UW-Madison Psychology

Delighted to share that A.A. Alexander Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry James Li was selected to receive a Vilas Associates Award. The award recognizes “new and ongoing research of the highest quality and significance.”

Congratulations, Professor!

research.wisc.edu/uncategorize...

Congratulations to @cshawngreen.bsky.social, recipient of a 2026 Distinguished Teaching Award! Green was one of 13 faculty members to receive a distinguished teaching award, an honor bestowed since 1953 to recognize some of the university’s finest educators. 🏆 go.wisc.edu/dg771v

Opinion | Gen Zers aren’t talking — and it could cost them The problem runs deeper than social awkwardness.

There's good evidence that talking is declining. I explore the cognitive and social consequences of this shift in the Washington Post. wapo.st/4pz96CG

It won't actually exist for another month or so, but because it now 'exists' on amazon, I'll humbly observe that, after working through this book, your student/trainee would be able to read and understand all but two or three papers in this week's J. Neurosci. Check it out:

First lab meeting of the spring semester! Looking forward to working with our wonderful new and returning research assistants 😁

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

🚨 New paper out in PSPB! 🚨 We found that an “Inclusivity Page” that instructors in the intervention condition added to their course syllabi resulted in better grades among students from marginalized groups. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Skyline of Madison, WI

🚨I am looking for a POSTDOC, LAB MANAGER/TECH and GRAD STUDENTS to join my new lab in beautiful Madison, WI.
We study how our brains perceive and represent the physical world around us using behavioral, computational, and neuroimaging methods.
paulunlab.psych.wisc.edu
#VisionScience #NeuroSkyence

What factors influence alignment btw infant eye-gaze & parental report measures of early vocab? The excellent Haley Weaver & I found that parental confidence & mutual exclusivity effects (distractor knowledge) impact alignment btw these "gold standard" tasks onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

It's so important to recognize that October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. Research demonstrates this is such a prevalent occurrence, and it's one of the core areas of study in our REACH lab. Check out our website to see some of our work on this significant topic: reachlab.psych.wisc.edu

Our latest work on ancestral diversity and cultural evolution is out. Co-authored with Sophie Wohltjen. For a special issue of CRESP on Historical Psychology edited by Josh Jackson and @mohammadatari.bsky.social @spspnews.bsky.social @affectscience.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

👏 Congratulations to Professor @jennysaffran.bsky.social and Assistant Professor @sarabchadwick.bsky.social, recipients of this year's Distinguished Honors Faculty Awards!

Read more about these remarkable educators and research mentors at psych.wisc.edu/news/chadwic...

Congratulations to Sara Chadwick, assistant professor in both @uwmadisongws.bsky.social and @uwpsych.bsky.social, on receiving a distinguished honors faculty award! 👏

@uwpsych.bsky.social is proud to be ranked #19 overall and #8 among public universities in the 2025-2026 U.S. News and World Report’s Best Psychology Undergraduate Programs. This Top 20 ranking underscores our reputation as a leader in teaching and research. #OnWisconsin

go.wisc.edu/z344q1

Congratulations to Assistant Professor João Guassi Moreira who was awarded a 2025 Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Grant! Stay current with his work at cdnlab.psych.wisc.edu/CDNlab/

What Happens When Payments End? Fostering Long-Term Behavior Change With Financial Incentives - Sophia Winkler-Schor, Markus Brauer, 2025 Financial incentives are widely used to get people to adopt desirable behaviors. Many small landholders in developing countries, for example, receive multiyear ...

I’m happy to announce that my paper in PPS is now published! My former grad student and I found that financial incentives work short-term but usually fail for long-term behavior change. Read it here: psych.wisc.edu/Brauer/Braue...

And find the permalink here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

More Than Words w/ Maryellen MacDonald In this episode of Talk Nerdy, Cara is joined by psycholinguist and Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Wisconsin−Madison, Dr. Maryellen MacDonald. They discuss...

So fun to talk about talking on the Talk Nerdy podcast! We talked science communication, adults' talking to and writing for boys vs. girls, talking and learning in school, and more. www.carasantamaria.com/podcast/mary...

Way to go, @bendouglas.bsky.social!

Join us in congratulating professors @marthaalibali.bsky.social and Kate Walsh, recipients of fellowships from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. Alibali received a @warfnews.bsky.social Named Professorship & Walsh received an H.I. Romnes Fellowship.

Read more at go.wisc.edu/vlg0tn 🙌

More Than Words by Maryellen MacDonald, PhD: 9780593545270 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books "This beautifully written book by Maryellen MacDonald demonstrates how 'word-work' shapes both our experience of the world and the very brain that produced our capacity to articulate and generate our ...

Thrilled to announce that my book MORE THAN WORDS (Avery/Penguin Random House) is out! It explains why language production has huge positive effects on talkers: attention, emotion regulation, exec function & more. Accessible science for general audiences! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/724046...

Grateful to WARF for their continued support of science @ UW-Madison and looking forward to clamping some dopamine!

Fun new study by Ellie Breitfeld!

Last lab social of the semester at the Terrace yesterday! Our lab has mostly seniors this year, so we have a lot of RAs to say goodbye to. Wishing them the best!

Thrilled to celebrate the election of our own Patricia Devine and Mark Seidenberg to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences!

Had the wonderful opportunity to give my talk entitled "Social Marketing: Influencing Behaviors for Good" at UW-Parkside's Community Partnership Celebration! Thank you to all who came and made the event a success! 🎉

Psychology | Day of the Badger Students in the Department of Psychology are tomorrow’s change makers, shaping the future of mental health care, providing valuable psychological insights in legal settings, and driving innovation in ...

U of Wisconsin alumni & friends: today is "Day of the Badger"--a day to raise money to support our department & our students. If we reach 150 donors to the Dept of Psych, we unlock a big additional gift! Please support if you can! (any dollar amount, $5 is great!)
dayofthebadger.org/campaign/psy...

Congratulations to Emma Hammond! Excellent paper on negative effects of oxytocin on wound healing…..but it depends on social context

Screenshot from John McWhorter's NYTimes column March 20, 2025, mentioning Maryellen MacDonald's book. Text here: Incidentally, on the marvels of speaking, there is a neat new book on the horizon teaching us how talking develops kids’ minds, how it should be more central to education than just listening quietly, how it can help us organize our thoughts and calm ourselves down, and even hold off dementia. In Maryellen MacDonald’s “More Than Words: How Talking Sharpens the Mind and Shapes Our World,” you get the sense of casual speech as awesome that I was just trying to get across.

John McWhorter discusses a creole named Kriol today, and also gives a shout out to my book! www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/o...

We can't wait to have you here!

📣Now hiring! I'm looking to recruit a full-time Research Specialist (Lab Manager) to join the Social and Moral Learning Lab at UW Madison starting this summer! Apply here: jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/researc... (application deadline March 21, 2025)

Delighted to share that our own @nickbuttrick.bsky.social has been named an APS Rising Star, a designation recognizing "researchers whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions." Congrats, Dr. Buttrick!