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Dr. Walsh's Pages

Psychology in the News~2010

Phone: 401.341.3120
e-mail:walsh@salve.edu

Bottom ~General Information & NEWS Since 1999

May 24, 2010, Newport, RI : The department has received word from Lauren Micalizzi(2010), co-recipient of the 2010 Helene Kelley Burrell Excellence in Psychology Award, that she will be entering the graduate program at Boston University this fall. In describing her plans in a recent e-mail, Lauren wrote: "Regarding graduate school, I will begin at Boston University on September 2nd and will be studying in the areas of brain and behavior, clinical psychology and human development. I have been in contact with a BU professor and plan to continue my research in the area of Autism, in children in particular, with her. After graduation my hope is that I will continue to conduct research, and perhaps get my Ph.D in experimental psychology." The department is proud of all Lauren has accomplished and wish her well in her continuing studies.

May 24, 2010, Newport, RI : The department is proud to announce that Erin Vardaro(2010) will begin her graduate studies this fall at Northeastern University's Bouve College of Health Services' program in school counseling. According to the program's web site, "School Guidance Counseling constitutes an excellent career for those wishing to work closely with children, parents, and fellow school personnel. It is an unusually fulfilling profession in that it offers the opportunity to positively assist students at the elementary, middle, or secondary school levels with vital personal, interpersonal, academic, and career development issues of importance, both in their current and later lives." Erin, co-recipient of the 2010 Helene Kelley Burrell Excellence in Psychology Award, will be pursuing a master of science degree. Congratulations Erin!

May 17, 2010, Newport, RI :On Sunday, May 16, 2010 the largest number of psychology majors in department recent history received their degrees. A total of forty-three students marched down the main tent aisle to get their B.A. degrees. Congratulations to them all.

May 16, 2010, Newport, RI : Following the induction ceremony for new members of Psi Chi held on May 15, 2010, officers were elected for both the Psychology Club and our local Psi Chi chapter for next year. Psi Chi officers elected for the 2010-2011 acdemic year are: President, Nicole Cecala; Vice president of Research, Nicole Baldassari; Vice president of Service, Katlin Philipps; Secretary, Alex Zarlengo;and, Treasurer, Elizabeth Hamer. Officers for the Psychology Club for 2010-2011 are: President, Chelsea Bourn; Vice president, Nicole Cecala; Minutes Secretary, Priscilla Villa; Public Relations Secretary, Alex Zarlengo;and, Treasurer, Elizabeth Hamer. Congratulations to them all!

May 15, 2010, Newport, RI : At Salve Regina's Honors and Awards Ceremony today, Erin Vardaro(far left in the Psi Chi photo below) and Lauren Micalizzi(far right in the Psi Chi photo below) were co-recipients of this year's Helene Kelley Burrell Psychology Award. This award is presented annually to that student, or those students(if more than one and they are equally deserving), who has(or have) the highest grade point average in psychology and in their total university performance, who has(or have)provided valuable service to the department for several years, and who has(or have) otherwise distinguished her self (or themselves) and risen to the very top of the graduating class. Erin and Lauren have done so admirably! We, the faculty, of the department of psychology are proud to have had them as our students and hope to have more like them in the future. We are confident that they will continue to set themselves apart from others by their achievements in years to come.

May 3, 2010, Newport, RI : On April 28th, 2010, Salve Regina University's chapter of Psi Chi held its 10th Annual Induction Ceremony for new members. This year's class of 32 was the largest number inducted since May 9, 2001 when 34 students and five faculty were inducted as charter members.

