A series of intriguing talks, scientific inspiration, and compelling discussion.
Annually, the Department of Psychology hosts a colloquia 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 provocative topics.
2024 | 2025 Colloquia
UBC Homecoming: September 20, 2024: Dr. Catherine Rawn, University of British Columbia, on Perceptions of Psychology’s Grading Policy and its Impact on Teaching and Learning
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
February 27, 2025: Dr. Sheila Cote-Meek, Brock University (online)
March 20, 2025: Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
April 10, 2025: Dr. Yuanyuan Jiang, University of British Columbia
April 17, 2025: Dr. Adam Steel, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Quinn Memorial Lecture: May 13, 2025: Dr. Kia Nobre, Yale University
2023 | 2024 Colloquia
UBC Homecoming: September 23, 2023: Dr. Antonya Gonzalez, Western Washington University, on Parent and child beliefs about social inequality
Quinn Memorial Lecture: October 11, 2023: Dr. Barbara Landau, Johns Hopkins University, on Geometry and function in spatial terms: Core and More
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
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
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
POSTPONED to 2023: Dr. Hyo Gweon
2020 | 2021 Colloquia
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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