Clark Whelton ’59

Say Your Prayers and Take Your Chances — City Journal

Clark Whelton ’59 compared his recollections of the 1957–58 global influenza pandemic — which he experienced at �ֲ���ý firsthand — to what’s transpiring now. 

“Today, I look back and wonder if an oblivious America faced the 1957 plague with a kind of clueless folly,” writes Whelton, a former speechwriter for New York City mayors Edward Koch and Rudolph Giuliani.

“Why weren’t we more active in fighting this contagion? Could stricter quarantine procedures have reduced the rate of infection and lowered the death toll? In short, why weren’t we more afraid?”

Read the story:

• “” City Journal, March 13, 2020

Jenna Armstrong ’15

Duke medical student Jenna Armstrong named Gates-Cambridge scholar — Duke Today 

Duke University announced that Jenna Armstrong, �ֲ���ý ’15, won a Gates-Cambridge Scholarship, a prestigious award that funds the full cost of a degree at Cambridge University. 

Starting in October 2020, Armstrong will earn a doctorate in physiology, development, and neuroscience. She plans to study “human metabolic resilience in older individuals through the lens of mitochondrial function and malleability,” according to Duke — in other words, she’ll study aging, and how to ease its effects, at the cellular level. 

Armstrong majored in biological chemistry and mathematics at �ֲ���ý and was a rower all four years. 

Read the story:

• “,” Duke Today, Feb. 17, 2020

Mike Nelson ’06

Nelson eager to be another kid’s lighthouse — The Wanderer 

Southeastern Massachusetts’ The Wanderer reported that Mike Nelson ’06 was appointed superintendent of the Old Rochester Regional School District. When he takes the job on June 30, he will be the youngest superintendent in the state. 

Nelson, who studied politics at �ֲ���ý, always knew he wanted to work in public education, he told reporter Mick Colageo. He has served as director of student services and assistant superintendent in the same school district. 

“I really thought about ‘Why am I applying for this position?’” said Nelson, who is currently developing remote learning opportunities for the students who are staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic. During his interview for the post, “I shared comments about the analogy that educators can be lighthouses for children.

“I thought about how fortunate I was not only to have one lighthouse but many different lighthouses who were educators throughout my life. And I said, ‘That’s the reason why I believe I ended up interviewing for this position,’ because in some ways it helps me come full circle in terms of what people gave to me.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” The Wanderer, March 12, 2020

Katie Dobkowski 

Parasitic sushi worms have quietly been on the rise, study says — New York Post 

Hannah Frishberg of The New York Post covered a new study, co-authored by Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Katie Dobkowski, which found that the number of parasitic worms humans can ingest by eating raw or undercooked seafood is on the rise. 

Dobkowski worked on the paper, which studied the prevalence of Anisakis, or “herring worm,” as a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences at the University of Washington. 

While herring worms — which also infect other species — pose more of a danger for marine mammals, the parasites can cause symptoms of food poisoning for humans who eat contaminated sushi. 

People up and down the supply chain do their best to remove the worms before they make it to a diner’s plate, but the researchers recommend that, to be extra sure their roll doesn’t contain a little something extra, sushi lovers should inspect every bite for worms before chowing down. 

Read the story: 

• “,” New York Post, March 20, 2020

Rakey Drammeh ’14

‘Squash gave me the tools to pick and choose my way to exist in the world at large,’ says StreetSquash graduate Rakey — Squash Mad

Squash news site Squash Mad editor Alan Thatcher covered a dinner celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Squash and Education Alliance, a network that combines squash, academics, and college preparation for underresourced communities. 

During the event, Rakey Drammeh ’14 gave a “show-stopping speech” about her experience with the affiliated program StreetSquash. An environmental studies major, she was captain of the women’s squash team at �ֲ���ý and is now a software developer at Citibank. 

“SEA introduced me to a world that I never imagined knowing or being part of,” Drammeh said in her speech. “But more than that, it gave me the tools to pick and choose my way to exist in that world at large.”

Read the story: 

• “�Ę,” Squash Mad, Jan. 26, 2020

�ֲ���ý College

�ֲ���ý College breaks record for Fulbright award winners — Sun Journal 

The Lewiston Sun Journal shared the college’s February announcement of a historic year for the college’s Fulbright Student Award program.

