Undergraduate Departmental Honors

Fewer than 10% of UMass psychology majors earn departmental honors!  We are pleased to recognize these distinguished alumni and their faculty advisors.

2021

(not an exhaustive list)

• Attraction Effect in Temporal Discounting, Gauri Harindranath, Andrew Cohen PhD
• An Anatomical Exploration of the Anterior Hippocampal Continuation; Indusium Griseum: A Bridge To The Hippocampal Formation, Sophie Jackson, David Moorman PhD
• The Benefits of Emotional Support Animals and How to Fix the Flawed System that Regulates Them, Abigail McGinn, Bonnie Strickland PhD
• Replicating Patient-Level Moderators of IPT and CBT's Comparative Efficacy for Depression, Kimberly Sikorski, Michael Constantino PhD

2020

• “The darker ones live in the older house”: Using narrative to study children’s attention to racial and economic characteristics of their communities, Edith Benedict, Tara Mandalaywala PhD
• How Distinct Needs of Mammalian Offspring are Represented Within the Maternal Medial Preoptic Area, Nadia Celestin, Mariana Pereira PhD
• The Division of Childcare and Parenting Stress: A Study of Mothers in Nuclear and Non-Nuclear Families, Kathleen Codair, Maureen Perry-Jenkins PhD
• The math anxious are anxious about symbolic but not non-symbolic arithmetic performance, Olivia Comeau, Joonkoo Park PhD
• Emotional Memory Consolidation In Preschoolers: The Effects of Napping and Overnight Sleep, Mary Deighan, Rebecca M C Spencer PhD
• ERP Related to Word Skipping: An Analysis using Coregistration and Eye Movements, Serene Elbach, Adrian Staub PhD
• Identifying Neural Networks in Rodents as Potential Pharmacological Targets for Addiction, Anthony Ferranti, David Moorman PhD
• The Effects of Crime Exposure on Moral Typecasting: An Experimental Investigation, Nicole Fisco, Linda Isbell PhD
• The Role of Emotion Regulation Difficulties in the Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatment and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in College-Aged Females, Nathan Fitzgerald, Katherine Dixon-Gordon PhD
• College Students with Mental Illness: Perception of Diagnosis, Identity, and Stigma, Elizabeth Kilgallon, Ashley Woodman PhD
• Context effects and visual local vs. global priming, Rachel Marcus, Andrew Cohen PhD
• DREADD use on the Prelimbic Cortex and Nucleus Accumbens Core Circuitry; Implications of Inactivation in Fixed Ratio, Extinction, and Reinstatement Behaviors, Meredith McCloy, David Moorman PhD
• The Effects of Everyday Light Exposure on Infants’ Sleep Quality: A Cross-sectional Analysis at Ages 9-17 Months, Sabrina McDuffie, Rebecca M C Spencer PhD
• Inactivation of the prelimbic cortex leaves responding unaffected for an intra-oral sucrose reward but decreases discrimination between Pavlovian cues., Neda Morakabati, David Moorman PhD
• Examining the Role of Emotion Dysregulation in the Relationship between Borderline Personality Disorder and Impulsivity, Anne Neary, Katherine Dixon-Gordon PhD
• A Non-Numeric Visuospatial Teaching Technique For Bayesian Reasoning, Joseph Soydan, Jeffrey Starns PhD
• Analyzing Cortisol Levels in Cancer Survivors Transitioning from Treatment to "Life as Usual", Tenzin Tseyang, Jerrold Meyer PhD

