Psychological and Brain Sciences - UMASS Amherst

04/24/2026

We give our students the knowledge and experience they need to succeed! Your contributions to the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences (PBS) during UMassGives April 29 and 30 will support student research and scholarship. Invest in the next generation of outstanding psychological and brain scientists!

HELP US WIN our Thursday, April 30 POWER HOUR from 11 a.m.– 12 p.m.! The organization with the most individual donations during this hour will receive a bonus prize of $2,000 while 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive $500. Plus, this year our department will match the total donations made during our Power Hour up to $2,000!

Your gifts will aid PBS in the following ways:

• Improve undergraduate research experiences, with funds for research materials and conference presentations, including programs in our new Neuroscience major!

• Enhance graduate student scholarship, including dissemination of research and travel support for conferences.

• Organize community-building workshops and events in the department to enhance student success.

Each gift is an expression of support to our department and our exceptionally talented students.

More info on our official webpage: https://umass.scalefunder.com/gday/giving-day/111216/department/111223

04/17/2026

Nilanjana Dasgupta, provost professor of psychological and brain sciences and founding director of the Institute of Diversity Sciences, was recently recognized by the Axiom Business Book Awards with one of four Outstanding Books of the Year honors for her recent publication, “Change the Wallpaper: Transforming Cultural Patterns to Build More Just Communities.”

Using a science-driven approach to social change, “Change the Wallpaper” argues that small changes to the local cultures around us are far more effective in producing structural change than symbolic acts, bias awareness training or relying solely on good intentions.

“Wallpaper” is Dasgupta’s metaphor for the elements of culture that are hidden in plain sight in neighborhoods, workplaces, and educational settings, shaping our perspective of the world. They include the design of our physical environment; popular stories that explain social reality, provide morals and takeaways and guide our behavior; people we see in valued and respected roles who we may or may not relate to; and the tacit knowledge that some of us have the privilege to get ahead in life with little friction. These four types of situational nudges interact to compound advantages for some and disadvantages for others.

“For culture change to happen, we first must notice the elements of culture—the metaphorical wallpaper—that create inequality in small cumulative ways before we can learn how to avoid the negative elements and harness the positive ones in coordination with other people to move toward social justice,” says Dasgupta.

More information about Dasgupta’s book can be found at https://changethewallpaper.com/

04/13/2026

During this year's you can help aid Psychological and Brain Sciences research! 🔬🧐
UMassGives is a campus-wide fundraiser where you can choose to support your favorite department or organization on April 29 and 30. Our department is raising funds to support student research and scholarship!

Your gifts will:

• Improve undergraduate research experiences, with funds for research materials and conference presentations, including programs in our new Neuroscience major!

• Enhance graduate student scholarship, including dissemination of research and travel support for conferences.

• Organize community-building workshops and events in the department to enhance student success.

Also, help us win our Thursday, April 30 POWER HOUR from 11 am – 12 pm!
The organization with the most individual donations during this hour will receive a bonus prize of $2,000 while 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive $500.

Thank you and give us a share!

04/08/2026

during , Wednesday, April 29 and Thursday, April 30! Your contributions to the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences during UMassGives will support student research!

Your gifts will aid PBS in the following ways:
• Improve undergraduate research experiences, with funds for research materials and conference presentations, including programs in our new Neuroscience major!
• Enhance graduate student scholarship, including dissemination of research and travel support for conferences.
• Organize community-building workshops and events in the department to enhance student success.

HELP US WIN our Thursday, April 30 POWER HOUR from 11 am – 12 pm! The UMass fund with the most individual donations during this hour will receive $2,000 while 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive *$500.

Plus, this year our department will match the total donations made during our Power Hour up to $2,000!

Spread the word! Ask your contacts to support Psychological and Brain Sciences during ! Give us a share, thank you!

* Donations must be unique: only one gift per donor allowed. $5 minimum donation.

04/02/2026

Ella Ford '26, a psychology major and student in the Developmental Disabilities and Human Services Program at UMass Amherst, has received a $3,500 "Advancing Community, Democracy, and Dialogue Grant" from the Chancellor’s Community, Democracy, and Dialogue initiative to support the third annual Neurodiversity and Disability Studies Summit.

The summit will be hosted on Saturday, April 12th from 11:00 to 2:30 in Herter Hall (and on Zoom). The summit partners with the Boltwood Project to bring the Five College community an interactive poster session, keynote presentation and Q&A, as well as breakout discussions.

Keynote address:
‘At the end of the world, let there be you’: Crip-of-Color Writing in the Apocalyptic Now

In this lecture, Jina Kim (Smith College) will discuss her new book, Care at the End of the World: Dreaming of Infrastructure in Crip-of-Color Writing (Duke UP 2025), as well as debut some new work on the politics and poetics of crip-of-color friendship. Care at the End of the World demonstrates why we need radical disability politics and aesthetics for navigating contemporary crises of care. It brings a disability lens to bear on feminist, q***r, and crip-of-color writing following major US welfare reform, which passed in 1996. Looking to authors such as Octavia Butler, Jesmyn Ward, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Aurora Levins Morales, Kim examines how this body of literature grapples with the disabling effects of state austerity measures and interrupts dominant narratives about who deserves care. She calls forward the critiques and possibilities in their literary representations of infrastructure, honoring the imaginative work that these writers do to envision alternative infrastructural arrangements in a world that refuses to support them.