With 24 young alumni receiving Fulbright-sponsored awards for teaching and research worldwide in 2019–20, �ֲ���ý is the No. 1 producer of Fulbright Student awards among U.S. liberal arts colleges. The college’s two dozen awards are the most ever going to a U.S. liberal arts college.

(Subsequent to this article, in March, the U.S. State Department due to the COVID-19 public health crisis.)

Read the story: 

• “,” Sun Journal, Feb. 10, 2020

Clifton Daggett Gray 

Insight: When Clarence Darrow came to Maine — Portland Press Herald 

For the Portland Press Herald, U.S. District Court Senior Judge D. Brock Hornby wrote about a curious episode for �ֲ���ý, Maine, and legal history: the time �ֲ���ý President Clifton Daggett Gray, after boasting that college debaters could best legendary attorney and orator Clarence Darrow, had to put his money where his mouth was. 

In 1927, Darrow, known as the fierce defense lawyer who litigated the “Scopes monkey trial,” came to Maine to debate Gray on the question, “What and why is man?” The debate would be a friendly clash of worldviews: Gray, who held a doctorate from the University of Chicago, was an ordained Baptist minister; Darrow was thoroughly agnostic. 

The two debated first in Boston and again two days later in Portland. Of the Boston contest, The New York Times wrote, “If the scholarly shield of Dr. Gray shone with a higher polish, the ironic lance of Mr. Darrow smote with a sharper point.”

And the Press Herald, on the debate in Portland: “The contest of wit and logic rested at the conclusion without decision.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” Portland Press Herald, Feb. 9, 2020

William Worthy ’42

William Worthy — a radical, intrepid journalist and activist — Amsterdam News 

Herb Boyd of Amsterdam News profiled William Worthy ’42, a journalist and activist whose dedication to his work led him to flout U.S. travel restrictions during the Cold War. 

Defying a U.S. ban on travel to China, Worthy made a reporting trip there in the late 1950s, after which the State Department declined to renew his passport. He later traveled to Cuba without a passport, was convicted for returning to the United States without one, and had the conviction overturned. His trip to Cuba was the subject of “The Ballad of William Worthy” by folksinger Phil Ochs. 

Boyd praised Worthy’s courage and ability to stand up against injustice no matter who perpetuated it, whether on the political right or left. “Worthy not only courageously lifted his voice for the oppressed, he did it no matter where he ventured — China, Cuba, Russia, or the four corners of the world,” he wrote. 

Read the story: 

• “,” Amsterdam News, Feb. 6, 2020

Francesco Duina 

Flyover 2020: What does patriotism mean? — MPR 

Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina joined Berkeley sociologist Arlie Hochschild and Kerri Miller of Minnesota Public Radio for a discussion about what patriotism means and how it will affect voters’ decisions in the next presidential election. 

Duina’s 2017 book, Broke and Patriotic, explores why the poorest Americans are the most patriotic. The radio discussion turned to a meaty question: whether patriotism requires an uncritical, love-it-or-leave-it attitude, or if a self-defined patriot can still be critical of U.S. policies.

Duina said many Americans’ ideas of patriotism combine contribution to the nation, whether through military or another type of service, with a sense of hope for the future.

“Those are essential elements of American patriotism,” he said during the discussion, an entry in Miller’s call-in “Flyover” program. But “some people feel that the ability to live up to the notion of giving back with hope is vanishing because of a confluence of various long-term racial trends, economic trends, political trends.” 

“Some people feel that you can be patriotic — but you’re up against insurmountable challenges.” 

Listen to the interview:

• “” MPR, Feb. 5, 2020��

Nathan Tefft 

New study suggests raising taxes on e-cigarettes could encourage traditional smoking — Forbes 

Kelly Phillips Erb of Forbes reported on a new study, co-authored by Associate Professor of Economics Nathan Tefft and funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, that found raising taxes on e-cigarettes can lead to a corresponding rise in consumption of traditional tobacco products. 