2019

• Within- and Between-Therapist Alliance Quality as Predictors of Outcomes in Psychotherapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Sarina Carter, Michael Constantino PhD
• Examining the neural origins of hippocampal estradiol, Rachel Davis, Joseph Bergan PhD
• Memory Consolidation During Multi-Target Visual Search, Olivia Downer, Kyle Cave PhD
• The Mechanisms of Speech Processing, Sabrina Gamm, Lisa Sanders PhD
• The Interactive Effects of Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Self-Damaging Behaviors on Suicide Risk Among College Students, Lauren Harnedy, Katherine Dixon-Gordon PhD
• Facial Recognition and Lineups, Allison Heuston, Jeffrey Starns PhD
• Deviating from Hillyard’s Paradigm: The Influential Variables in Auditory Selective Attention Through Multiple Domains, Victoria Johnson, Lisa Sanders PhD
• Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Sleep, Emotional Well-Being & Athletic Performance in Collegiate Rowers, Sukhmanjit Kaur, Rebecca M C Spencer PhD
• Single Neuron Reconstruction using Point Set Registration methods, Qin Li, Joseph Bergan PhD
• Attitudes toward the Sexuality of Adults with Intellectual Disability: Perspectives from Typically Developing Young Adults, Katelyn Loring, Ashley Woodman PhD
• The Effect of Alcohol Drinking on Myelin Microstructure in Adolescent Male and Female Rats, Gabriela Molica, Heather Richardson PhD
• Providers' Emotional Reactions to Emergency Department Patients: A Mixed-Methods Investigation, Julia Tager, Linda Isbell PhD
• Event-Related Potentials to Errors in Natural Speech, Neda Toutounchi Shabestari, Lisa Sanders PhD
• Puffs and Pins: Using a Game to Teach Bayesian Reasoning and The Effect of Visual Aids on Performance, Joseph Vazquez, Jeffrey Starns PhD
• Syntactic processing in beginning readers: Evidence from eye movements, Laurel Whitfield, Adrian Staub PhD
• The Effects of Gratitude Interventions on Well-Being Among Adults With Intellectual Disability, Caitlyn Wilson, Ashley Woodman PhD

2018

• Associations Between Peer Attachment and Positive Adoption Affect Throughout Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, Dominique Altamari, Harold Grotevant PhD
• The Role of Emotion Dysregulation and Distress Tolerance in Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Disordered Eating Behaviors, Caroline Ball, Katherine Dixon-Gordon PhD
• The Use of Visual and Verbal Working Memory in Visual Search, Winnie Ching, Kyle Cave PhD
• Fingernails as a Biomarker for Chronic Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Activity, Martha Doxsey, Jerrold Meyer PhD
• A Study of the Long-Term Effect of Chronic Ethanol and Stress on the Medial Prefrontal Cortex, Stephanie Fedorchak, David Moorman PhD
• The Role of Noradrenergic Systems in Anxiogenesis Following Chronic Stress and Ethanol, Michael Grampetro, Elena Vazey PhD
• Reducing Mental Health Stigma: An Evaluation of Biogenetic Education and the Contact Hyopthesis, Amy Higgins, Linda Isbell PhD
• The Role of Visual Cortex in Memory: Does Object Recognition Depend Upon Brain Regions Housing Conjunction Representations?, Krystal Leger, Rosemary Cowell PhD
• Fluctuations of Estrogen Receptor Alpha Expression in Microglia Across the Estrous Cycle in Rats, Aimee Lin, Heather Richardson PhD
• The Effects of Bed Sharing on Sleep Quality, Victoria Lovallo, Rebecca Spencer PhD
• The Effect of Napping on Procedural Motor Learning in Preschool Children, Shirley Plucinski, Rebecca Spencer PhD
• Wellbeing and Yoga: Yoga Philosophy Measure Development, Validation and Mental Health Outcomes, Thaine Smith, Katherine Dixon-Gordon PhD