Attend the third annual Neurodiversity and Disability Studies Summit! Register online for in-person or Zoom attendance: https://websites.umass.edu/ddhs/neurodiversity-and-disability-studies-summit-2026/

Sponsors:
The Boltwood Project
The Developmental Disabilities and Human Services Program
The Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Advancing Community, Democracy, and Dialogue Grant

03/30/2026

Aliah Zewail, a graduate student at Psychological and Brain Sciences - UMASS Amherst (PBS), has co-authored a new paper on moral stereotyping in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” The paper examines the confluence of artificial intelligence (AI), large language models (LLMs), morality, and cultural diversity.

Zewail and her co-authors argue that generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs)—such as ChatGPT—play a role in the misrepresentation of the moral values of non-Western individuals. “We showcase that social scientists should not replace human participants with LLMs, as these AI systems fail to capture human diversity around the globe,” Zewail asserts.

This paper was written in partnership with: Alexandra Figueroa, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business; Jesse Graham, the George S. Eccles Chair of Business Ethics and Professor of Management at the University of Utah; and Mohammad Atari, an assistant professor at PBS.

Learn more about this research: https://bit.ly/4rud28z

03/06/2026

The Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) has honored Linda Tropp as a member of their Policy Impact Recognition Program.

Tropp has leveraged her expertise in human behavior and relationships to influence policymaking locally, nationally, and internationally. Her dedication to science and to the dissemination of evidence-based policy has played an important role in addressing societal challenges.

Tropp has been uniquely productive and effective in developing resources for organizations seeking to design, implement, and evaluate contact-based programs in field settings. She created a guide to bridging differences with Welcoming America and the American Immigration Council, and a practical toolkit developed in partnership with the International Organization for Migration. She has collaborated with More in Common on nation-wide studies of social connection and co-authored public-facing reports on key drivers of division in the U.S. (with Beyond Conflict), effects of racial bias in education (with Perception Institute), and how in*******al contact can prepare youth to thrive in a multi-racial democracy (with the National Coalition on School Diversity). Alongside these public-facing activities, Tropp has engaged in extensive “behind the scenes” work with many civil society partners working to curb social and political divides in the U.S. and seeking pathways toward bridgebuilding and inclusive integration across lines of difference.

02/24/2026

Thanks to Dr. Ioulia Kovelman from the University of Michigan for her talk "The Bilingual Reading Brain: Cross-Linguistic Perspectives on Child Literacy" at the Great Hall of the Old Chapel.

The Anderson-Myers Colloquium Series is made possible through a generous donation from Robert and Elizabeth Lorch, honoring UMass Amherst Professors Emeriti Daniel R. Anderson and Jerome L. Myers. The series brings distinguished scholars whose research has transformed developmental and cognitive psychology.

02/17/2026

The Anderson-Myers Colloquium Series is pleased to host Dr. Ioulia Kovelman from the University of Michigan for a talk on Friday, February 20th, from 12:30–1:30 p.m (with a Q&A to follow) in the Great Hall of the Old Chapel.

Dr. Kovelman, a leading developmental cognitive neuroscientist, will present "The Bilingual Reading Brain: Cross-Linguistic Perspectives on Child Literacy." Her research examines how bilingualism shapes reading development, language comprehension, and dyslexia, comparing Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilingual learners.

Light refreshments will be provided. This event is open to all!

For more details about Dr. Kovelman’s work, visit the Language & Literacy Lab at the University of Michigan.

The Anderson-Myers Colloquium Series is made possible through a generous donation from Robert and Elizabeth Lorch, honoring UMass Amherst Professors Emeriti Daniel R. Anderson and Jerome L. Myers. The series brings distinguished scholars whose research has transformed developmental and cognitive psychology.

02/10/2026

Available Lab Position in PBS: Technical Assistant I - Lab Manager for Dr. Daniel Coppersmith’s Su***de Prevention Research Lab in the department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. The incumbent will assist with multiple projects related to su***de prevention research. Duties include project management, recruiting and scheduling participants, administering questionnaires, and organizing data.

This is a full time position For more information or to apply for the position please go to:

Title: Technical Assistant I (Lab Manager, Su***de Prevention Research Lab) Executive Area: Academic Affairs College/School/MBU: College of Natural Sciences Department: Psychology and Brain Sci Work Location: Amherst Schedule: Full Time Work Arrangement: Hybrid Job Summary The incumbent will functio...

01/22/2026

PBS graduate students are featured in the Caregiver Conversations Series this winter/spring, brought to you by the Westfield branch of the Coordinate Family and Community Engagement (CFCE) network.

The first presentation in January featured Karolina Russin and Melissa Horger from the Somneuro Lab. They discussed how to improve sleep in early childhood.

Talks are scheduled for the first Wednesday of the month at 6:00pm at the Westfield Athenaeum (address: 6 Elm St, Westfield, MA 01085).

Attend the next one on February 4th!
Nurturing Connection: Developing Secure Attachment Styles in Children
featuring Ana Berman from the Rudd Adoption Research Program
https://westath.libcal.com/event/15888114

Each participant will receive one FREE pass to Amelia Park Children’s Museum.

12/11/2025

Wreath making with PBS staff!