undergraduate and regional conferences. Congratulations on your achievements and graduation Crystal!
Welcome New Graduate Students
August 2019
The MAC Lab welcomes two new graduate students to our lab this year, Paige Kemp (left) and Sydney Smith (right). Sydney began as an undergraduate research assistant in our lab in May 2018 and applied to the terminal masters program for experimental psychology after attaining her B.S. of psychology at UNCG. In her first year, Sydney has decided to study lag effects in memory performance, retroactive interference, and change detection. Paige is new to the Greensboro area, coming all the way from the England. She completed her B.S. in psychology at Stetson University and is on the Ph.D. track for experimental psychology. In her first year, Paige will be studying the effects of interpolated testing and the misinformation effect. Congratulations Paige and Sydney!
Undergraduate Assistant Awarded MARC U-STAR Fellowship
May 2019
Research assistant, Danni Brower, has been selected to be an undergraduate research fellow for The Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research (U-STAR) program. This program supports underrepresented minorities in becoming research scientists in biomedical fields by providing resources for funding and professional development. Congratulations Danni. We are so proud of you!
Graduate Students Deliver at Graduate Research Colloquium
September 2018
MAC Lab graduate students Sydney Cody and Tim Alexander presented their first year projects at the annual Graduate Research Colloquium hosted by the UNCG Psychology Department. Sydney presented her work on the roles of detecting and recollecting change in retroactive effects of memory for older and younger adults. Tim presented his work on the roles of detecting and recollecting change in the continued influence of misinformation from fake news. Both talks were engaging and very well received by our local research community.
Nice work Sydney and Tim!
McNair Summer Research Experience
August 2018
Over the summer, McKayla Bohannon completed a supervised research experience in the MAC Lab as part of the UNCG McNair Scholars Program. The McNair program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is designed to prepare undergraduate students from underrepresented groups (minority, low income, or first generation) for doctoral training. This program allows students to participate in an 8-week Summer Research Institute, in which they work closely with a faculty member on a research project. McKayla worked closely with Dr. Wahlheim and Sydney Cody, on a project examining differences in older and younger adults’ episodic memory. This experience culminated in McKayla giving poster and oral presentations of preliminary results at the first annual UNCG Summer Research Symposium. McKayla will continue to investigate related issues in the 2018-2019 academic year as a senior research assistant in the MAC Lab.
Undergraduate Researcher wins URCA
August 2018
Caroline Infante Arismendi, an undergraduate researcher in the MAC Lab, has been awarded a prestigious Undergraduate Research and Creativity Award (URCA) from the Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Office at UNCG. The award will support Caroline's summer research activities in the MAC Lab. Her research will examine older and younger adults' perception and memory for naturalistic event changes. She will present the results from her project at the annual Carolyn and Norwood Thomas Undergraduate Research Expo. Congratulations, Caroline, on a job well done!