2017

• The Importance of Having a Connection to a Caring Adult on the Outcomes for Youth Who Age Out of Foster Care, Kaitlyn Baron, Harold Grotevant PhD
• The Effect of Music on Exercise Intensity Among Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Emily Breviglia, Ashley Woodman PhD
• Age Group Differences in the Association Between Attentional Biases and Emotion Outcome, Erica Burke, Rebecca Ready PhD
• The Effectof Age on Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation of Novel English-Language Words, Rahul Bussa, Rebecca Spencer PhD
• Paternal Depression and Child Development: The Case of Working-Class Families, Sameera Chippada, Maureen Perry-Jenkins PhD
• Gridlock on Gun Control: The Effects of Motivated Reasoning and Article Framing on Reactions to School Shootings, Emily Collins, Brian Lickel PhD
• Post-Election Violence Exposure, Parental Monitoring, and Mental Health of Youth in Kisumu, Kenya, Meghan Colpas, Jennifer M McDermott PhD
• The Relationship Between Parent Psychopathology and Parenting Behaviors in Parent-Child Math Task, Audrey Davis, David Arnold PhD
• The Indirect Effect of Alliance Convergence on Posttreatment Outcome Through Homework Completion in Two Treatments For Generalized Anxiety, Katherine Davis, Michael Constantino PhD
• A Study of Neural Correlates of Preschool Childresn's Affective Picture Viewing, Ashley Dion, Elizabeth Harvey PhD
• Do Infants Use Gender to Predict Social Behavior?, Allison Epstein, Erik Cheries PhD
• Cognition and Sequencing in Older Adults, Mary Feuersanger, Rebecca Spencer PhD
• Biases in Medial Portrayals of Muslim Americans, Samia Habib, Bernhard Leidner PhD
• Emotion Competence as a Predictor of Comorbid Psychopathology in Children With and Without ADHD, Maya Hareli, Elizabeth Harvey PhD
• Bayesian Reasoning: A Comparison of Training Approaches, Jennifer Hirst, Andrew Cohen PhD
• Heterogeneity of Song Preference in Adult Femal Zebra Finches in a Two-Choice Paradigm, Gongrui Li, Luke Remage-Healey PhD
• Analysis of Affect Behavior of Mother Rats in the Wistar-Kyoto Rat Model of Postpartum Depression, Keianna Lopes, Mariana Pereira PhD
• Student Attitudes and Actions Concerning Issues Facing Transgender and Non-Binary Individuals: Predictors, Motivators, and Collective Action Tendencies, Melanie Maimon, Brian Lickel PhD
• Infants' Representation of Different Gender Faces, Ellen Marshall, Erik Cheries PhD
• Impulsiveness and Beta Oscillations in the Right Inferior Frontal Cortex, Meaghan McCarthy, Youngbin Kwak PhD
• Perceptiveness and Justice Sensitivity: Reasoning Ability and Theory of Mind May Foster a Social Justice Orientation, Mao Mogami, Ronnie Janoff-Bulman PhD
• Influence of Orexin Receptor-1 Antagonism in the Tenia Tecta on Cocaine-Related Appetitive Processing in Rats, David Nikom, David Moorman PhD
• The Impact of Morning and Afternoon Naps on Declarative Memory Consolidation in 12 Month Old Infants, Caroline Norton, Rebecca Spencer PhD
• Changes in Color Guidance Over the Course of a Complex Visual Search, Ryan Papargiris, Kyle Cave PhD
• Self-Conscious Emotion and Motivation to Change Drinking Behavior, Seana Read, Brian Lickel PhD
• The Effect of Sleep Extension on Sleep Physiology and Behavior of Young Children, Helen Root, Rebecca M C Spencer PhD
• The Relation Between Daytime Napping and Inhibitory Control in Preschool-Aged Children, Alexandra Santiago, Rebecca Spencer PhD
• Examining Existential Isolation as a Risk Faactor for Clinical Distress and Negative Beliefs about Psychotherapy, Robert Sommer, Michael Constantino PhD
• Child Developmental Outcomes in Early Intervention for Infants Experiencing Infant, Parent, and Prenatal Risk Factors, Emily Starratt, Ashley Woodman PhD
• Genetic and Environmental Influences on Integrated Hair Cortisol Concentrations in Monozygotic Twins, Michael Stornanti, Jerrold Meyer PhD
• Voluntary Binge Drinking Disrupts Nodal Dimensions of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Forceps Minor in Adolescent Rats, Elizabeth Tavares, Heather Richardson PhD
• Exploring the Heritability of Cortisol Through Hair Analysis of Monozygotic Twins, Harli Weber, Jerrold Meyer PhD

2016

• Role of Lateral Hypothalamus Orexin Neurons in Saccharin Incubation Between Male and Female Rats, Kerrin Bersani, David Moorman PhD
• Predictive Measures of HPA Axis Activation in Healthy Young Adults, Maia Borensztein, Jerrold Meyer PhD
• The Effect of Minocycline on Microglial Reactivity to Lipolysaccharide in Peripubertal Female Mice, Idan Davidyan, Jeffrey Blaustein PhD
• Response Monitoring, Feedback, & Attentional Problems in Children, Erin Doncaster, Jennifer M McDermott PhD
• Infant's Expectations About Agent Sound-Size Correspondence, Sara Klum, Erik Cheries PhD
• Norepinephrine Signaling in Auditory Processing Regions of the Male Zebra Finch Brain, Vanessa Lee, Luke Remage-Healey PhD
• An Anger Management Treatment in a Correctional Facility: Preliminary Efficacy and Predictors of Response, Patrick McGonigal, Katherine Dixon-Gordon PhD
• Emotions and the Framing Effect, Holly Neale, Andrew Cohen PhD
• So, How Do I Make Meatloaf?: Assessing Decision-Making Skills After Foster Care, Annika Olson, David Scherer PhD
• The Role of Sleep in Consumer Decision-Making, Serena Pang, Rebecca Spencer PhD
• An Ecological Momentary Assessment in Social Media Use, Jeremy Papasodero, David Scherer PhD
• Perceptions of Birth Family Contact Among Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Partners Involved in Open Adoptions, Yelena Ravvina, Harold Grotevant PhD
• Early Environmental Stress and Adaptive Outcomes in Children, Emily Reilly, Jennifer M McDermott PhD
• Client Autonomy as a Mediator of Long Term Outcome in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Integrated With Motivational Interviewing For Generalized Anxiety, Felicia Romano, Michael Constantino PhD
• The Effect of Belief Bias on Probabilistic Reasoning, Sara Sidlowski, Andrew Cohen PhD
• An Examination of Individual Differences in Sucrose and Alcohol Seeking, Rachel Siegal, David Moorman PhD
• The Effects of Interruptions on Cognitive Processing In A Complex Gambling Task, Meaghan Valler, Andrew Cohen PhD
• Exploring the Role of Attentional Resolution in Visual Search Through Color Dissimilarity, Thomas Wooten, Kyle Cave PhD

