Psychology Program at Bard | Research Opportunities

Interested in Participating in Experiments?

Faculty Research

· Richard Gordon, Ph.D.
· Sarah Lopez-Duran, Ph.D.
· Frank M. Scalzo, Ph.D.

· Kristin Lane, Ph.D.
· Barbara Luka, Ph.D.
· Christie Achebe, Ph.D.

Psychology Program Laboratory Facilities

• Richard Gordon, Ph.D.

I have spent my entire career examining the social and biological influences on psychopathology. Since the early 1980s, I have also had a strong interest in the subject of eating disorders, particularly the ways in which these serious afflictions reflect the complex intersections of culture, psychology and biology. I have written three books on eating disorders, one of which was translated into French, Italian, Hebrew and Spanish. Currently I am intensely involved in the research for two very different new books. The first of these is a new work on the recent history of eating disorders, as the field has taken shape from the middle to the late 20th century. For this purpose I am conducting an extensive series of interviews of major figures in the field in the United States and Europe. The second book is on the spectacular increase of the use of medication to treat psychological disorders, and the way in which culture has influenced and has been affected by our emerging biological view of mental disorder. This work is partly influenced by my fascination with neuroscience and the major contributions that our understanding of the brain has made to our constructs of afflictions involving depression, anxiety and related issues. But I am also interested in how a biological view of our everyday problems is affecting our view of ourselves, for better or for worse. This work therefore not only takes me into the scientific underpinnings of medications such as antidepressants, stimulants and tranquillizers but also into such questions as the mass marketing of psychopharmaceuticals and its impact on our understanding of who we are.

(Revised September 2005)

• Sarah Lopez-Duran, Ph.D.

My research focuses on the ways that children’s thinking about their social world changes between the ages of 2 and 6 years old. How do they come to understand other people as thinkers and feelers, and to make accurate guesses about other people’s intentions, desires, and thoughts? Children are making great leaps in their understanding of their own personal past and future during these years, and this understanding is also a focus of study in the context of perspective-taking and understanding of others. Work in the lab focuses primarily on typically-developing children, but I also have a strong interest in children with autism spectrum disorders, who show unique and interesting patterns of performance on the topics described above. These children also participate in our laboratory research, and we hope to learn more about the developmental trajectory of self- and other-understanding in both of these groups of children.
For more information on our work, visit our lab website at: www.cdp.bard.edu

• Frank M. Scalzo, Ph.D.

The Bard Neuroscience Research Laboratory provides research opportunities in several areas of neuroscience. These include vertebrate and invertebrate behavior, neurochemistry, behavioral pharmacology, neurobehavioral teratology, neuroanatomy and molecular biology. Laboratory research integrates the research interests of students and faculty and is focused on understanding the behavioral and neurobiological effects of exposure to chemical substances whose primary mechanism of action is through the nervous system.

Current research is focused on understanding the functional role of n-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor systems in zebrafish (Danio rerio) and how these systems can be perturbed by chemical insults. Behavioral, neuroanatomical, psychopharmacological and molecular techniques are used in these investigations. A second line of research is focused on examining the ontogeny and mechanisms of stress responses in embryonic zebrafish. Experimental manipulations, including exposure to drugs and toxins, have the potential to produce a stress response in experimental subjects. This stress response can potentially interact with experimental manipulations in ways that might mask or exacerbate neurotoxic effects. Zebrafish provide an excellent model system in which to investigate these potential effects because of their rapid growth and transparency during the embryonic stage that allows for the visualization of neuronal and other structures related to stress responses.

Students who have an interest in brain and behavior research are encouraged to participate in a supervised research practicum, Psych NEU Independent Research in Neuroscience. For more information please contact Prof. Frank Scalzo (Scalzo@bard.edu).

(Revised September 2005)

• Barbara Luka, Ph.D.

My research investigates the representation of linguistic knowledge. I have two areas of specialization: 1) how meaningful contexts influence our comprehension of words; 2) how structural contexts influence our comprehension of sentences. To study the lexical and syntactic representation of knowledge, I do studies that measure reaction time and accuracy for people reading individual words and entire sentences. In collaboration with other laboratories, I also use physiological measures (actual recordings of brain activity) while people read are reading words and sentences. Students who work in the Cognitive Lab with me sometimes study similar psycholinguistic processes, but we also examine other aspects of cognition such as learning, attention, memory, reasoning, and emotional processing.

• Christie Achebe, Ph.D.

Under Construction.

• Kristin Lane, Ph.D.

Under Construction.