Research Faculty and Their Areas of Interests
General Experimental

Michael Botwin, Ph.D.
Professor
(559) 278-5099
Fields of Study: Personality and Evolutionary Psychology
Research Interests
Our group, the Personality, Evolution, Attraction Research Lab (PEARL), is currently
working on several projects. My students and I are primarily interested in human
mating, romantic relationships, and personality. Current projects in our lab are
exploring; human intersexual flirtation, romantic infatuation, mating intelligence,
sexual jealousy, cross sex mind-reading, social desirability and personality structure.
We employ a variety of research techniques, however most of our projects use a questionnaire
approach.
New Research Students
PEARL is accepting new undergraduate and graduate students. Our group currently consists
of graduate students, undergraduate honors students, and McNair scholars.

Christine Edmondson, Ph.D.
Professor
(559) 278-6944
Fields of Study: College Student Mental Health, Community Mental Health, Mental Illness Stigma
Research Interests
I work with students who are interested in advocating to improve services for people
with trauma, substance abuse, and mental illness. Research projects supporting these
efforts may be surveys documenting mental health needs, experimental evaluations of
stigma reduction interventions, and working with community-based organizations to
support their implementation of evidence-based practices and documentation of program
impact.
New Research Students
I may be able to support undergraduate independent study projects in Spring 2019.
Please contact me before applying to the Master's program for more information about
my availability to mentor graduate students in Fall 2019.

Constance Jones, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
(559) 278-5127
Fields of Study: Longitudinal methods, Personality, Lifespan Development
Research Interests
I work primarily with a long-term longitudinal dataset called the Intergenerational
Studies. These data describe individuals who began participation in 1929 when they
were either infants or young school children.I use specialized longitudinal statistical
methods to examine changes in personality and psychological health across the lifespan.
I also teach a variety of classes on research design and statistics, so am generally
interested in helping students do good research on their own topic of interest.
New Research Students
I am accepting new graduate students and undergraduate honor students, with whom I
work individually, but I do not currently run an undergraduate research team.

Spee Kosloff, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
(559) 278-3043
Fields of Study: Social Psychology, Personality Psychology, Experimental Existential Psychology, Political Psychology
Research Interests
My students and I examine how stable personality traits and changing situational forces
combine in complex ways to alter the dynamics of important social processes. We emphasize
the impacts of subconscious processes, biases, and fears upon interpersonal evaluations,
identity, ideology, and conformity. Our laboratory research often involves carefully
crafted social situations where research assistants conduct experiments or play roles
as actors (“confederates”), enabling us to test how (seemingly) real situations affect
the ways people think, feel, and behave.
New Research Students
I welcome applications from new graduate students aiming to enter our General-Experimental
Masters Program, and I also regularly work with undergraduate honor students and undergraduate
research assistants.

Lorin Lachs, Ph.D.
Professor
(559) 278-4853
Fields of Study: Perception of virtual reality, Multisensory perception, Psycholinguistics
Research Interests
We are interested in perception in virtual and real environments. Most of our research
examines the ways that information from multiple sensory systems is used and combined
by perceptual processes. We use virtual reality to examine these questions by skewing
the relationship between information provided by different systems (for example, making
a lifted object visually appear heavier than it feels to the muscles lifting it).
We also examine the interaction between vision and hearing during perception of spoken
language, including how this relationship affects higher order cognition such as that
involved in word recognition, syntax, or bilingual processes.
New Research Students
I am accepting new graduate students, and I also work with undergraduate honor students
and undergraduate research assistants.

Chris Miller, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
(559) 278-7514
Fields of Study: NeuroScience, Psychiatric Disorders, Functional Neuroimaging, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Meta-Analysis, Machine Learning
Research Interests
My students and I study the neuroscience of psychiatric disorders such as major depressive
disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. We use functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) as well as meta-analytic and machine learning tools to synthesize and explore
abnormalities in brain function associated with these psychiatric disorders. We are
also interested in translating these findings into improved diagnostic strategies
and biological treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
New Research Students
I am accepting graduate students as well as honors and undergraduate students who
are interested in volunteering as research assistants.