2015

• Alopecia as a Correlate of Stress in Corral-Housed Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta), Khalil Abedrabbo, Melinda Novak PhD
• Age-Related Differences in Spontaneous Acquisition of Novel Motor Tool-Using Task, Daniel Agarkov, Melinda Novak PhD
• The Effects of Celebrity Disclosures on Implicit and Explicit Attitudes towards Mental Illness, Laura Archambault, Linda Isbell PhD
• The Effects of Saliency on Short-Term Memory Recall and Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation, Rebecca Brossoit, Rebecca Spencer PhD
• Accumbal Dopamine Transporter and Impulsive Choice, Erin Caffrey, Heather Richardson PhD
• Neural Correlates of Emotion Processing in 4-7 Year Olds with Hyperactivity, Jennifer Cuddy, Jennifer M McDermott PhD
• The Effect of Information Delay on Choice, Jacob Dustin, Andrew Cohen PhD
• The Role of Prostaglandin E2 in Pubertal Developmental Perturbations of Estradiol Dependent Behaviors in Female C57BL/6 Mice, Samuel Fountain, Jeffrey Blaustein PhD
• The Relation Between Face Familiarity and Infant Attention to Gaze-Cued Objects, Elisheva Glater, Lisa Scott PhD
• The benefits of telehealth: Veteran perceptions and satisfaction with videoconferencing versus in-person disability examinations, Rebecca Jankowski, Rebecca Ready PhD
• Do You See What I See? Self-Monitoring and Sensitivity to Context, Taylor Krozy, Nilanjana Dasgupta PhD
• Therapeutic Alliance, Subsequent Change, and Moderators of the Alliance-Outcome Association in Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression, Emily Luukko, Michael Constantino PhD
• Use the Stick of the Carrot to Resolve International Conflict? The Effects of American Threats to Punish or Offers to Reward. Israel to Compromise Over Peace Deals in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Francois Martel, Bernhard Leidner PhD
• Coparenting and Maternal Sensitivity in Working-Poor Families, Shannon Mulkern, Maureen Perry-Jenkins PhD
• Coping-Motivated Drinking and Emotion Dysregulation, Katherine Ozelius, Rebecca Ready PhD
• Association Between Memory and Emotion Regulation in Older Adults, Jean Ricardo, Rebecca Ready PhD
• Do Infants Judge a Book by Its Cover? Infants' Face-Based Social Evaluation, Rachel Rosen, Erik Cheries PhD
• The Effects of Labeling on the Development of Communication and Social Skills with 6 - 9 Month Old Infants, Alexis Sabol, Lisa Scott PhD
• The Relationship between Teacher Burnout and PBS Implementation, Melyssa Sweet, Sara Whitcomb PhD
• The Relationship between Family Structure, Race, and Women's Provider-Role Attitudes, Lauren Talbourdet, Maureen Perry-Jenkins PhD
• Association of Temperamental Exuberance, Self-Conscious Emotions, and Externalizing Behaviors, Andrew Tarbox, Jennifer M McDermott PhD