Psi Chi Class of 2010
Nicholas Albanese	Carissa Mancini
Lauren Diane Cardoso	Katelyn A. Mattos
Nicole Cecala	Aubrey Lynn Morrissey
Megan Marie Crowley	Allyson Marie Neurohr
Kelly F. Daekke	Sarah Elizabeth Parcells
Talia Lynn Daglieri	Mary C. Pearsall
Amy M. Errichetti	Kaitlin M. Philipps
Emilie L. Gallo	Samantha Piecuch
Ashley Nicole Gempp	Lauren A. Pirrmann
Daniel Thomas Girardin	Kaela Lin Rees
Emily A. Grant	Allison Suzanne Riendeau
Sabrina J. Giampaoli	Lauren A. Scott
Elizabeth A. Hammer	Sara E. Shannon
Marissa kathryn Intravia	Mariko Shiga
Kelly L. Jones	Theresa Elizabeth Teofilak
Masako Wada	Alex P. Zarlengo
Following the cermony, officers were elected for the 2010 ~ 2011 academic year. They were: Nicole Cecala, President, Nicole Baldassari, Vice President of Research, Kaitlin Philipps, Vice President of Service, Alex Zarlengo, Secretary, and Elizabeth Hammer, Treasurer. Congratulations to them all.

February 22, 2010, Newport, RI : For the third time, Drs. Arthur Frankel and Debra Curtis(Anthropology) in association with psychology majors Nicole Cecala, '10 & Emily Kidd '11 have studied how the presence of condoms in a woman's purse often leads to negative conclusions regarding the purse-owner's sex life. The 2010 iteration of this research entitled What’s the Cost of a Condom? If You’re a Woman, It’s Very High to be presented at the 2010 Eastern Psychological Association convention in New York City was described by Dr. Frankel in this way: "White male and female undergraduates drew unflattering inferences about the sexual behavior of white and black targets when their purse contained condoms. These results replicate and extend the findings of Frankel and Curtis (2008) and Frankel, Curtis, Cecala, and DiRuggiero (2009). Race of target was not implicated in any of the findings and male and female participant responses to the targets were indistinguishable across all measures." In a related investigation entitled "What’s in a College Student’s Purse? Probably Not Condoms" conducted by Dr. Frankel, Erin Vadaro '10, and Dr. Curtis, the researchers report on a variation on this theme. This latter research will be presented at the Association for Psychological Science annual convention in Boston, May 27 -30, 2010.

March 4 - 7, 2010 New York City May 27 - 30, 2010 Boston

February 20, 2010, Newport, RI : On February 17, 2010, Dr. Sheila O'Brien Quinn, Associate Professor of Psychology, was the invited speaker at the McKillop Library where she spoke on the subject of "animal magnetism." Her talk, entitled Magnetic Personalities:The Introduction of Mesmerism to the United States drew upon her extensive research into this fascinating esoteric topic over the past several years. Mesmerism, the historic precursor to hypnotism, is the name given to a form of mental healing by suggestion first practiced by Franz Anton Mesmer(1734-1815) who, in the late 1700's, claimed to have discovered a mysterious fluidic human force of nature he named animal magnetism, a force he claimed to have more of than others and which he then employed in the "treatment" of illnesses.

A commission of distinguished personages concluded at the time, however, that any patient improvements in health were likely due to their imagination and the power of suggestion since no confirmation could be obtained that animal magnetism actually existed. That, of course, as Dr. Quinn reports, did not stop its spread to the United States in the 1800's.

