April 29: Alison Miller, University of Michigan

Stress, Self-Regulation, Eating Behavior and Obesity in Low-Income Children

Alison Miller is a developmental psychologist who studies child self-regulation, family processes, and social-contextual factors in relation to child health and mental health outcomes.  Obesity is a complex condition influenced by biological, psychological, behavioral and social-contextual factors, many of which can be established and identified early in the lifespan.  Recent attention has focused on the need for developmental science to inform the study of childhood obesity.  Importantly, income-related disparities in obesity are identifiable even in early childhood.
This presentation will focus on stress, self-regulation, and "stress-eating" behaviors as potential pathways to obesity and excessive weight gain among young, low-income children.  Specifically, the design and methods for the "Appetite, Behavior, and Cortisol (ABC)" studies will be introduced and initial findings presented regarding how child stress response relates to eating behavior and obesity in early childhood.  Implications for intervention work will also be considered.

April 15: Alison Miller Singley & Zi Lin Sim

Please join us for two presentations by Alison Miller Singley and  Zi Lin Sim, graduate students in the Department of Psychology.  Each will discuss their current research on Monday, April 15,  12:00-1:30pm in 3105 Tolman Hall. Alison Miller Singley: "Work Hard, Play Harder? How Games May Improve Academic  Achievement" Abstract: Reasoning is not only an important life skill,  it is also essential  for proficiency in mathematics, which has become a gatekeeper  for academic and professional success. Previous research has  shown that children can improve their reasoning skills through  game-playing. In my current project, I seek to determine  whether instruction in chess, a reasoning-intensive game, can be similarly beneficial for elementary school children, particularly  as it relates to reasoning, mathematics and cognitive capacity. Zi Lin Sim: "Infant's Early Understanding of Coincidence" Abstract "Coincidences are surprising events that can provide learners with the opportunity to revise their theories about how the world works. In the current research, we investigate whether infants are truly  sensitive to coincidences, even when such surprising events cannot be predicted by the computation of mere probabilities. In addition, we explore whether this sensitivity is translated into action,  encouraging infants to engage inactivities that may enable them to  revise their theories. Results from 2 experiments demonstrate that infants display a sensitivity to coincidence similar to adult intuitions,  and they selectively explore objects that produce anomalous data  that better supports an alternative theory than their prior theory."