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    Bad judgments about people can affect memories of them, Cornell study finds
  • Moral judgments affect memory and can change how you remember objective facts, prompting you to recall the person's behavior as worse than it really was, finds Cornell Professor David Pizarro.
  • http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March06/morality.memory.ssl.html
  • Posted: Thursday, March 16, 2006

    Hamster study shows how our brains recognize other individuals
  • Different areas of the brain react differently when recognizing other, depending on the emotions attached to the memory, a team of Cornell University research psychologists led by Professor Robert E. Johnston has found. The Cornell News Service provides a link to the front-page article from the Cornell Chronicle of March 9, 2006, as well as a Quicktime video illustrating the details of the research.
  • http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March06/memory.recognition.to.html
  • Posted: Thursday, March 9, 2006

    Morten Christiansen awarded a Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowship
  • Prof. Morten Christiansen was awarded a Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies. The Fellowship, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will be used to support a year-long sabbatical leave to pursue the research project, "Creating Language: Towards a Unified Framework for Language Acquisition, Processing, and Evolution", at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
  • http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept06/christiansen.notable.html
  • Posted: Monday, February 6, 2006

    Blocking the freshman 15 -- and maybe even the national obesity trend -- could be as simple as daily weighing, finds Cornell study
  • Preventing the so-called freshman 15 -- the typical number of pounds students gain during their first year of college -- could be as simple as stepping on a scale every morning or getting a little information about big portions in all-you-can-eat dining halls, according to two new studies from Cornell University.
          In the first experimental study of the effects of daily weighings, David Levitsky, Cornell professor of nutritional sciences and of psychology, and several colleagues, whose study will be published in 2006 in the International Journal of Obesity, weighed a group of first-year female college students at the beginning and end of the semester.
  • http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov05/block.weight.gain.ssl.html
  • Posted: Tuesday, November 22, 2005

    Onnis, Spivey, Christiansen awarded National Institutes of Health Grant
  • Prof. Michael Spivey, Prof. Morten Christiansen, and Dr. Luca Onnis have obtained an R03 grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant is for their work on "Online differences in sentence processing between monolinguals, early bilinguals and late bilinguals."
  • Posted: Thursday, October 20, 2005

    Prof. Elizabeth Adkins-Regan publishes new book, Hormones and Animal Social Behavior
  • Research into the lives of animals in their natural environments has revealed a rich tapestry of complex social relationships and previously unsuspected social and mating systems. The evolution of this behavior is increasingly well understood. At the same time, laboratory scientists have made significant discoveries about how steroid and peptide hormones act on the nervous system to shape behavior. An exciting and rapidly progressing hybrid zone has developed in which these two fields are integrated, providing a fuller understanding of social behavior and the adaptive functions of hormones.
    This book, published by Princeton University Press, is a guide to these fascinating connections between animal social behavior and steroid and peptide hormones--a synthesis designed to make it easier for graduate students and researchers to appreciate the excitement, engage in such integrative thinking, and understand the primary literature. Throughout, Elizabeth Adkins-Regan emphasizes concepts and principles, hypothesis testing, and critical thinking. She raises unanswered questions, providing an unparalleled source of ideas for future research. The chapter sequence is by levels of biological organization, beginning with the behavior and hormones of individuals, proceeding to social relationships and systems, and from there to development, behavioral evolution over relatively short time scales, life histories and their evolution, and finally evolution over longer time scales. The book features studies of a wide variety of wild and domestic vertebrates along with some of the most important invertebrate discoveries.
  • http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/8106.html
  • Posted: Thursday, October 13, 2005

    Having inaccurate self-insights has serious consequences
  • People consistently have inaccurate self-insights about their skills and talents, and these misperceptions can have serious consequences for health, education and work. Not being aware of our errors of omission is one reason why we're such poor judges about ourselves, says Cornell Professor David Dunning.
  • http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Oct05/self.insight.ssl.html
  • Posted: Thursday, October 13, 2005

    New Cornell study suggests that mental processing is continuous, not like a computer
  • Michael Spivey's research -- using the streaming x,y coordinates of computer-mouse movements as evidence for continuous temporal dynamics in the cognitive representations that are generated during real-time language processing -- was recently covered in The Cornell Chronicle, MIT's TechnologyReview.com, and in the magazine Scientific American Mind.
  • Posted: Monday, October 10, 2005

    Memorial Service Planned for William W. Lambert
  • The family of Prof. William Wilson Lambert invites friends to celebrate and commemorate his life at a memorial event and reception on Saturday, November 26, 2005, at the A.D. White House on the Cornell University campus, from 11 am - 2 pm eastern time.
    To send written reminiscences to be shared at the event, or for more information, contact daughters Hilary Lambert (hlhopper@prodigy.net) or Holly L. Nolting (FNol366729@aol.com).
  • Posted: Monday, October 10, 2005

