Ten graduate students receive funding for their research
The American Psychological Association congratulates the outstanding graduate students who have been awarded the 2024 Dissertation Research Awards. These awards are made annually by the APA Science Directorate to assist with the costs of dissertation research. From 100 excellent applications, three students received awards of up to $10,000 and seven students received awards of up to $5,000.
See the APA Dissertation Research Award website for more information.
Elizabeth Espinal, Drexel University
Determining Neural Mechanisms of Effective and Ineffective Memory Consolidation During Sleep Using Targeted Memory Reactivation
Memory is a critical piece of the human experience. Memory decline is a common component of psychological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Widely accepted is the notion that memory consolidation occurs during offline states, mainly deep sleep, through an orchestration of neural rhythms that transform memory traces acquired in wake-states to long-term stores throughout the neocortex. A complex interplay of cortical slow wave activity, thalamo-cortical spindles, and hippocampal sharp-wave ripples is believed to comprise the neural mechanism initiating and coordinating neural activity facilitating memory consolidation. Disruption of the precise orchestration of memory-related brain signals can be devasting to the success of the system. Our study uses targeted memory reactivation (TMR) during sleep in combination with intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) in humans to investigate the relationship between cortical and subcortical brain rhythms and memory performance. In addition to overnight TMR, we incorporate validated clinical measures of memory to investigate biomarkers of memory functioning. This is one of the first studies to utilize iEEG recording in humans to explore the neural substrates of memory consolidation during a TMR task in parallel with clinical memory measures.
Liz is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology with a major area of study in neuropsychology (adult-focused), working with Evangelia Chrysikou, PhD, and Maria Schultheis, PhD at Drexel University in the department of psychological and brain sciences. Her research focuses on discovery at the intersection of clinical neuropsychology and neuroscience, sometimes referred to as clinical neuroscience. Through a collaboration with the Human Brain Mapping Lab at Northwell Health led by Stephan Bickel, MD PhD, and Ashesh Mehta, MD PhD, she combines behavioral measures of episodic memory and intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) to identify electrophysiological biomarkers of long-term memory consolidation during deep sleep. Liz is a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) grant.
Urvashi Dixit, University of South Alabama
Ecological Momentary Assessment of Emotion Regulation, Eating Expectancies, and Binge Eating
College students comprise a high-risk population for binge eating behaviors. The Acquired Preparedness Model, when applied to binge eating, suggests that certain risk factors (individual characteristics like emotion regulation) lead individuals to form problematic expectancies (anticipatory processes based on learning history) about eating (e.g., that eating will improve negative mood). The theory proposes that these expectancies in turn contribute to more frequent engagement in binge eating behaviors. However, much of the work in this area has relied on retrospective self-report, which suffers from limitations related to recall bias and an inability to discern temporal relationships. An additional limitation has been the lack of specificity in expectancy items (“eating will make me feel better”), which did not differentiate expectancies that eating will increase positive emotions or decrease negative emotions. The proposed study will test an application of the Acquired Preparedness Model to understand binge eating behavior, using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Findings from this study can guide the development of interventions that are more effective and relevant to state-level antecedents of binge eating in college students.
Urvashi is a doctoral candidate in clinical-counseling psychology at the University of South Alabama, under the mentorship of Erica Ahlich, PhD. Her research explores affective processes that influence disordered eating behaviors. In particular, Urvashi has interest in the presentation, predictors, and psychological outcomes of emotional- and binge-type eating across various populations. Before pursuing her PhD, Urvashi earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Delhi and a master’s degree in clinical-counseling psychology from the University of Minnesota.
Elliott Botelho, University of Alabama, Birmingham
A Brief Measure of Gender Minority Stress: Development and Validation of the Brief GeMS-R
Transgender individuals experience significant health disparities as compared to their cisgender peers. The Gender Minority Stress and Resilience (GMSR) Theory posits that transgender individuals experience unique stressors that may be partially responsible for physical and mental health disparities. Stressors lie on a continuum from distal (e.g., external) to proximal (e.g., internal); resilience factors may buffer the effects of distal and proximal stressors. Valid, reliable, and feasible measurement of GMSR among transgender individuals is imperative to advancing our understanding of the health of this disparity population. While the 58-item GMSR Measure was published in 2015, it is lengthy, making broad measurement of GMSR infeasible with significant participant burden. Moreover, little research to date has addressed the psychometric properties of this measure.