That’s a problem — when it comes to so-called sin taxes, which prices are raised in a bid to discourage bad behavior, you don’t want people to swap one behavior for another. 

“Because smoking is known to have substantial negative health impacts,” Tefft said in an interview with �ֲ���ýNews, “policymakers should be aware of this potential tradeoff when contemplating e-cigarette control policies.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” Forbes, Feb. 10, 2020

Cameron Hamilton ’12

Lessons from ‘Love Is Blind’ for socially distanced daters — NPR

Cameron Hamilton ’12 and wife Lauren Speed — who met on the breakout Netflix hit Love is Blind — spoke with NPR’s Michel Martin about their unique perspective on social distancing. 

The premise of Love is Blind is that contestants date without ever seeing each other’s faces, at least until they become engaged. Fan favorites Hamilton and Speed have been married for more than a year. 

The pair spoke with Martin about their own relationship and how to date at a distance — but some of Hamilton’s advice can apply to relationships more broadly, romantic or not. 

“I think the power of communication is key here and truly listening to what the other person has to say,” he said. “I mean, it’s easy to hear them, but to really focus in and take a beat and try to process what they’re saying and respond to that.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” NPR, March 22, 2020

See also: 

• “,” Bangor Daily News, Feb. 26, 2020

Jessica Anthony ’96

Political satire Enter the Aardvark is wonderfully weird — Time 

For Time, Annabel Gutterman reviewed Enter the Aardvark, a new novel by Jessica Anthony ’96, a lecturer in English at �ֲ���ý.

The novel starts with Alexander Paine Wilson, a young Republican politician, receiving a taxidermied aardvark on his doorstep. The story follows the politician as well as two friends in 19th-century England, all of whom have to hide the fact that they are gay.  

“T��dzܲ��� Enter the Aardvark is certainly satire, Anthony’s depiction of Wilson’s repressed sexuality cuts beneath the surface,” Gutterman wrote. 

“Her dissection of Wilson’s political beliefs, particularly his anti-abortion stance, isn’t just sharp commentary on polarization, identity, and power in the U.S. It’s also a poignant examination of what happens when we deny ourselves the ability to love and be loved.” 

Read the review: 

• “,” Time, March 18, 2020

Amy Bradfield Douglass

Questions loom over the future of police lineups — Phys.org 

Australia’s Flinders University announced that a review of studies on eyewitness identification in criminal cases resulted in revised and new recommendations for setting up identifications, in the hope of avoiding false or faulty evidence. 

Professor of Psychology Amy Bradfield Douglass was part of the team that modified four existing recommendations and created five more, including recording lineups on video and having police put in writing the reasons behind suspecting someone of a crime. 

The review led one of the co-authors, Flinders’ Neil Brewer, to write a paper advocating for getting rid of traditional lineups altogether. 

Read the story:

• “,” Phys.org, Feb. 25, 2020

Emily Kane

How to raise feminist boys — The Week

For The Week, Claire Gillespie wrote about her own, often-difficult, efforts to raise her two boys to accept and promote gender equality. 

Gillespie wrote that she makes a wide variety of toys, colors, and opportunities available to her children; with her husband, tries to model equality — and worries that sexism and gender roles are so entrenched in the world around her that harmful patterns will prevail anyway. 

Professor of Sociology Emily Kane had some words of wisdom for Gillespie. “When parents enforce gendered expectations, it is often out of fear their children (especially their sons) will be teased, ostracized, or otherwise excluded if they don’t fall into line with those expectations,” she said. 

“We can all help by avoiding judgment, and those small, everyday assumptions about what a kid will enjoy or be good at based on their gender.”

Read the story:

• “,” The Week, Feb. 27, 2020

Mary Wheelwright Mitchell, Class of 1869

The ‘unconquerable’ Mary Wheelwright Mitchell — Sun Journal 

Steve Collins of the Sun Journal profiled Mary Wheelwright Mitchell, �ֲ���ý’ first female graduate, whose refusal to leave the college helped keep it true to its founding commitment to coeducation. 

�ֲ���ý was the first Northeastern college to admit women, and for that reason surrounding colleges looked down on it. This kind of pressure and others caused the first female �ֲ���ý students to withdraw without degrees. Mitchell was the first to stay the course. 