    Urie Bronfenbrenner, 88, an Authority on Child Development, Dies
  • See the Cornell News Service story and the New York Times article
  • Posted: Friday, September 30, 2005

    Urie Bronfenbrenner Obituary from the Ithaca Journal 9/27/05
  • URIE BRONFENBRENNER

    Urie Bronfenbrenner, co-founder of Head Start and widely regarded as one of the world's leading scholars in developmental psycholofy, child-rearing and human ecology, died at Kendal at Ithaca yesterday after a long illness. He was 88. Bronfenbrenner was the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Human Development and Family Studies and Psychology, Emeritus at Cornell University.
          rie Bronfenbrenner was born on April 29, 1917 in Moscow, Russia, son of Dr. Alexander Bronfenbrenner and Eugenie Kamenetski Bronfenbrenner. Six years later he came to the United States. After a brief stay in Pittsburgh, the family settled in Letchworth Village, the home of the New York State Institution for the Mentally Retarded, where his father worked as a clinical pathologist and research director.
          After his graduation from Haverstraw High School, Urie attended Cornell University where he completed a double major in psychology and music in 1938. He went on to graduate work in developmental psychology, completing an M.A. at Harvard followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1942. Twenty-four hours after receiving his doctorate he was inducted into the Army where he served as a psychologist in a variety of assignments in the Air Corps and the Office of Strategic Services. After completing officer training he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps.
          Right after the war, Bronfenbrenner worked briefly as Assistant Chief Clinical Psychologist for Administration and Research for the Veterans' Administration before beginning his work as Assistant Professor in Psychology at the University of Michigan. In 1948 he accepted a professorship in Human Development and Family Studies and Psychology at Cornell University, his Alma Mater. He became well known at Cornell and beyond, for his extensive research and writings in the field of human development, international comparisons of child rearing, and his development of the theories of Human Ecology and the Bio-ecological Model. His extensive writings on these subjects include the books Two Worlds of Childhood, The Ecology of Human Development, and his final work, Making Human Beings Human. He was well known for his large classes that filled Bailey Hall, in which he challenged his students to think critically, engaging more than 900 students in one large discussion section.
          In November 1942, Urie Bronfenbrenner and Liese Price were married in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the first years of their marriage Urie was in the military, then after the war moving first to Michigan in 1946, and then in 1948 with their two eldest children returning to Cornell. Shortly after coming back to Cornell, the family moved to Forest Home, an area with good neighbors, near the woods and gorges the family grew to love, and within biking distance to Urie's Cornell office in Martha Van Rensselear Hall. Urie also loved music--classical, folk, and jazz, and passed on his love of music to his children, and, most especially, his grandchildren.
          Urie Bronfenbrenner was an active member of numerous professional and government organizations both in this country and abroad. He has received many awards, including six honorary degrees, including three from European universities. In 1996 he received the first American Psychological Association Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the service of Science and Society. This award is now given in his name. As one of the founders of Head Start, he was also given the Life-long Mentor Award presented by the Program Committee for Head Start at the first National Research Conference in 2000. In recognition of his scholarship and leadership in linking basic research to social policy, the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center was named in his honor in 1993 in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell.
          Bronfenbrenner taught, lectured, attended international conferences, and carried out research in North and South America, Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific Rim. He worked as a fellow for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University; at the Max Planck Institute for Bildungsforschung in Berlin-Dahlem; and at universities in Bern, Switzerland; Moscow, Russia; Munich, Germany; Melbourne, Australia; Tel Aviv, Israel; Kobe, Japan; as well as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Center for the Study of Family and Society at the University of Konstanz, Germany.
          Urie Bronfenbrenner is survived by his wife, Liese and his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchild including: Beth Soll of New York City (child: Jacob Soll (Ellen Wayland-Smith) child: Sophia); Ann Stambler (Monty Stambler) of Newton Center, MA (children: Liz (Tom Pasquini), Ben, and Sam); Mary Bronfenbrenner of Ithaca (children: Maggie, Sara, and Nikolas Mateer); Michael Bronfenbrenner (Jacqueline Cox) of Seal Beach, CA (children: Skye, Nina, and AJ); Kate Bronfenbrenner (Coert Bonthius) of Ithaca (children: Daniel and Rosa Bonthius); and Steven Bronfenbrenner (Elena Bales) of San Anselmo, CA (child: Ross).
          A memorial service for friends, colleagues, and family will be at 3 pm, Saturday, October 8, 2005 at the Kendal at Ithaca Auditorium.
          Memorial donations can be made in Urie Bronfenbrenner's name to the following:
          Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center, Beebe Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
          Mann Library, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853.
  • http://miva.pressconnects.com/miva/cgi-bin/miva/ithndetail.mv?ARCID=1047&speak=Bronfenbrenner&fyear=05
  • Posted: Wednesday, September 28, 2005