To address this gap, Botelho’s dissertation will develop the Brief Gender Minority Stress and Resilience (Brief GeMS-R) Measure, a community-informed short-form of the GMSR Measure, and validate it in a national sample of transgender adults in the U.S. Qualitative interviews will be conducted to inform measure development, ensuring the Brief GeMS-R is community-informed and culturally appropriate for use in this population.
Elliott Botelho is a fourth-year student and PhD candidate in the medical/clinical Psychology doctoral program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, working with Kaylee Crockett, PhD. Their research interests include understanding and improving the experiences of transgender and non-binary people and those who occupy multiple minority identities while seeking healthcare, facilitating culturally competent preventative HIV/AIDS care for these populations, gender minority stress, and exploring the impact and development of eating disorders in transgender people. Their research utilizes mixed-methods and community-based participatory research approaches to exploring the multi-level factors (e.g., interpersonal, systemic, policy-level) factors which influence health.
Outside of their primary research agenda, Elliott enjoys working with undergraduate students. To this end, they have also developed a series of training modules about best practices for working with the transgender community in research, which are required onboarding materials for new research staff.
William Grunewald, Auburn University
Testing Interoceptive Dysfunction as a Facilitator for Muscle Dysmorphia
Muscle dysmorphia (MD) is a specifier of body dysmorphic disorder characterized by persistent thoughts that one is insufficiently muscular and compulsive behaviors to increase muscularity. Despite the recognized severity of MD, etiological factors for MD and its symptoms are largely unknown. Interoceptive dysfunction, or disconnection from internal sensations and experiences, is considered a risk factor for disordered eating and body dysmorphic disorder, each of which is closely related to MD. Theory suggests that interoceptive dysfunction could facilitate MD symptoms. For example, dysfunctional pain tolerance (i.e., ability to ignore pain sensations) may motivate increased exercise intensity and dysfunctional gastric interoception (i.e., decreased hunger and fullness cues) may facilitate muscularity-oriented eating pathology (e.g., “bulking” and “cutting”). Given these considerations, Will’s dissertation will test whether interoceptive dysfunction increases the risk for MD symptoms. More specifically, his study will test multiple psychophysiological indices of interoceptive dysfunction as risk factors for MD symptoms while comparing results with self-report measures of interoceptive dysfunction. Results of this dissertation will provide critical knowledge on MD etiology and potentially inform later interventions targeting interoceptive dysfunction to reduce MD symptoms.
Will Grunewald is a fifth-year clinical psychology doctoral candidate at Auburn University. Will graduated with his BS in psychology from the University of California, San Diego in 2018 and earned his MA in psychology from San Diego State University in 2020. His research aims to identify risk factors for disordered eating, body image disturbance, muscle dysmorphia and suicidality, with a particular emphasis on these risk factors among understudied populations. Furthermore, his research investigates how these conditions may maintain one another. Will has tested several potential risk factors for these conditions, including conformity to masculine norms, interoceptive dysfunction, and internalization of weight-stigmatizing attitudes. He hopes to use his program of research to develop feasible and efficacious digital treatment options for muscle dysmorphia, disordered eating and suicidality, especially for male-identifying individuals.
Hayoung Song, University of Chicago
Brain-Wide Dynamics Supporting Human Cognitive Experiences
Our mind and the brain are fascinatingly rich and complex, constantly changing over time in response to the situations we are in. Hayoung's work asks how large-scale neural dynamics give rise to higher-order cognitive processes that we experience in the real world, including narrative comprehension, causal reasoning, and episodic memory. Her work investigates how activity and interaction of the whole brain areas and networks reconfigure in relation to cognitive dynamics. Hayoung’s dissertation work demonstrates that attentional engagement to narrative events is predicted by dynamic patterns of whole-brain functional connectivity, ongoing narrative comprehension guided by memory integration and causal reasoning is characterized by changes in neural representation patterns, and brain-wide state dynamics in a low-dimensional manifold reflect cognitive dynamics in diverse situational contexts. Together, her thesis demonstrates that the mechanisms of complex cognitive experiences in humans can be understood by looking at the biological and computational operations of the large-scale neural system.
