DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

Colloquium Series

Departmental Colloquium Series

During the academic year, the department of psychology invites respected scholars to give lectures on research and theory in contemporary psychology. Please see the schedule below for more details and room locations. All are welcome to attend and engage with the Northwestern Psychology Community.

October

Dr. Daniel Simons

Title: Inattentional blindness in and out of the lab

Abstract: Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice unexpected objects or events when a person is focusing their attention on something else. It is a side effect of our remarkable and essential ability to focus attention and ignore distractions, but it can have real consequences. In this presentation, I will describe recent (and older) research on inattentional blindness both in and out of the lab. Our work attempts to explain why we experience inattentional blindness, when it matters, and whether there is anything we can do about it.

November

Dr. Riana Elyse Anderson

Date: Friday, November 8th, 2024 - 3:15pm
Location: Swift Hall, Room 107
Website: Riana Elyse Anderson
(Host: Sylvia Perry) 

Title:  Responding to the Mental Health Needs of Youth of Color by Any Means Necessary

Abstract: 

For youth of color, prolonged exposure to racial discrimination has resulted in debilitating psychological, behavioral, and health outcomes. To help youth prepare for and prevent the deleterious consequences of discrimination, many parents utilize racial socialization, or communication about racialized experiences. And, while racial socialization strategies correspond with several general therapeutic strategies widely used by clinicians, there is a critical gap between what families do to mitigate discriminatory distress and what clinicians and providers offer youth. As such, providing multiple strategies to effectively utilize racial socialization processes and develop such skills to help youth heal from the effects of past, current, and future racial trauma is important. This presentation will explore theories, practices, and burgeoning technological interventions important in the healing processes of racial trauma for families, clinicians, and researchers alike, especially in light of what is known about the proportion of time youth spend on mobile devices. Finally, this presentation will beg the question of how much evidence is enough before we deploy our skills to rapidly advancing technologies which may benefit youth of color facing increasingly more frequent discrimination in their everyday lives.

Dr. Laurie Bayet

Date: Friday, November 15th, 2024 - 3:15pm
Location: Swift Hall, Room 107
Website 
(Host: Sandy Waxman) 

Title: Learning from Babies: How Infants Understand the Visual and Affective World

Abstract: Developmental approaches uniquely reveal the origins of perceptual andcognitive representations underlying human intelligence. High-level visionand social-affective communication provide an ideal foundation to tacklethese questions, as two core domains that are well-characterized andthought to impact critical developmental skills (e.g., word learning, social-emotional functioning). Here, I will present data leveraging neuroimaging(EEG, fNIRS), behavioral, and computational tools to address how infantslearn to represent and interpret (1) visual objects, and (2) social-affectivecommunication (e.g., face movements or “expressions”). In recent work,we are probing the temporal dynamics and representational geometry ofinfants' visual representations with multivariate pattern analyses ofinfants’ EEG data. We are also using online webcam research (Lookit) totest whether newborns mimic face movements of their caregivers. Takentogether, these data begin to chart trajectories and mechanisms throughwhich we learn to represent visual objects and face movements fromearly life.

January

Dr. Franki Y. H. Kung

Date: Friday, January 31,2025 - 3:15pm
Location: Swift Hall, Room 107
Website
(Host: Michael Kraus) 

Title: TBA

Abstract: TBA

April

Dr. Tiffany Yip

Date: Friday, April 4th, 2024 - 3:15pm
Location: Swift Hall, Room 107
Website: 
(Host: Dan Mroczek and Courtney Jones) 

Title: TBA

Abstract: TBA

Dr. Michael Hallquist

Date: Friday, April 25th, 2024 - 3:15pm
Location: Swift Hall, Room 107
Website: Michael Hallquist

Title: TBA

Abstract: TBA