    Computer program learns language rules and composes sentences, all without outside help
  • Cornell University and Tel Aviv University researchers [including Cornell Professor of Psychology Shimon Edelman] have developed a method for enabling a computer program to scan text in any of a number of languages, including English and Chinese, and autonomously and without previous information infer the underlying rules of grammar. The rules can then be used to generate new and meaningful sentences. The method also works for such data as sheet music or protein sequences.
  • http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug05/comp.learns.language.ssl.html
  • Posted: Tuesday, August 30, 2005

    W.W. Lambert Obituary from the International Journal of Intercultural Relations
  • To read the obituary, written by Harry C. Triandis, enter the following DOI reference at the website below doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.05.013
  • http://dx.doi.org
  • Posted: Friday, June 24, 2005

    Viewing yourself as others do can help nudge you toward personal goals, studies at Cornell find
  • Trying to lose weight, be less nervous when speaking publicly or improve in some other way? One strategy that can help is to switch your point of view from the first-person to a third-person perspective when reviewing your progress, according to a series of studies conducted at Cornell University.
          "We have found that perspective can influence your interpretation of past events. In a situation in which change is likely, we find that observing yourself as a third person -- looking at yourself from an outside observer's perspective -- can help accentuate the changes you've made more than using a first-person perspective," says Thomas Gilovich, professor of psychology at Cornell. When people perceive change, they get some satisfaction from their efforts, which, in turn, can give them more motivation to keep on working toward a personal goal, he says.
  • http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/April05/self-change.viewpoint.ssl.html
  • Posted: Wednesday, April 13, 2005

    William Wilson Lambert Obituary from the Ithaca Journal 4/5/05
  • WILLIAM WILSON LAMBERT
    1919 - 2005

    ALEXANDRIA, VA - William Wilson Lambert, 85, died on February 26, 2005 in Arlington, VA. A fifty-five year resident of the Ithaca area, he was born May 10, 1919 in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada, son of the late Harry Lambert and Alice (Grace) McPhee Babcock Lambert. He is survived by his brother, Wallace E. Lambert, who lives in Montreal with his wife, Janine. His wife, Elisabeth Carr Lambert, died in 1998.
          His family emigrated to Taunton, MA when he was six. He was a hard-working and brilliant student and attended Taunton High School, Mt. Herman School, Brown University, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University, where he earned his Ph.D. in psychology in 1950. During World War II, he was a research specialist for the Navy in Washington, D.C.
          His academic career commenced with teaching appointments first at Harvard, then at Brown University's Dept. of Psychology in 1950-51. In 1951 he and Elizabeth moved to Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, where he held an interdepartmental position in Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology until his retirement. He was Dean of Cornell's Graduate School from 1974-1980. He received numerous prestigious grants for teaching and research and was regularly invited as a visiting scholar to a number of places where he and his family traveled for short periods, including the Center for Advanced Studies in Palo Alto, CA; Fulbright awards took them to the University of Oslo and the University of Stockholm; a Rockefeller grant took them to the University of the Philippines; and other awards saw them in London, Bellagio, and Padua, making for a rich and fascinating professorial and family life. In all these places he formed lifelong friendships and collaborative partnerships.
          He was President of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research, and author and editor of many books and articles, including Social Psychology (with Wallace E. Lambert) and Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology (co-editor, with Harry Triandis). The social psychology laboratory at Cornell University is named in his honor. He was a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. Following his retirement he remained an active, vital and generous member of the Cornell community and the fields of social and cross-cultural psychology, stress and cognition, game theory and aggression.
          In addition to his brother, he is survived by his friend and companion, Helen Kelley of Alexandria, VA; daughters, Holly Nolting of Golden, CO, and Hilary Lambert of Lexington, KY; grandchildren, Louis, Anna, and Katie Nolting, and Margaret and Oliver Renwick; niece, Sylvie Lambert; and nephew, Philippe Lambert; many admiring friends and colleagues; and countless appreciative and grateful students. A memorial program will be held in Ithaca later this year. Information will be available from the Department of Psychology at Cornell University.
  • http://miva.pressconnects.com/miva/cgi-bin/miva/ithndetail.mv?ARCID=420&speak=Lambert&fyear=05
  • Posted: Tuesday, April 5, 2005