Hayoung is a cognitive neuroscientist and a PhD candidate from the University of Chicago, working with Monica Rosenberg. She received a BA in psychology and an MS in biomedical engineering from Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. Her work combines functional magnetic resonance imaging, naturalistic behavioral experiments, and computational modeling to understand the neural and computational mechanisms of higher-order cognition in humans. Hayoung’s research interests broadly span cognitive, systems, and computational neuroscience, as well as studying the human mind and behavior in the real world. She is passionate about open and slow science practices and across-field collaborations.
Ana DiGiovanni, Columbia University
A Problem Shared is a Problem Halved? Investigating the Costs and Benefits of Co-rumination Across Contexts
Co-rumination is a social emotion regulation strategy whereby at least two people cyclically perseverate on problems, focus on negative feelings, and intensely discuss the causes and consequences of issues. Thus far, Ana's dissertation research has demonstrated that co-rumination is related to increased internalizing symptoms, heightened feelings of closeness, and increased physiological synchrony of sympathetic nervous system responses. Moreover, her work has revealed that although some people co-ruminate more than others, on average, co-rumination is highly variable over time and elicits disagreement between dyad members. Through explicitly quantifying the heterogeneity, or variability, in co-rumination, Ana has also shown that not all individuals reap simultaneous costs and benefits, illustrating the person- and context-specific nature of co-rumination. In the last chapter of her dissertation, Ana will capitalize on a 4-week daily diary study surrounding the US presidential election (2-weeks pre- and 2-weeks post-election day), to examine whether and how co-rumination about political issues is associated with political action. This will enable Ana to assess co-rumination about societal level stressors, understand the temporal dynamics of co-rumination, and better understand its relation to behavior.
Ana McMahon DiGiovanni is a PhD candidate at Columbia University, where she works primarily with Niall Bolger, PhD. Ana's research collates theories across affective science and relationship science, and capitalizes on advanced quantitative methods to investigate 1.) the interdependent and dynamic nature of problem-focused (e.g., co-ruminative) conversations, 2.) the social, affective, and physiological outcomes of support interactions, and 3.) how relational and affective processes are shaped by socio-structural forces. Across all of this work, Ana seeks to examine how we show up for loved ones, work alongside others to regulate complex emotions, and make progress on pressing personal and societal problems. Before coming to Columbia, Ana received her BA from New York University.
Adriana Martinez, Ohio State University
Linking Motivational Supports with Culturally Relevant Instruction to Promote Students’ Citizenship Competencies
Education as a public institution plays a vital role in the sustenance of a democratic society, yet citizenship receives little attention from education researchers. Little is known about teacher practices that prepare students to become transformative members of society who can think critically about issues that impact them. This gap is troubling given that educators often feel unprepared to teach about civic issues, even when these issues (e.g., food security, homelessness) impact their students. Adriana’s dissertation explores teachers’ use of culturally relevant and motivationally supportive instructional practices. Using multiple methods, she’s documenting the extent to which these practices may relate to students’ citizenship competencies in upper elementary classrooms. Findings have the potential to identify promising teacher practices that engage and motivate students in learning about civic issues.
Adriana is a doctoral candidate in the educational psychology program at The Ohio State University. Her research examines the intersections between culturally relevant education and student motivation. She’s passionate about research that informs teacher practices so they can improve the learning experiences of culturally diverse students. Before she began her doctoral program, Adriana worked with education nonprofit organizations on policy and communications.
Nari Yoo, New York University
Unraveling Ethnic Disparities: Spatial and Virtual Access to Mental Health Services Among Immigrants with Language Barriers
In the United States, 8% of the population—roughly 25.7 million individuals—have Limited English Proficiency (LEP). While studies indicate that care provided in a patient's primary language is more beneficial for LEP immigrants, access to such language-concordant services remains inconsistent across different areas of the country. Nari's dissertation examines the accessibility to language-concordant mental health services and explores how technology can help overcome these barriers. Using computational methods, field experiments, and qualitative interviews, the study aims to 1) map and quantify the availability of multilingual mental health services at the state level and examine how structural factors impact accessibility; 2) test for linguistic barriers and provider bias in accessing care, and 3) explore Asian immigrants' experiences with telemental health services in their primary language. By identifying service gaps and potentials, this research seeks to provide policy implications in the training system of multilingual therapists and the interstate licensure compact to serve immigrant populations better. The findings aim to inform more linguistically appropriate mental health services for Hispanic/Latino and Asian immigrants, advancing mental health equity.