Amanda Mortimer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
(559) 278-5126
Fields of Study: Clinical Psychology, Neuroscience
Research Interests
My students and I are interested in the intersection of psychopathology and brain
based behavior. We look at a variety of clinical concerns, including Borderline Personality
Disorder, Postraumatic Stress Disorder, Autism, and Alzheimer’s disease, from a number
of different perspectives, including attachment, basic learning, meditation, and physical
neural influences.
New Research Students
I am accepting new graduate students, but I also work with undergraduate honor students
and undergraduate research assistants.

Karl Oswald, Ph.D.
Professor
(559) 278-4215
Fields of Study: Memory, Effective Processing, Changes in Self-Concept
Research Interests
My students and I explore various aspects of human memory, including basic processes
of forgetting and strategies that have been shown to enhance memory such as retrieval
practice and the spacing effect. I am also interested in how ideas of our ‘self’ change
over time and how we view the changing self through the lens of reconstructed autobiographical
memory.
New Research Students
I accept students and generally work with a team of undergraduates, including independent
study students, volunteers, and Psychology Honors students. I occasionally mentor
graduate students as well. I encourage all students to conduct their own research
projects, either by generating a new research idea (with my help) or by adopting one
of my current experiments.

Paul Price, Ph.D.
Professor
(559) 278-2120
Fields of Study: Cognitive Psychology, Judgement and Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, Social Cognition
Research Interests
In the Judgment and Reasoning Lab, my students and I study how people think about
themselves and the world around them. Of special interest are how people think about
probability and risk, how they make judgments about averages, how they estimate quantities,
and how they evaluate themselves compared to others. We are also interested in ways
to help people think more clearly about these kinds of things.
New Research Students
I typically accept one or two master’s students and one or two undergraduate honors
students each year. The lab also typically involves a number of additional undergraduate
research assistants. Please contact me directly for more information.

Martin Shapiro, Ph.D.
Professor and Graduate Coordinator
(559) 278-2358
Fields of Study: Psychophysiology, Behavioral Economics, Neuroscience
Research Interests
My students and I are interested in factors that affect risky economic decisions.
We work with a gambling game that we developed and look at factors like emotions,
stress and whether the player is gaining or losing points. We are also interested
in psychophysiological responses that correlate with decision making like heart rate,
heart-rate variability, skin conductance, and facial EMG.
New Research Students
I am accepting new graduate students, but I also work with undergraduate honor students
and undergraduate research assistant.

Matthew Sharps, Ph.D.
Professor
(559) 278-2347
Fields of Study: Cognitive Forensic Psychology
Research Interests
My Cognitive Science laboratory in the Department of Psychology is devoted to the
study of memory and reasoning, especially in the realm of forensic cognitive science. Research
students in this lab receive advanced research training, and conduct experiments,
in the areas of eyewitness memory and cognition; the cognitive bases of tactical reasoning,
especially with regard to officer-involved shootings; law enforcement training, especially
with regard to the detection of improvised explosive devices; and the application
of these principles to more general issues in observation and interpretation in science.
New Research Students
I am accepting new graduate students, but I also work with undergraduate honor students
and undergraduate research assistant.

Rosa Toro, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
(559) 278-4061
Fields of Study: Developmental Psychology, Family Processes, Immigrant Families, Latinos
Research Interests
My students and I are interested understanding how the multiple and dynamic contexts
in which immigrant children and families are embedded in influence their development.
We work with data collection efforts in Central Valley-area high schools to examine
how acculturation-related processes have an impact on Latino children's development
by examining factors such as: cultural values, filial responsibilities, language brokering,
language proficiency, and parent-child relationships. We are also interested in examining
similar constructs during the transition from late adolescence into early adulthood
and have been collecting data with Latino college students with an added focus on
biculturalism, perceived discrimination, and social relationships.
New Research Students
I am accepting new graduate students, but I also work with undergraduate honor students
and research assistants. Please visit https://sites.google.com/mail.fresnostate.edu/rosatoro/home for more information.

