A series of intriguing talks, scientific inspiration, and compelling discussion.
Annually, the Department of Psychology hosts a colloquia and talks series throughout the academic year. This program brings us together outside of the labs and classroom to have conversations with our community and the speakers we’ve invited to our campus to share their ideas. You’ll have the chance to hear from international speakers on a wide range of psychology research.
2025 | 2026 Colloquia & Talks
- September 18, 2025: Dr. Jelena Brcic, University of the Fraser Valley, on You Can Do Hard Things Too: What Life and Science Show Us (UBC Homecoming)
- September 25, 2025: Dr. Mahesh Srinivasan, UC Berkeley, on Re-imagining how children learn the meanings of words
- November 20, 2025: Dr. Suzanne Segerstrom, Oregon State University
- March 10, 2026: Dr. Lila Davachi, Columbia University (Quinn Memorial Lecture)
- April 2, 2026: Dr. Samantha Anderson, Arizona State University
- Date TBD: Dr. Oliver John, UC Berkeley (Psychfest)
2024 | 2025 Colloquia & Talks
- September 20, 2024: Dr. Catherine Rawn, University of British Columbia, on Perceptions of Psychology’s Grading Policy and its Impact on Teaching and Learning (UBC Homecoming)
- September 26, 2024: Dr. Sy-Miin Chow, Pennsylvania State University, on Of Course It’s (Not Just) About Time: Current Progress and New Ventures in Modeling Change
- January 30, 2025: Dr. Andrew Shtulman, Occidental College on The Development of Cognitive Reflection
- February 27, 2025: Dr. Sheila Cote-Meek, Brock University on Decolonizing Higher Education Systems in Canada
- March 20, 2025: Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Conducive Conditions for Positivity Resonance at Multiple Levels of Analysis
- April 10, 2025: Dr. Yuanyuan Jiang, Saint Paul University, on Promoting child mental well-being and effective parent-teacher support
- April 17, 2025: Dr. Adam Steel, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on Mechanisms underlying perceptual and mnemonic interaction in the brain
- May 13, 2025: Dr. Kia Nobre, Yale University on Focusing attention on sensory x memory contents to guide behavior (Quinn Memorial Lecture)
2023 | 2024 Colloquia & Talks
- September 23, 2023: Dr. Antonya Gonzalez, Western Washington University, on Parent and child beliefs about social inequality (UBC Homecoming)
- October 11, 2023: Dr. Barbara Landau, Johns Hopkins University, on Geometry and function in spatial terms: Core and More (Quinn Memorial Lecture)
- February 29, 2024: Dr. Hyowon Gweon, Stanford University
- March 7, 2024: Dr. Shahzeen Attari, Indiana University
- March 14, 2024: Dr. Theodore Robles, University of California, Los Angeles
- March 21, 2024: Dr. Mimi Lijeholm, University of California, Irvine
- April 4, 2024: Dr. Daphne Bavelier, Geneva University CANCELLED!
2022 | 2023 Colloquia & Talks
- September 24, 2022: Dr. Julia Kam on Thinking about thinking: the neural basis of internal attention | UBC Homecoming
- September 29, 2022: Dr. Evan Kleiman, Rutgers University, on How can technology improve how we predict and prevent suicidal thoughts and behavior?