    Further Developments: A Symposium Dedicated to Eleanor J. Gibson
  • Eleanor Gibson was a revered researcher in an ecological approach to perceptual learning and development, who made many of the fundamental observations on which the present study of perceptual learning and development is built, and who launched many of the students who presently populate this field. The Department of Psychology at Cornell University is proud to sponsor a symposium October 17th and 18th 2003, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, on current research in development that finds its roots in a Gibsonian perspective.
  • http://susan.psych.cornell.edu/EJgibson/does_not_work
  • Posted: Wednesday, September 17, 2003

    Empirical Methods in Cognitive Linguistics, May 2-4, 2003
  • The Cognitive Studies spring symposium (May 2-4, 2003) this year takes the form of a workshop: Empirical Methods in Cognitive Linguistics (EMCL) Workshop. Student registration for the workshop is closed, but you are welcome to attend the sessions informally!
  • http://cerebro.psych.cornell.edu/emcl
  • Posted: Tuesday, April 15, 2003

    Eleanor Jack Gibson Obituary from the Ithaca Journal 1/7/03
  • ELEANOR JACK GIBSON

    ITHACA - Eleanor Jack Gibson, 92, died December 30, 2002.
          Born in Peoria, IL, she was an experimental psychologist who received the National Medal of Science in 1992. Author of five books on perception, infant development and reading, Dr. Gibson was educated at Smith College and held a PhD from Yale.
          She was Susan Linn Sage Professor of Psychology Emerita at Cornell University. An elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she also received 11 honorary degrees.
          She is survived by her sister, Emily Jack; son and daughter-in-law, James J. and Lois Rauch Gibson; daughter and son-in-law, David and Jean Rosenberg; and four grandchildren. Her husband, psychologist James J. Gibson Sr., died in 1979.
          Memorial contributions may be made to the Gibson Lecture Series, c/o Tom Gilovich, Chair, Psychology Dept., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. Memorial services will be held at a later date in Middlebury, VT and Columbia, SC.
  • http://miva.pressconnects.com/miva/cgi-bin/miva/ithndetail.mv?ARCID=135&speak=Gibson&fyear=03
  • Posted: Wednesday, January 8, 2003

    Eleanor J. Gibson, 92, a Pioneer in Perception Studies, Is Dead
  • New York Times Obituary 1/4/2003
    By CARLA BARANAUCKAS

    Dr. Eleanor J. Gibson, a psychology professor at Cornell who made advances in the study of perception and learning processes in children, died on Dec. 30 in Columbia, S.C. She was 92.
          Photographs of the "visual cliff," a device she developed to study depth perception in infants and toddlers, are still included in some psychology textbooks.
          Dr. Gibson, then working as a research associate at Cornell, and Dr. Richard Walk used the simulated cliff in tests to show that babies could visually distinguish depth.
          The cliff was "a wooden table from the edge of which strong plate glass extended," Life magazine reported in 1959.
          "Children were put on the table top and coaxed to crawl out over the glass," the magazine said. "But when they got to the edge of the cliff and looked down almost all of them quickly withdrew. Even their mothers' most persuasive urgings could not get them out."
          Similar studies were done with animals, including rats and kittens.
          The findings indicated that perception is an essentially adaptive process, or as Dr. Gibson put it, "We perceive to learn, as well as learn to perceive."
          Dr. Gibson also did pioneering work in the relationship of perception and reading.
          Eleanor Jack was born in Peoria, Ill. She received her bachelor's degree from Smith in 1931 and her master's degree in 1933. She earned her doctorate in psychology at Yale in 1938.
          Her marriage in 1932 to Dr. James J. Gibson, a psychnlogy professor who also conducted research on perception, was both a help and a hindrance to her career.
          They collaborated occasionally, but when he joined the faculty of Cornell in 1949, she was unable to secure a teaching post there because of anti-nepotism rules, which were common in universities. So she worked as a research associate at Cornell.
          In 1965, after the rules changed, she was appointed to an endowed chair as a professor of psychology, and the Gibsons became one of the first married couples in a single department at the university.
          She also held academic appointments at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, Calif.; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the Universities of Minnesota, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Connecticut; Emory and the Salk Institute.
          In 1982, she was invited to Beijing to teach Chinese psychologists about recent theories and techniques of research.
          Dr. Gibson was the author of five books, including the memoir "Perceiving the Affordances: A Portrait of Two Psychologists," published hn 2001.
          Recently, Dr. Gibson lived in Columbia.
          Her husband died in 1979. She is survived by a son, James J., also of Columbia; a daughter, Jean Rosenberg of Middlebury, Vt.; a sister, Emily Jack of Washington; and three grandchildren.

    Errata: "Perceiving the Affordances" was published in 2002.
    Dr. Gibson is survived by four grandchildren.
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/04/obituaries/04GIBS.html
  • Posted: Sunday, January 5, 2003


 
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