Ellen Woo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
(559) 278-2438
Research Interests
In our Cognitive Neuropsychology Lab, we bridge clinical neuropsychology with cognitive
experimental models. In addition to utilizing standard neuropsychological measures,
our lab employs cognitive paradigms and experimental tasks to identify the particular
processes that predict the risk of developing dementia in the future. The overarching
goal of the lab is to examine models of executive and memory processes in mild cognitive
impairment, before people have developed dementia. Our findings indicate that impairment
in complex executive skills, such as strategy use, prospective memory, temporal order
memory, and source memory, represent early changes in mild cognitive impairment. Furthermore,
executive skills predict changes in everyday functioning above and beyond episodic
memory ability, which is more traditionally assessed in dementia. The research of
the Cognitive Neuropsychology Lab indicates the importance of identifying the novel
skills that impact individuals in their everyday lives.
New Research Students
I am accepting new graduate students, and I also invite undergraduate honor students
and undergraduate research assistants to work in the lab.

Ronald Yockey, Ph.D.
Professor
(559) 278-2438
Fields of Study: Quantitative Methods
Research Interests
My current research interests include both Likert scaling research and academic procrastination.
Examples of recent Likert work include examining impact of True/False versus Agree/Disagree
scale responses, as well as comparing various middle point options, such as ‘neither
agree nor disagree’ versus ‘undecided.’ Recent student theses have focused on conducting
validation studies on various psychological constructs.
New Research Students
I am potentially accepting new graduate students on a case-by-case basis. I also work
with undergraduate honor students and undergraduate research assistants who are interested
in quantitative methods and/or academic procrastination. I have a limited number of
research slots at a given time, so please contact me if you are interested in potentially
working together.
Applied Behavioral Analysis

Marianne L. Jackson, Ph.D., BCBA-D
ABA Program Coordinator
(559) 278-2757
Fields of Study: Applied Behavior Analysis
Research Interests
My students and I are interested in studying verbal processes and teaching complex
forms of verbal behavior and social skills to children with and without autism spectrum
disorder. We are also interested in examining motivating operations and exploring
interventions to increase health and fitness behaviors.
New Research Students
I am currently accepting new graduate students (specifically those applying to the
ABA Master’s degree program) and also work with undergraduate honors students and
undergraduate research assistants.

Steven W. Payne, Ph.D., BCBA-D
Assistant Professor
(559) 278-2691
Fields of Study: Behavior Analysis, Applied Animal Behavior, Environmental Sustainability
Research Interests
My students and I are interested in using behavior analytic principles to change the
behavior of shelter animals. More specifically, we are interested in identifying
effective methods for changing behavior such that the “adoptability” of shelter animals
increases. We are also interested in determining effective methods for increasing
environmentally sustainable behaviors in humans. More information on current and
completed projects can be found on my lab website http://drpaynelab.com.
New Research Students
I am accepting new graduate students, and occasionally will accept undergraduate students.

Sharlet Rafacz, Ph.D., BCBA-D
Assistant Professor
(559) 278-2479
Fields of Study: Organizational Behavior Management, Systems Analysis, Healthy Eating, Rule-Governed Behavior
Research Interests
I work with my students on improving employee and manager behavior in the workplace.
Some of this research includes using performance scorecards to enhance employee behaviors,
evaluating motivation through message content or manipulating tasks, and how employees
respond to negative events in simulated work settings. My students and I also work
with increasing healthy food selection and consumption with children in schools, college
students on campus, and consumers in supermarkets and restaurants.
New Research Students
I am accepting new graduate students, but I also work with undergraduate research
assistants.
Educational Specialists Program (Ed.S.)

Hong Ni, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
(559) 278-1726
Fields of Study: Resilience in cultural context, mental health in school settings across cultures, international school psychophysiology
Research Interests
My research interests all center around culture. I am interested in resilience promotion
in cultural contexts, especially specific factors that enhance student resilience
and mental health in school settings. I focus on resilience promoting interventions
in schools and cultural adaptation of these practices. Meanwhile, I am interested
in school psychological services in other countries and how they are and can be adapted
to maximally meet students’ needs in schools. Thus, I do research about how to incorporate
cultural factors in professional development of school psychological providers.
New Research Students
Currently accepting applications for the Educational Specialist Program.