Faculty and Staff

Home Cognitive and Behavioral Science Faculty and Staff

Cognitive and Behavioral Science Department

Faculty

Julie Woodzicka

William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science and Department Head

Woodzicka’s courses include Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination, Social Psychology, Psychology of Humor, and Research Design and Analysis. She studies the effects of disparagement humor (specifically sexist and racist humor) and subtle strategies to confront discrimination.

View Profile

Nydia Ayala

Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science

Dr. Ayala’s courses include Cognitive Psychology, Memory in Everyday Life, and Psychology & Law. Informed by theories of recognition memory and decision making, her research aims to improve the utility of police identification procedures. She is presently interested in legal decision makers’ assessments of the reliability of eyewitness evidence.

View Profile Website

Ryan Brindle

Associate Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science

Brindle teaches courses related to brain and behavior, statistics, and the impact of mental stress and sleep. His lab researches the connections between mental stress, sleep, and health to improve clinical interventions.

View Profile Curriculum Vitae

Megan Fulcher

Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science

On Sabbatical Winter Term 2025

Dr. Fulcher teaches courses on child development, the development of gender roles, and socioemotional development. Her research focuses on children’s gender role development, toy play and their visions of their future selves.

View Profile Website

Jacob Gibson

Visiting Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science

Gibson teaches courses on social and developmental psychology. His research interests are stereotypes, politics, religion and the accuracy of social perceptions.

View Profile

Dan Johnson

Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Data Science Program Head

Johnson’s courses include Psychology Mythbusters and Introduction to Data Science: Mind Analytics. His lab uses computational models and empirical data to investigate the mechanisms underlying creativity processes like the generation of novel ideas.

View Profile Curriculum Vitae

Nikki Lee

Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science

Dr. Lee’s courses include Brain and Behavior, Hormones and Social Behavior. Her Social Behavior Lab investigates the neural and hormonal mechanisms underlying social behavior in non-human animals, in the lab and field, with a particular interest in the evolution of social behavior.

View Profile Curriculum Vitae

Heather Macalister

Visiting Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science

Dr. Macalister’s courses include Principles of Development, Health Psychology, and Psychology of Women. Her research interests include gender in children’s food choice.

View Profile

Karla Murdock

Jo M. and James M. Ballengee Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science

On Sabbatical Leave 2024-2025

Among Murdock’s courses are Introduction to Clinical Psychology and Developmental Psychopathology. Her research program examines associations between technology use and indicators of health, well-being and cognitive performance.

View Profile Curriculum Vitae

Holly Shablack

Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science

Shablack’s courses include Heath Psychology, Introduction to Data Science: Trends over time, and Emotions, Language, and Culture. Her research examines how our language and various socio-cultural factors influence our attitudes, emotions, physical and mental health, and behavior.

View Profile

Bob Stewart

Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Neuroscience Program Head

Stewart’s courses include Psychoactive Drugs and Behavior and Neuropharmacology. He has researched salty, sweet and bitter taste development as well as the development and plasticity of taste axon termination patterns.

View Profile Curriculum Vitae

Wythe Whiting

Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science

Whiting teaches courses in cognition, evolutionary psychology and attention. His lab has been researching how increasing neural noise affects declining cognition in older adults as well as how smart phones affect sleep/attention.

View Profile