Nari Yoo is a PhD candidate in social work at New York University. Her research focuses on mental health disparities among racial/ethnic minorities and immigrants, investigating macro- and meso-level factors as well as technology-related aspects of service access and delivery. She applies computational social science approaches and mixed methods to advance mental health and mental health services research. Nari is a predoctoral fellow at NYU's Constance and Martin Silver Center on Data Science and Social Equity. Her work has been published in journals such as Psychiatric Services, social science and medicine, and digital health. She received her BA in sociology and MA in social welfare from Ewha Womans University.
Anahita Kumar, University of Pennsylvania
Household and Neighborhood Poverty in Rural Côte d'Ivoire
Across the world, children growing up in disadvantaged households experience childhood differently from their advantaged counterparts. This dissertation posits that household poverty and poor neighborhood quality negatively influence children's health and education outcomes due to inadequate infrastructure and exposure to poverty and violence. This dissertation studies this issue in three papers that explore the effects of neighborhood and poverty on children in rural Côte d'Ivoire. Study data is from 1,857 households in 140 villages in Côte d'Ivoire's cocoa-farming communities. Geo-coded data is used to create a "neighborhood access" variable via principal component analysis, including factors like access to hospitals, schools, roads, electrical grids, and violence. This measure is used to explore children's educational and health associations with OLS regressions. Finally, a decomposition of multidimensional poverty using non-linear modeling is implemented to understand educational and health associations in the same sample. This work extends a previously Western-focused topic to rural West Africa, providing broader insights into the use of non-linear methods and novel measures in psychology-adjacent research.
Anahita Kumar is a PhD candidate in human development and quantitative methods at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on children’s health and education in developing countries, household poverty, and food insecurity. She is interested in home-based interventions that can succeed in helping children thrive, such as cash transfer programs, parental engagement, and feeding initiatives. She received her MA in statistics from Wharton Business School and BA from St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, India. Prior to her doctoral studies, Anahita worked at UNESCO in Ethiopia on resilience-building programs. Currently, she is also an affiliate of the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences.
Chelsea Mackey, University of Washington
Hitting Close to Home: A Mixed Method Investigation of Neighborhood Characteristics and Drinking Motives on Alcohol-Related Health Disparities
Black Americans bear a disproportionately greater burden of alcohol-related health problems, representing a significant public health concern. One promising approach to explaining these disparities is the examination of one’s neighborhood environment and its relation to alcohol use and related consequences. Extant literature has linked specific neighborhood characteristics (e.g., alcohol outlet and liquor store density and neighborhood disadvantage) as important contributors to alcohol use, however, there is conflicting evidence on which neighborhood characteristics are most important. Moreover, more research is needed to identify mechanisms of action that associate environmental characteristics with alcohol outcomes, and drinking motives are often theorized as a potential pathway. Adults living in different neighborhoods may drink for different reasons, which may differentially influence their alcohol consumption and consequences experienced. Chelsea’s dissertation project seeks to use both qualitative and quantitative approaches to identify neighborhood- and community-level factors that may influence alcohol outcomes among Black adults. Study findings will have important implications for future health disparities research and are crucial for the development of effective, mechanistically driven public health strategies, prevention and intervention efforts, and policy implications.
Chelsea is a doctoral candidate in the clinical psychology program at the University of Washington, working with Mary Larimer, PhD. Her research interests focus on (1) understanding the etiology of and treatment approaches for race-related disparities for alcohol and substance use and (2) understanding the disproportionate impact of systemic and structural barriers on health disparities among minoritized populations using qualitative and quantitative methods. Chelsea’s overarching career goal is to engage in community-based participatory research practices to develop community-driven and culturally informed interventions to reduce health and substance use disparities among minoritized populations.
