Research Team
Current Students:
Philip Hoffman
Philip Hoffman is from Arlington Heights, IL. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a B.S. in Psychology. Currently, Phil is a third-year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program. His interests include the development of autobiographical memory in sociocultural contexts like parent-child reminiscing and the development of narrative coherence. His Master's thesis is titled Learning to Tell Coherent Personal Narratives: Linkages to Mother-Child Reminiscing Over Time. The project focuses on uncovering the aspects of reminiscing conversations that best predict coherent independent narration of past life events in young children.
Mia Marcus
Mia Marcus is from Chicago, IL. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago in May 2010 with a B.S. in Psychology. Currently, Mia is a second-year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program. She is interested in how parent-child conversations influence children’s learning and memory for events. Her master’s thesis is titled Effects of Instruction and Parent-Child Conversation on Children’s STEM Learning and Transfer. The project aims to link parent-child interactions in a science-oriented museum exhibit to children’s learning and transfer of STEM-related principles.
Former Graduate Students:
Dissertation titles and the "happily ever after"!
Erin Wilkerson, Ph.D. (2011)
The role of prior knowledge and parent-child interactions in children's learning in museums.
Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University
Nora Brodson Benjamin, Ph.D. (2007)
Building understanding in Under Construction: Effects of event preparation on caregiver-child collaboration and children’s learning in a museum exhibit
Assistant Professor, College of Lake County
Barbara Havlik O’Brien, Ph.D. (2002)
Maternal book reading style and children’s literacy development
Assistant Chair Northwestern University (2003-2006)
David Rudek, Ph.D. (2004)
Reminiscing about past events: Influences on children’s deliberate memory and metacognitive skills
Associate Professor, Aurora University
Sam Fazio, Ph.D. (2005)
The persistence of self in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease
Director of Medical and Scientific Relations, Alzheimer's Association
Part-Time Faculty, Northeastern Illinois University
Amy Hedrick, Ph.D. (2006)
Talk during and after events: How an elaborative style impacts event memory
Assistant Professor, Lenoir-Rhyne College
Karen Kolmodin MacDonell, Ph.D. (2006)
Exploring links between children’s understanding of emotion, parent-child reminiscing about emotional events, and the kindergarten classroom affective environment.
Research Assistant Professor, Pediatric Prevention Research Center, Wayne State University