News
Spotlight on UC Merced
Congratulations to Malgorzata Skorek, who has successfully passed her Candidacy Exam on November 18. She is now a Ph.D Candidate.
Exciting new collaborations: UC Merced and UCLA have begun a collaboration whereby graduate students can take courses at the other campus by videoconference. The first course in the sequence is UC Merced's PSY 206 Quantitative Methods for Reviewing Research, taught by UC Merced Professor Will Shadish. Six UC Merced graduate students are taking the course, along with seven UCLA graduate students who are taking the course by videoconference. In Spring Semester 2010, Professor Jack Vevea will videoconference his advanced meta-analytic statistics course to UCLA, and in Spring Quarter 2010, Professor Mike Seltzer of UCLA will videoconference his course on hierarchical linear models to UC Merced.
Congratulations to Professor Will Shadish who recently published his third invited chapter in the Annual Review of Psychology. Entitled "The Renaissance of Field Experimentation in Evaluating Interventions", the chapter reviews the important developments in the last several decades that have led to a resurgence in the use of experimental and quasi-experimental methods in program evaluation. Invitations to write chapters for the Annual Review are rare and considered an honor.
UC Merced students get plenty of help with financial aid grants and scholarships awarded to 75 percent of the students. Click here to read the story.
UC Merced welcomes Mark S. Aldenderfer as the new dean of the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. Dean Aldenderfer previously worked as an anthropology professor at the University of Arizona, as well as the University of California, Santa Barbara. He also added a part-time administrative position as director of the Office of Information Technology at UCSB. We are excited to see where his visions of leading SSHA take us. Click here to read more on the story.
UC Merced's Developmental Psychology Professor Yarrow Dunham is currently editing a special issue of the European Journal of Social Psychology on developmental intergroup social cognition along with Juliane Degner from the University of Amsterdam. We look forward to its appearance in 2010.
Congratulations to Kristi Imberi-Olivares who won the the Cognitive Development Society Travel Stipen Award. This award will cover her costs to attend the upcoming Cognitive Development Society conference October 16-18 2009 where she will be presenting her poster on "Conversation as a source of information: Who do children trust?"
Congratulations to Michelle Chouinard and Kristi Imberi-Olivares! Their poster, "Conversation as a source of information: Who do children trust?", was accepted at the biennial Cognitive Development Society meeting held in San Antonio, Texas October 16 and 17, 2009.
Congratulations to Martyna Citkowicz, who has successfully defended her master's thesis, "Conditionally Random Inference in Meta-Analysis: A Monte Carlo Study" on September 30. Martyna's thesis examines the impact of conditionally random inference on statistical conclusions in meta-analysis. (Conditionally random inference refers to the common practice of choosing a fixed- or random-effects model on the basis of a test for heterogeneity.) Martyna's findings indicate that the practice is likely to lead to unfounded conclusions about moderators of treatment effects. This has important implications for public policy decisions that are based on meta-analytic investigations.
Congratulations to Professor Jan Wallander for his recent publications in the field of Health Psychology:
- Wallander, J.L., Taylor, W., Grunbaum, J.A., Franklin, F., Harrison, G., Kelder, S., & Schuster, M. (2009). Weight status, quality of life, and self-concept in African American, Hispanic, and White children. Obesity, 17, 1363-1368.
- Windle, M., Brener, N., Cuccaro, P., Dittus, P., Kanouse, D.E., Murray, N., Wallander, J., & Schuster, M.A. (in press). Parenting Predictors of Early-Adolescent's Health Behaviors: Simultaneous Group Comparisons across Sex and Ethnic Groups. Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
- Rimhaug, T., & Wallander, J.L. (in press). Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms Related to Parenthood in a Large Norwegian Community Sample (The Hunt2 Study). Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.
UC Merced received $1.3 million to create a Center of Excellence for the Study of Health Disparities in Rural and Ethnic Underserved Populations. UC Merced's Health Psychology Professor Jan Wallander will co-direct the new center with UC Merced's School of Natural Sciences Professor and Dean Maria Pallavicini. Click here to read the story.
Related new stories on the award and plans for the new UC Merced med school are reported in the following newpapers:
- The Fresno Bee: UC Merced gets $1.3M federal grant
- Merced Sun-Star: UC Merced receives $1.3 million to study health disparities, advancing medical school plans
- Merced Sun-Star: All systems go for UC Merced med school with $1.3M federal grant
- The Turlock Journal: Health grant opens door for future UC Merced medical school
News Archive
UC Merced Psychological Sciences welcomes Professor Michael Hoyt as a new faculty member in Health Psychology. Dr. Hoyt's work examines biobehavioral processes associated with psychological coping and health-related quality of life in individuals with or at risk for chronic illness or other health-related adversity. We are excited to have him join our group and look forward to working with him.
UC Merced Psychological Sciences welcomes 3 new graduate students: Tori Pickle working with Professor Jack Vevea in Quantitative Psychology, Steven Scott working with Professor Michael Hoyt in Health Psychology, and Kristynn Sullivan Leon working with Professor Will Shadish in Quantitative Psychology. We believe they are a great addition to our group and look forward to working with them.
UC Merced undergraduate psychology major, Brittany Best, talks about the benefits, as well as her experience, of studying on "our little campus." Click here to read her story.
UC researchers received $2.3 million to study a new vocabulary assessment tool. UC Merced's Quantitative Psychology Professor Jack Vevea will be co-working the grant with his colleagues at UC Santa Cruz. Click here to read the story.
Founding faculty member Will Shadish, Professor of Psychological Sciences in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, will receive the 2009 Mosteller Award for lifetime contributions to evidence based policy and practice May 20th, 2009, from the Campbell Collaboration when it hosts its annual colloquium in Oslo, Norway. Shadish’s work in experimental design and quantitative methods for research synthesis exemplifies the colloquium’s theme of “better evidence for a better world.” As part of the award, Shadish has been invited to deliver a keynote address during the event’s plenary session.
Congratulations to Kristi Imberi-Olivares who won the Spring 2009 Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts Student Research Fund from the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts Recruitment and Retention Committee at University of California, Merced.
Congratulations to Michelle Chouinard and Kristi Imberi-Olivares! Their work was presented as part of a symposium, "Questioning Minds: How Preschoolers Use Questions as a Tool to Acquire Information", the biennial Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) held in Denver, Colorado on April 2-5, 2009. Their paper examined how 3- and 4-year-olds interact with different sources-parents, experimenters, or siblings-to obtain information during a free-play activity. Children gathered information from sources other than parents, but the type, quantity, and goals of the questions varied, suggesting that how children might learn from questions varies between conversational partners.
Congratulations to Rodolfo Galindo and William R. Shadish! Their poster, "A Randomized Experiment Comparing Random to Cutoff-Based Assignment" was accepted at American Evaluation Association's annual conference November 5-8, 2008 in Denver, CO.
Congratulations to Lizbeth Duran and Michelle Chouinard! Their poster, "The Role of Parental Mental-State Talk in the Development of Social Understanding" was accepted at the 33rd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, October 31 - November 2, 2008.
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