�ֲ���ý founder and president Oren Cheney secured Mitchell a scholarship from the state of Maine to help her through her studies. Reflecting both her independent spirit and, perhaps, how dramatically a college education’s price point has changed in the ensuing 150 years, Mitchell famously refused to take the help. 

“I cannot take that, Mr. Cheney,” Mitchell said. “Give it to the brethren. I can take care of myself.”

Read the story: 

• “,” Sun Journal, March 1, 2020

Matt Charest ’20

After thousands of miles in the same pool, this Maine swimmer is moving on — 207, WCSH-TV

News Center Maine’s show 207 featured the uplifting story of Matt Charest ’20 of Lewiston, Maine, whose entire swimming career has been based in �ֲ���ý’ Tarbell pool. 

Head swim coach Peter Casares started giving Charest private lessons when Charest was 8 years old, and when he was old enough, he started attending swim camps at Tarbell. When it came time to go to college, it was only natural for Charest to keep swimming, and to swim for �ֲ���ý. 

“While no one keeps track of such things, it’s possible that in his 13 years of swimming in Lewiston he has spent more time in the college pool than any other human being,” reporter Rob Caldwell pointed out. 

“It’s definitely a home,” Charest told the news program. “I feel at home when I’m in the water.”

Read the story: 

• “,” 207, March 5, 2020

Rebecca Herzig 

Why women feel pressured to shave — CNN 

Rebecca Herzig, professor of gender and sexuality studies, talked to CNN style reporter Marianna Cerini for an in-depth piece about how hairlessness in women came to be a beauty ideal in the United States, and how society’s views of body hair vary by time period and geography. 

Herzig said that an early example of the United States’ current ideal of hairlessness is none other than Charles Darwin’s Descent of Man, which associates body hair with primitivity and regards hairlessness as “more evolved.” 

Now, American culture considers body hair, at least for women, “abject,” or worthy of disgust and shame. “It’s worth noting that those are ideas about cleanliness, contingent social norms, rather than about actually removing ‘dirt,’” Herzig told CNN. “Most hair removal practices tend to introduce new opportunities for abrasion and infection.” 

Read the story: 

• “,” CNN, March 3, 2020

When an eyewitness in a criminal trial says the defendant did the deed, that’s “really powerful and strong evidence,” �ֲ���ý professor Amy Bradfield Douglass told an audience at the Lewiston Public Library recently.

“We know that juries find eyewitnesses very compelling. And it makes perfect sense,” said Douglass, a social psychologist. “If you have served on a jury, you know the experience of having the witness say, ‘I absolutely know that was him.’ That’s a really powerful moment.”

Yet, Douglass continued, “we also know, unfortunately, that eyewitnesses [can be] wrong, and they’re wrong a lot.” She dedicates her research to reducing that error rate: Looking at eyewitness identifications such as those made through police lineups and photo spreads, Douglass investigates the causes of mistaken IDs and advocates techniques for making them less common.

During her Oct. 19 Great Falls Forum presentation at the Lewiston Public Library, Amy Bradfield Douglass points out details of a projected image that can be seen as an elderly woman or a young woman. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)

In an Oct. 19 edition of the Great Falls Forum, a monthly series that �ֲ���ý co-sponsors, Douglass covered the foibles of perception and memory, the proper design of experiments, and guidelines for getting the most accurate IDs from lineups and photo spreads.

It was an engrossing presentation — and one whose topical range expanded anew with good questions from an engaged audience.

Are there intrinsic personality characteristics that influence recall?

There are people called super-recognizers, and researchers in the United Kingdom are studying them. Nobody knows what makes them super-recognizers, and there’s not really a good way to assess who is a super-recognizer and who isn’t.

Researchers are looking at super-recognizers in terms of recruiting people to be passport officers and border guards, to try to facilitate accuracy in that domain.

Do white people tend to misidentify black people more often than they do whites?

Absolutely. There’s a robust research literature on that effect, called the cross-race effect or the own-race bias. The bias is particularly bad for white individuals identifying black individuals. The disparity is less dramatic for black individuals identifying white individuals.