2014

• Self-Conscious Emotions in Children and Risk for Internalizing Disorders, Kathryn Anzuoni, Jennifer M McDermott PhD
• Overcoming Barriers to Mental Health Treatment, Kaitlin Banschback, Michael Constantino PhD|Chunking Efficiency Predicts Offline Skill Changes in Motor Sequence Learning for Young and Older Adults, Ryan Bottary, Rebecca Spencer PhD
• Relation Between Psychological Distress and Physiological Reactivity and Spouses' Conflict Recovery, Veronica Brandt, Paula Pietromonaco PhD
• The Role of GPER1 on Auditory Processing and Neuroprotection in the Zebra Finch (taeniopygia guttata) Brain, Thomas Cao, Luke Remage-Healey PhD
• The Effect of Adolescent Binge Drinking on Oxidative Stress in the Prefrontal Cortex and Corpus Callosum, Aditi Dave, Heather Richardson PhD
• The Effect of Different Alcohol Drinking Patterns on Prefrontal Corticotropin-Releasing Factor (CRF) Cells in Adolescent Rats, Jacqueline Dibella, Heather Richardson PhD
• The Effect of Sleep on Decision Making in Young Adults, David Gilman, Rebecca M C Spencer PhD
• Analysis of Myelination in Pre-Adolescent and Adolescent Rats, Divya Harpalani, Heather Richardson PhD
• The Road to Security: An Exploration of Therapy's Role in Adult Attachment Change, Kirsten Holmberg, Paula Pietromonaco PhD
• Sleep-dependent memory consolidation in young adults with ADHD, Monica Lewin, Rebecca M C Spencer PhD
• Sleep Dependent Processing Of Emotional Memory In Middle Aged Adults, Alix Mackay, Rebecca M C Spencer PhD
• Circadian Oscillators in the Neural Circuit That Controls Ovulation in Hamsters (Mesocricetus Auratus), Julia Napolitano, Eric Bittman PhD
• Crossed Wernicke's Aphasia: An In-Depth Analysis of the Neurobiological and Behavioral Symptoms, Nicholas Pacella, Jacquie Kurland PhD
• Response Monitoring and Trait Risk for Internalizing Problems, Taylor Pedego, Jennifer M McDermott PhD
• The Effect Certainty on Emotional Preferences, Alyssa Pirrello, Linda Isbell PhD
• Interactions of caregiver-child sleep patterns, mental health and household income, Jarrod Stein, Rebecca M C Spencer PhD
• Sibling relationship quality and academic outcomes in early childhood, Joanna Tan, Maureen Perry-Jenkins PhD
• The Role of Mood in Impression Formation: How Does an Interviewer Use Stereotypes for Minority Race Job Applicants?, Emily Taverna, Linda Isbell PhD
• Creating Policy and Taking Action to Improve the Quality and Accessibility of Mental Healthcare, Emily Taverna, Gloria diFulvio PhD
• Sleep dependent memory consolidation of color discrimination learning, Sahil Tembulkar, Rebecca M C Spencer PhD
• Alpha Suppression and Action Monitoring in Young Children, Sarah Torgrimson, Jennifer M McDermott PhD

2013

• Relationships Between Echo Thresholds and Temporal Order Thresholds in the Auditory and Visual Modalities, Jeanette Adelsberger, Lisa Sanders PhD
• The Effect of Alcohol Exposure on Corticosterone Level During Adolescence, Kerri Connolly, Heather Richardson PhD
• The Effects of Environmental Factors on Executive Functioning in Children, Casey DiMestico, Daniel Anderson PhD
• The Effects of Training in Bejeweled Blitz on Useful Field of View in Older Adults, Stacy Ellenberg, Susan Whitbourne PhD
• The Influence of Expectancy Persuasion Techniques on Socially Anxious Analogue Patients' Treatment Beliefs, Tessa Nalven, Michael Constantino PhD
• Predicting Attention-Deficity/Hyperactivity Disorder From Preschool Neuropsychological Assessments, James Nightingale, Elizabeth Harvey PhD
• Female Pubertal Binge Drinking or Endotoxin Exposure Alters Cognitive & Behavioral Response to Estradiol in Adulthood, Anna Rock, Jeffrey Blaustein PhD
• Effects of Age and Testosterone on Cognition, Emotion, and Fine Motor Function in Adult Male Rhesus Macaques, Christian Rose, Agnes Lacreuse PhD
• Age-Related Changes in the Role of Sleep in False Memory Formation, Alycia Sullivan, Rebecca Spencer PhD
• The Effect of Social Instability During Puberty on the Anti-Depressant Effects of Estradiol in Adult CD-1 Mice, Hayley Sullivan, Jeffrey Blaustein PhD