- October 6, 2022: Dr. Mariam Aly, Columbia University, on How hippocampal memory shapes, and is shaped by, attention
- November 3, 2022: Dr. Mark Brandt, Michigan State University, on COVID-19 as a real-world test of psychological theories of threat and politics
- February 9, 2023: Dr. Christine Chambers, Dalhousie University, on From Evidence to Influence: Making a Difference for Children in Pain
- March 9, 2023: Dr. Tamara Bodnar, UBC, on A translational approach to exploring the impact of prenatal alcohol exposure on health: From pre-clinical models to Indigenous community partnerships
- March 23, 2023: Dr. Alice Kim on Fostering community and connection in the classroom: Insights from research on online, in-person, blended, and hybrid flexible learning contexts
- April 13, 2023: Dr. Jessica Kay Flake, McGill University, on Integrating rigorous measurement into methodological reform
2021 | 2022 Colloquia & Talks
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- September 29, 2021: Interview with Dr. Daniel Kahneman on his book NOISE
- October 7, 2021: Dr. Daniel Lakens on The New Heuristics, and Good Statistics
- October 14, 2021: Dr. Anthony Ong on Positive Emotions as Resilience and Vulnerability: Implications for Healthy Aging
- March 3, 2022: Dr. Stephanie Fryberg on Omission as the Modern Form of Bias Against Indigenous Peoples
- March 24, 2022: Dr. Viji Sathy on Cultivating Inclusive Experiences In Our Classrooms, Curriculum, and on Our Campuses
- March 31, 2022: Dr. Jeffrey Ansloos on Manitou2Manido: Mental health and healing with Indigenous queer, trans and Two Spirit young people
- Quinn Memorial Lecture | May 17, 2022: Dr. Lynn Nadel on Brain Development and the Emergence of Learning and Memory in Humans and Other Animals
2020 | 2021 Colloquia & Talks
- September 17, 2020: Dr. Tom Griffiths on Modeling cognitive processes as the rational use of limited resources
- October 29, 2020: Dr. Ted Beauchaine on Environmental adversity and suicidal behaviors in adult men and preadolescent girls with ADHD: Implications for prevention
- February 25, 2021: Dr. Daphna Shohamy CANCELLED!
- March 11, 2021: Dr. Eric Landrum on Pathways After the Psychology Bachelor’s Degree: What We Know, What We Know We Don’t Know, and What’s Next
- April 15, 2021: Dr. Michele Gelfand on The Secret Life of Social Norms: From Nations to Neurons
2019 | 2020 Colloquia & Talks
- September 5, 2019: Dr. Carey Morewedge on Evidence that One-Shot Training Interventions Can Improve Decision Making
- September 26, 2019: Dr. Kathleen Gates on Applications of data-driven methods for studying dynamic processes
- October 24, 2019: Dr. Zachary Walsh on Cannabis Revised: Legalization, Mental Health, and Public Health
- February 6, 2020: Dr. Niall Bolger on Causal Processes in Psychology are Heterogeneous
- March 12, 2020: Dr. Eli Finkel on The All-Or-Nothing Marriage
- March 20, 2020: Dr. Jenny Saffran on Learning to understand: Statistical learning and infant language development
2018 | 2019 Colloquia & Talks
- February 28, 2019: Dr. Brian Nosek on Shifting incentives from getting it published to getting it right
- March 15, 2019: Dr. Athena Aktipis on How generosity, cheating, and exploitation shape our world, from human social groups to cellular societies
- April 16, 2019: QUINN MEMORIAL LECTURE | Dr. Richard Aslin on Learning and attention in infants: The importance of prediction in development
2017 | 2018 Colloquia & Talks
- September 28, 2017: Dr. Joseph Simmons on Life After P-Hacking
- November 2, 2017: QUINN MEMORIAL LECTURE | Dr. Robert T. Knight on Insights into Human Cognition from Direct Brain Recording
- November 9, 2017: Prof. Sue Frantz on Technology for Academics: Essential Tools for Teaching
- January 25, 2018: Dr. Jennifer Tackett on Who knows what about a kid? Adventures in measuring child personality
- March 8, 2018: Dr. Kate McLaughlin on Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms linking Environmental Experience with the Onset of Psychopathology
- March 22, 2018: Dr. James MacKillop on Applying behavioural economics and neuroeconomics to understand addiction: a translational approach
- March 29, 2018: Dr. Jens Pruessner on Bidirectional effects of early life adversity on stress system regulation – in search for a comprehensive theory
- April 19, 2018: Dr. Jeffrey Mogil on Pain in Mice and Men: Ironic Adventures in Translation
- September 27, 2018: MICHAEL CHANDLER LECTURE | Dr. Lisa Feigenson on Constraints and flexibility in early quantification: Insights from infancy
2016 | 2017 Colloquia & Talks
- September 15, 2016: MICHAEL CHANDLER LECTURE | Dr. Nancy Eisenberg on Children’s Effortful Self-Regulation: Conceptualization and Relations to Adjustment and Maladjustment
- October 20, 2016: Dr. Michael Miller on Barack Obama, John Dean & Other Criterion Shifters
- November 3, 2016: Dr. Jane Risen on Believing What We Know Isn’t So: Acquiescence to Superstitious Beliefs and Other Powerful Intuitions
- November 10, 2016: QUINN MEMORIAL LECTURE | Dr. Ellen Bialystok on Lifelong Bilingualism: Reshaping Mind and Brain
- January 12, 2017 : Dr. Regan Gurung on Cultivating Learning: Capitalizing on Psychological Science
- February 16, 2017: Dr. William Cunningham on The Inevitability of Prejudice?