The idea there is that for white individuals identifying black individuals, there’s less experience making those identifications in daily life. We’re just not very good at it. We don’t use the right features to identify members of other races.

Do police sketch artists sometimes impose their own spin on rendering witness descriptions? That happened to me.

Ideally a sketch artist would not have any suspect in mind, because then we could prevent those kinds of influences from a knowing administrator. If the artist did have a suspect in mind, they certainly could, unwittingly, imply things to the witness, say, or use what they have in their own mind as a pre-existing image to put that in the image that ends up on paper.

Are children more accurate at eyewitness identification?

Children are not worse witnesses. The problem with kids, except my kids [audience laughs], is that they’re suggestible. They’ll do what adults tell them to do — I mean, not mine. They’ll listen to other people, just not me [a big laugh].

Children are very vulnerable to persuasive, biased instructions, for example. If you ask a child in a forensic interview a question twice, they’ll change their answer, because they’re thinking, “Well, that wasn’t right, so I’m just going to change my answer until you stop asking me the question.”

Douglass listens as the Great Falls Forum audience responds to an exercise. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)

In my work, sometimes I’m the first person that victims see after a crime, and I worry about talking to them without contaminating their memory of what happened. Is there information in the literature about how to question victims?

There’s a ton. There’s something called a . It’s really simple. There’s also something that’s really interesting called the .

With the Cognitive Interview, if you’re the victim, I would ask you questions. The Self-Administered Interview, for people who can write and read in English, is a good alternative because it doesn’t require a conversation with a victim — it’s a questionnaire that you give a victim as quickly as possible after the assault.

Let’s say you can’t do either one of those. Then what you should be doing is asking open-ended questions and asking them to report as much detail as they can without guessing. You don’t want to imply that you’re looking for information if they’ve given you all they have.

How good, or perhaps more critically, how poor is the correlation between accuracy and confidence? [from John Kelsey, professor emeritus of psychology]

That’s a complicated question. The correlation between confidence and accuracy is really good if you don’t mess with witnesses. So if you just take a pristine [identification] procedure and your witness says, “OK, that’s the guy, I’m 100 percent confident,” it’s pretty good — not perfect.

If you start to mess with witnesses — by giving them feedback or telling them about a co-witness, or by saying, “Are you sure?” — then the correlation can be eliminated to almost zero.

Are people who go in a lineup voluntary? Do they get paid?

It depends on the jurisdiction. There’s a jurisdiction in the Bronx that pays $15 at a time to show up in a lineup. But most of the time, identifications are made from photo spreads, so you could all be in a photo spread right now — they can get your photos from the DMV and put all you guys in there right now.

It is hard to teach statistics.

“It’s hard to learn, too,” says psychology major Margaret Foster ’15 of York, Maine.

It’s a staple of the social sciences, yet learning stats has bedeviled generations of college students. At �ֲ���ý, professors have tried to do something about it.

In the 1970s, �ֲ���ý psychologist Drake Bradley responded to the call to improve the teaching of statistics by using an innovative tool — the computer — to teach the ins and outs of data sets. He published a paper on it: “An interactive data-generating and answer-correcting system for problems in statistics.”

Today, Professor of Psychology Amy Douglass is using her own innovative strategy.

Professor of Psychology Amy Douglass gathers her six-student team at the start of Short Term. Their goal: to transform how statistics is taught at �ֲ���ý. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Despite tweaks to the �ֲ���ý statistics course over the years, Douglass says that many students still have a hard time.

“If the course is ever going to appeal to students who are less comfortable with statistics, I need to understand the student experience,” she says.

So Douglass took advantage of a distinctive new �ֲ���ý program offered this Short Term.

“We’re all about a continuous process of renewal.”

Called “Innovative Pedagogy / Course (Re)Design,” the program gives faculty the time and support (in this case, �ֲ���ý students) to rework an existing course or create a new one.

It’s highly unusual in American higher education: On a wide scale, �ֲ���ý is giving students the lead in improving how college courses are designed, deployed and taught.

Douglass enlisted six students, including Foster, to improve the �ֲ���ý statistics course, Psychology 218, and theirs was one of five Short Term courses whose goal was either to create a new course or improve an old one.

