Tom named Centennial Chair
Tom has been named Centennial Chair. For faculty, named chairs are the highest forms of regard within the University.
Read MoreCongratulations Dr. Jason Chow
Congratulations to Jason on successfully defending his PhD for a thesis titled “Modeling Individual Differences in High-level Visual Cognition Using DNNs“. His PhD committee was me, Isabel Gauthier, Sean Polyn, and Maithilee Kunda. Jason is now on to an industry position with Meta in Seattle as a Research Engineer. His starting project will be working on developing open-source software tools for adaptive psychophysical experimentation in real and virtual environments. Congrats Jason!
Read MoreYinuo Peng joins the CatLab
Yinuo Peng joins the CatLab and the Psychological Sciences PhD program as a graduate student this fall. Welcome Yinuo!
Yinuo received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Master’s degree in Psychological Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where, under the supervision of Dr. Frances Wang and Dr. Simona Buetti, she studied time and space perception, visual search, and object learning in humans and deep neural networks. As a graduate student at Vanderbilt, Yinuo is interested in exploring the mechanisms of object perception, recognition, and representation using computational and deep learning techniques.
Read MoreJin wins Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Fellowship
Congratulations to Jin Jeong on winning a Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Fellowship to supplement his support in years four and five as a graduate student the Psychological Sciences PhD program. Jin previously was awarded a University Graduate Fellowship to supplement his support in his first three years. Congratulations Jin!
Read MoreTom Elected Fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP)
Tom has been elected as a Fellow of the the Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP). SEP is the oldest scientific society in the field, started by Titchener over a century ago, and election is a signal honor. Other departmental faculty who are Fellows of SEP are Randolph Blake, Isabel Gauthier, Gordon Logan, and Jon Kaas.
The first meeting of the Society of Experimental Psychologists … was held at Cornell University in 1904. The meetings then, and for many years thereafter, were presided over by Edward Bradford Titchener. Researchers from universities including Cornell, Yale, Clark, Michigan, and Princeton attended these early meetings, with Chicago and Iowa soon joining. Research papers were read and discussed by established researchers and tyros alike. As the number of practicing experimental psychologists grew nationally, along grew discussions concerning the limits that should be placed on membership in the group: Should it be kept small to ensure a manageable series of conferences; or should it be open to all interested, practicing experimental psychologists? The decision was made to keep it small-to follow the so-called Academy model-and eventually Fellows of the society were instrumental in the founding of an alternative organization, called The Psychonomic Society, to serve the needs of broader representation and communication.
The meetings were kept small and brief, just one and half days of sessions, and continued their emphases on communication of ongoing research and the open exchange of ideas among active researchers. In the original bylaws of 1929, the purpose of the Society was stated simply as follows: “To advance Psychology by arranging informal conferences on experimental methodology.” Methodology had been an important focus of the Experimentalists, where visits to laboratories and the demonstration of equipment during meetings were actively encouraged. As the Society’s evolved interest in methodology waned, it was replaced by interest in theory and data.
Read MoreJenn Richler wins Distinguished Alumnus Award
Congratulations to Jenn Richler on winning the Psychological Sciences at Vanderbilt Distinguished Alumnus Award! Jenn received her PhD working with Tom Palmeri and Isabel Gauthier where her research focused on face and object perception and recognition, learning, attention, and memory. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt where she also worked as an Associate Editor for Journal of Experimental: Psychology: General and a writer for the American Psychological Association, Jenn chose to move into a scientific publishing career. Jenn joined Nature Climate Change and Nature Energy in 2016 as a Senior Editor handling manuscripts that spanned the behavioral and social sciences. Jenn returned to her psychology roots as the launch Chief Editor of Nature Reviews Psychology in 2021.
To recognize and honor the distinguished alumni of Psychological Sciences at Vanderbilt, we have established the Distinguished Alumnus Lecture. The recipient is a former undergraduate, graduate student, or postdoctoral fellow from the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Science or the Department of Psychology and Human Development in Peabody College at Vanderbilt who has made major contributions to the psychological sciences. The recipient will receive a $500 honorarium and will be invited to give the Distinguish Alumnus Lecture.
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