INTERDISCIPLINARY / EDUCATION

Dr. Paula Kristmanson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at UNB and the Director of the Second Language Research Institute. She explains how fundamental the field of psychology is to education, referencing the work of educational psychologists and how positive psychology, self-determination theory, and neuroscience contribute to understandings of teaching and learning.

INTERDISCIPLINARY / COMPUTER SCIENCE

Dr. Andrew McAllister is a professor in the Faculty of Computer Science at UNB. He explains how computer science and psychology collide in the areas of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, software engineering, and computer-generated images. Drawing from his first degree in psychology, he discusses an example of how artificial intelligence could reinvent the nature of couples therapy, and shares some psychology-related computer science courses offered at UNB.

HONOURS THESIS 2022

Emma Giberson is currently pursuing a Masters of Applied Psychology, Research, and Evaluation at UNB-SJ, and completed her Honours in Psychology last year. She explains her thesis on the relationship between substance use and the fear of physiological sensations - now submitted for publication in a research journal - and the joy of devising a new project and seeing it from start to finish.

Supervisor: Dr. Janine Olthuis

FACULTY PROFILE

Dr. Lucia O’Sullivan studied psychology at UNB, completed her PhD abroad, and returned to UNB in 2006 as a professor. She explains her research interests in the area of close relationships, how her work fulfills her age-old love of writing, and the passions that drive her.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE 2022 / ASSISTANT RESEARCHER

4th year Honours student Mallory Murphy discusses her research work on devising methods for organizing and analyzing qualitative data, and manuscript reviewing. She works both at UNB and in collaboration with Crandall University, and shares how she appreciates working with the conceptual problems and details that drive the development of unique research methods. She encourages students who are interested in research to reach out to faculty, and emphasizes that even volunteer work can give great research experience.

Supervisor: Dr. Elaine Perunovic

FACULTY PROFILE

Dr. Veronica Whitford joined the UNB Psychology Department in 2019 as an NSERC Canada Research Chair. She discusses her research area in psycholinguistics that draws from neuroscience and cognitive psychology, the collaborative nature of her lab, and the many psychological films she enjoys.

HONOURS THESIS 2022

Brooke Scott is currently pursuing a Masters in Neuroscience at UBC, and completed her Honours in Psychology with a minor in biology at UNB last year. She explains her honours thesis on verbal working memory, where she tested a novel memory task for measuring verbal working memory capacity, and hints at future research building on her results. She enjoys the conceptual puzzles explored in research, and considers study results to be exciting regardless of whether they align with hypotheses.

Supervisor: Dr. Biljana Stevanovski

HONOURS THESIS 2022

Kate Metcalfe completed her degree in Psychology last year with an Honours thesis examining the dynamics between sexual assualt perpetrators and witnesses. She explains how witnesses’ preconceived beliefs, the “ambiguity” of sexual assualt situations, and the behaviours employed by perpetrators for diverting intervention are conducive to enabling unpunished assaults. She emphasizes that bystander intervention can be critical to preventing assaults, and urges individuals to not be idle in ambiguously-perceived social situations.

Supervisor: Dr. Lucia O’Sullivan, Dr. Scott Ronis

FACULTY PROFILE

Dr. Michael Palmer came to UNB five years ago to direct the Certificate of Applied Behaviour Analysis Program. He discusses what fascinates him about organizational behavioural management, his teaching style, his research process, and how persistence and curiosity make strong researchers.

HONOURS THESIS 2022

Sarah MacIsaac graduated from UNB with Honours in Psychology with a Specialization in Neuroscience, and presented her thesis in the area of child language development at national and international conferences. She explains how eye tracking devices, standardized tests, and reading samples were used to gauge the reading strategies employed by monolingual and bilingual children. She summarizes that the psychology honours program was a highlight of her time at UNB.

Supervisor: Dr. Veronica Whitford

STUDENT PROFILE

4th year Honours student Mallory Murphy strives to pursue a PhD in experimental psychology. She shares her interest in cross-cultural psychology, her words of enlightenment for those who are completely disinterested in psychology, and that she is also drawn to environmental management given our planet’s climate crisis.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE 2022 / ASSISTANT RESEARCHER

Brooke Scott is currently pursuing a Masters in Neuroscience at UBC, and completed her Honours in Psychology with a minor in biology at UNB last year. She shares her research experience examining circadian rhythms and memory dynamics - a work day consisting of analyzing gene and protein datasets. She discusses how enriching she found the research, and offers advice to students who are unsure how to procure research positions.

Supervisor: Dr. Scott Deibel

FACULTY PROFILE

Dr. Emilie Lacroix came to UNB a year ago with her research on body image and disordered eating, an interest sparked by her time in the fashion industry. She discusses her approach to research and academia, traits she values in student researchers, and introduces her favourite visual art - the science-inspired works of Gustav Klimt.