For the college, the course redesign program means that “we’re all about a continuous process of renewal,” says President Clayton Spencer. The new and revised courses “create new oxygen for the curriculum.”

“If the course is ever going to appeal to students who are less comfortable with statistics, I need to understand the student experience,” says Professor of Psychology Amy Douglass. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

This spring, “Team Douglass” comprised Foster, Afifa Avril ’15 of Decatur, Ga., Kelsey Berry ’15 of Hollis, N.H., Eleanor Hough ’16 of Summit, N.J., Patrece Joseph ’14 of Mattapan, Mass., and Nina Tupper ’14 of Kennebunk, Maine.

They did their work by reviewing current best practices, reading literature and doing a survey of students who had taken statistics.

Meeting four days a week with Douglass, the students also spent time outside class on various projects, from evaluating the effectiveness of quizzes to looking at how papers should be assigned.

Among other things, they learned from the survey that not one of 50 students surveyed felt that the textbook was at all helpful. On the other hand, every student said the weekly review sessions offered by Brian Pfohl, the department’s assistant in instruction, were “very helpful.”

By next winter, students who take statistics — required for the 70 or so majors who graduate in psychology or neuroscience each year — will experience a revised course that has student fingerprints all over it.

Here’s a general idea of how the course was formerly structured:

• The class met three times a week
• Weekly quiz on Mondays
• Optional weekly review session on Friday afternoon
• Four papers, known as “demonstration reports”
• Cumulative final exam

And here’s an overview of the changes coming:

We don’t need no stinkin’ texbooks!

Much maligned by students for being dense and redundant, the statistics textbook is now gone from the syllabus. (At the very least, it will save students $130!)

Watch and learn

Next year, students will be asked to watch videos outside of class to help them master “hand calculations.” That’s the ability to do rough statistics calculations on your own.

“Being able to do hand calculations helps students understand what’s happening in the statistics software,” explains Patrece Joseph.

Hand calculations are lengthy and complicated. “Because students vary in how quickly they master them, the videos allow students to move at their own pace outside of class,” Douglass says.

More exams?

Instead of just one exam, the final, students will take three additional exams within the semester, each one testing students on material in one of the prior units.

True, adding exams increases the workload. “But we feel students need cumulative test experience before they take the final,” says Nina Tupper.

Adding more exams to the syllabus should help in the long run, says Nina Tupper ’14 of Kennebunk, Maine. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

No more Monday quizzes

The weekly quizzes will be on Friday from now on, and they’ll be at the beginning of class, not the end.

Having the quiz on Monday meant students boned up on Sunday, when there’s not a lot of academic support if they get stuck.

Giving a quiz at the end of class is when students aren’t at their best. Their brains are jumbled, the day’s new information competing with what they need to recall for the quiz.

Thank God it’s (not) Friday

Having optional review sessions on a Friday afternoon was difficult for student who had already spent an hour and 20 minutes in a lecture. “It’s hard to stay focused on statistics for three hours on a Friday afternoon,” says Kelsey Berry. They’ll be on Wednesday afternoons now.

Unit of measurement

To give the course more of a real-world feel, Douglass and her students have organized the class into four units: Health Psychology, Social Psychology, Psychology and Law, and Parenting and Families.

“We had units before, but they were week-to-week and perhaps not as cohesive,” Douglass says. “They will allow students to explore their interests while applying statistical knowledge.”

Speak now

When a professor teaches new ideas and new content right up until the last day of the semester, students don’t always learn well. But they do stress out.

Afifa Avril ’15 and Patrece Joseph ’14 talk at a campus event on May 15 where students from various Short Term courses made poster presentations. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

This winter, the statistics course will instead conclude with student presentations. “They’ll analyze a dataset, and talk about what they’ve learned,” says Eleanor Hough.

“Preparing an oral presentation makes a student think about the material in different ways,” says Afifa Avril. “It also doubles as a way for students to review material for the final”

Demo reports done differently

The course asks students to write demonstration reports in American Psychological Association style, meaning they needed four parts: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion.

In addition, they write two appendixes, one for hand calculations and one that explains statistical concepts to a lay audience.

