Meet Dr. Diana Selmeczy of the Psychology Department, learn about her research through the UCCS Cognitive Development Lab, and find out how to get involved.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m a new faculty in the Psychology Department here at UCCS and new to the area of Colorado Springs. I am most recently coming from a Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of California, Davis and prior to that I completed my PhD at Washington University from St. Louis. My research focuses on examining cognitive development in children and adolescence, and I am particularly interested in memory and decision-making. Outside of my academic life, my hands are full with the joys of parenting a toddler.
What types of research questions are you interested in answering?
In my lab, we study how children learn and remember information and how these processes change with development. We are particularly interested in examining how children think about or self-reflect about their memories (called metamemory) and how this may influence their decisions and actions. For example, do children experience higher confidence when they correctly remember an answer compared to when they are wrong? When does this emerge and how does this change throughout development? What do children do when they feel unsure about their memories? Can they seek out additional help or use other beneficial strategies? Answering these types of questions has implications for a variety of domains ranging from education to eyewitness testimony.
How do you involve local families and children in your research?
It’s very exciting to be able to work with the community and share an opportunity for them to contribute to and learn about scientific research. None of our research would be possible without the generous time and support of family participants.
Children participate in our studies by visiting the Cognitive Development Lab in the UCCS Psychology Department on campus. A typical research session will involve children completing a variety of fun games and cognitive tasks on a computer or tablet, while parents fill out a few questionnaires letting us know more about their child. When finished, children are rewarded with a certificate, small prize, and/or monetary compensation for their participation. In this way, children and families are directly contributing to science and our ability to discover more about how children think and remember.
We also recently participated in the UCCS Cool Science Day in order to teach children and parents about memory and our research. We plan to continue interacting with the community by participating in local child friendly events.
Where can people learn more about your research?
Interested families can learn more about our research by visiting our webpage (www.uccs.edu/cogdevlab). They can also directly sign up to be in our family database using our sign-up form and they will be contacted about specific studies in the lab that their child may be eligible to participate in.
For more information please feel free to contact us!
UCCS Cognitive Development Lab
Phone: 719-200-9361 Email: [email protected]
Website: www.uccs.edu/cogdevlab
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UCCSCogDev/
Written by Diana Selmeczy, [email protected]
Submit story ideas to Mike Kisley, [email protected]
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