- March 2, 2017: Dr. Rena Repetti on Putting Family Relationships under the Microscope
- March 23, 2017: Dr. John Cacioppo on Social Neuroscience Through the Lens of Social Isolation
- March 30, 2017: Dr. Jeremy Biesanz on What have we Learned from New Analytical Models of Interpersonal Perception?
- April 6, 2017: Dr. Kent Berridge on Brain Generators of Delight, Desire, and Dread
2015 | 2016 Colloquia & Talks
- October 15, 2015: Dr. Kate Keenan on Testing the hypothesis that prenatal stress confers risk for psychopathology in the offspring via the randomized controlled trial
- November 5, 2015: Dr. Kenneth Craig on Putting the social in the biopsychosocial model of pain
- December 1, 2015: Dr. Naomi Eisenberger on Ties that reject, ties that protect: The social neuroscience of social rejection and social support
- January 21, 2016: Dr. Mark Mattson on Maintaining optimal brain function throughout life requires effort
- March 8, 2016: Dr. Beate Ditzen on Neuroendocrine Modulators of Social Behavior and Stress Responses in Couples
- March 24, 2016: Dr. Dan Willingham on The treacherous path from basic to applied science: The case of education
- April 7, 2016: MICHAEL CHANDLER LECTURE | Dr. Karen Adolph on Learning to move
2014 | 2015 Colloquia & Talks
- September 16, 2014: Dr. Janet Werker on Becoming a native listener: Biological constraints and experiential influences
- October 2, 2014: Dr. Adam Anderson on Emotion Form and Function
- October 30, 2014: Dr. Bert Uchino on Social Ties and Health: Insights from a Broad Perspective on Relationship Positivity and Negativity
- November 13, 2014: Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes on Affect contagion: How stress and emotions are caught by strangers and close others
- January 15, 2015: Dr. Mitch Prinstein on Predicting Adolescent Suicidal Behavior
- January 29, 2015: Dr. Emilio Ferrer on Statistical and exploratory models for studying dynamics in social interactions
- February 10, 2015: MICHAEL CHANDLER LECTURE | Dr. Susan Gelman on Origins of Essentialist Reasoning
- March 5, 2015: Dr. Joseph Henrich on On the Origins of WEIRD People (Or, why psychology should become a historical science)
- April 14, 2015: Dr. Dana Dunn on Emerging Issues in the Teaching of Psychology
2013 | 2014 Colloquia & Talks
- October 17, 2013: Dr. Charles Carver on Dual-Process Models and Serotonergic Function: What Depression and Impulsive Aggression Have in Common
- October 31, 2013: Dr. Markus Heinrichs on Social Hormones in the Human Brain: Psychobiological Mechanisms and Clinical Implication
- December 5, 2013: Dr. Regina Sullivan on Neurobiology of Attachment: Lessons from an animal model
- February 27, 2014: Dr. Nathan Kuncel on Fact and Fiction in Intelligence Testing
- March 13, 2014: Dr. Art Kramer on A Tale of Two Training Strategies: Enhancing Cognition and Brain Function
- March 27, 2014: Dr. Diane Halpern on Teaching for Critical Thinking: The Why of Higher Education
- April 10, 2014: MICHAEL CHANDLER LECTURE | Dr. Carol Dweck on Mindsets and Human Nature: Implications for Achievement, Aggression, Altruism, and Willpower
- May 2, 2014: Dr. Steven Hinshaw