February 20, 2010, Newport, RI : The headline in the Winter, 2009 issue of Report from Newport(Volume 36 , No. 11, p. 13) reads: Psychology Majors Investigate how Applied Behavior Analysis can help Children with Autism. And, adds: Grant Funds Student's Work with Autistic Children. What is being described in this feature article has to do with the new and growing department "track" that allows students to take a series of special psychology classes, engage in extensive supervised field work, and, upon graduation, sit for the examination to become Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts. Opportunities thereafter include the pursuit of an advanced degree in the specialization and certification as a full-fledged behavior analyst. The program is the brain-child of Dr. Sheila O'Brien Quinn who has been awarded a grant to continue with its development. The text of this Report from Newport article follows. Carin Heaney ‘11, Alexandra Pereira '10 and Samantha Sandland '10 spent their summer working as interns at Pathways Strategic Teaching Center in Warwick, R.I., with their psychology professor, Dr. Sheila O'Brien Quinn. Their internship investigated how Applied Behavior Analysis can help children with autism become more aware of their social environment. The three psychology majors interned at Pathways thanks to a five-year grant from the IDEA Network-Biomedical Research Excellence program. At Pathways, they compared three different approaches to fostering the development of joint attention in autistic children. Joint attention is defined as the ability to coordinate one's visual attention between an object and a person in social settings, and is said to be a pivotal skill in language acquisition and cognitive development. Many developmental psychologists believe this skill is essential to helping young children develop basic vocabulary. Because children with autism tend to be less sensitive, sometimes even averse, to using eye contact, they can miss out on that fundamental learning opportunity.

Working under the direction of Quinn and Dr. Andrea Chait, clinical director at Pathways Strategic Teaching Center, the students assumed primary responsibility for the joint attention research protocols for three children with autism. After learning the children's overall behavioral program and collecting baseline data on the children's existing skills, the students presented the preliminary results of their research Aug. 3, 2009 at the University of Rhode Island's Ryan Center. "We found support for our teaching method in one of our participants, who is now demonstrating joint attention in his everyday schedule," Heaney said. "To see this young boy learning a skill that can potentially benefit him for the rest of his life and knowing that I played a role in his life is beyond words. I have never been so proud of something that I have accom¬plished." During the academic year, the students will have the opportunity to work 10 hours per week at Pathways. Over the next five years, it is hoped that 35 children with autism will receive this intensive programming, and a minimum of 15 students will be able to participate in the research. Gaining hands-on experience in the field has been the best part of the program for Pereira. "These amazing students and teachers have opened up their classrooms to us, allowing us to gain hands-on experience in the field, which is more than most can say before graduate school," she said. For further information about the program at Salve, contact Dr. Sheila O'Brien Quinn directly here."

February 20, 2010, Newport, RI : Psychology major, Andrea Michel(2010) has been making the news on campus associated with her exceptional skill in field hockey. The Winter, 2009 issue of the university's Report from Newport(Volume 36 , No. 11, p. 35) which came out in January, 2010 published this photo(at right) of Andrea and wrote: "Earning Second Team All-TCCC honors, co-captain Andrea Michel '10 helped the Seahawks to their most wins(eight) since 2006. Michel and her teammates advanced to TCCCplayoffs for the second straight season." On January 30, 2010, Andrea was also honored at the 24th Annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD) held at Salve. Andrea, whose home town is Yarmouth, Maine was inducted into The National Psychology Honor Society, Psi Chi on April 15, 2008 and is a current officer in that organization. Congratulations Andrea!

	February 20, 2010, Newport, RI : Early in 2009 the university learned that it was the recipient of a grant in excess of $200,000 from the Davis Educational Foundation to be used to create a Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) in the Mckillop Library and help faculty integrate new technologies into the classroom, foster an increased faculty exchange about best practices and challenges in the classroom, and increase support and programming to promote excellence in teaching. Read more about it here. Among the recipients of a $5,000 Davis Foundation Fellowship grant last summer was Dr. Arthur Frankel, Professor of Psychology. A detailed account of Dr. Frankel's grant was published in last year's Psychology News web page which may be viewed here.
The money that Dr. Frankel received provided support for him during the summer of 2009 as he developed his plans to incorporate more technology, writing, supplementary reading, and research into his fall 2009 Introduction to Psychology course to enhance student learning both in the short and long term. Now that his plans were put into place during the fall semester and tested, he has been asked to report what he has learned to the full faculty. During the spring semester, 2010, all recipients of a Davis Foundation Fellowship grant, in fact, will share their discoveries with their fellow faculty at a variety of campus workshops and panel discussions. The first of these are to take place during February and March, 2010.