“We decided to eliminate two writing-intensive parts of the reports, the Introduction and Discussion,” Douglass says, “so students can focus more on the conceptual content of an APA-style report.”

It’s a sensible move. Learning to write an APA-style Introduction and Discussion is already taught in two required methods courses, Psychology 261 (“Research Methods”) and Psychology 262 (“Community-Based Research Methods”).

Pssst! SPSS Analyses!

Last year, students were required to do brief, outside-of-class analyses using a software known as
SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).

Next year, students will do their statistical software analyses during class time, explains Margaret Foster. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Next year, students will do SPSS analyses in class. They’ll be harder, and will use student-designed worksheets. “Importantly, the worksheets will assume that students watched the videos about hand calculations,” says Douglass.

Meaning that when students come to class to do an SPSS analysis, they will (or should) be ready to roll.

“Moving the SPSS analyses into the class time will allow students to learn more about manipulating the numbers in a problem,” explains Foster.

“It’s like they’re paying it forward.”

Looking back on the experience with her students, Douglass says two things struck her: her students’ creative approaches to solving problems, and their abiding interest in making the course better for the next generation of students.

“Even though they’re done with it, they really care about making it better for the next cohort,” Douglass says. “It’s like they’re paying it forward.”

�ֲ���ý College hosts the seventh biennial meeting of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (SARMAC), an international conference on memory and cognition, Wednesday, July 25, through Saturday, July 28.

“The conference attracts international researchers who are interested in using rigorous experimental methodology to address problems derived from errors or biases in cognitive functioning,” says Associate Professor of Psychology Amy Bradfield Douglass, the �ֲ���ý faculty member hosting the conference. Cognitive functioning is the acquisition and use of knowledge.

For example, says Douglass, “many of the researchers in attendance have been instrumental in helping the legal system learn how to maximize the collection of accurate information from crime victims or prevent mistaken eyewitness identifications.” This research has informed legal processes in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, she says.

According to Douglass, other researchers have investigated recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse and the ease with which false memories can be implanted in people’s minds. This research, she says, has been highlighted in many court cases in which defendants are faced with “recovered memories” as the primary evidence against them.

In addition to a program of 35 paper sessions and symposia, scheduled keynote speakers include , University of Michigan, who offers the conference’s opening address, “The intricacies of setting people straight: Metacognitive experiences in debiasing and public information campaigns.”

This talk on debiasing information examines the metacognitive experiences that surround learning information from a public information campaign. Metacognitive experiences, says Douglass, include things like the ease with which information comes to mind while thinking about a problem. How can those experiences influence people’s reactions to public information campaigns?

The three other conference keynote addresses are: Development of False Memories in Childhood: The Role of Emotion, Stress, and Maltreatment, by , Lancaster University; Violent Video Game Effects on Cognition, Affect, and Behavior, , Iowa State University; and Autonoesis, Amnesia, and Social Influences: A Functional View of Memory,” by , Stony Brook University.

Douglass’s own research interests include social psychology, with specific focus on the interface of psychology and law, especially eyewitness testimony. She also studies how variables in social influence cause distortions in memory.

Douglass chairs a paper session examining the “sequential method,” a presentation of photos to eyewitnesses one at a time. Witnesses must indicate, upon seeing each photo, whether it represents the culprit. If they indicate that it does, the identification procedure is usually terminated. If they indicate that it does not, the next photo is shown.

A large body of research demonstrates that this procedure reduces the incidence of false identifications. The sequential procedure is in contrast to the typical police procedure, called simultaneous, in which all photos are laid in front of a witness at one time. The witness can then compare the photos to each another before making an identification.

Recently, the state of Illinois undertook an of the sequential procedure to determine whether to include it in all of the state’s jurisdictions. The report concludes that the sequential procedure inappropriately increased identifications of known innocent lineup members. However, several experts in the field (some of whom belong to SARMAC) have grave concerns about the validity of this study and its utility in providing information about the accuracy of the sequential procedure.

“I have testified as an expert witness in a case in which the Illinois data were held up as a reason to favor the simultaneous procedure,” says Douglass, “so it’s clearly had an impact in the legal system already.”