Scholars of the Science of Learning

Patricia Gurin
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Nancy Cantor Distinguished University Professor Emerita
Psychology & Women's Studies

 

Patricia Gurin directs the research program of the Program on Intergroup Relations, a curricular program co-sponsored by the College of LS&A and the Division of Student Affairs. She is also a Faculty Associate of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Institute for Social Research and of the Center for African and Afro-American Studies. A social psychologist, Dr. Gurin’s work has focused on social identity, the role of social identity in political attitudes and behavior, motivation and cognition in achievement settings, and the role of social structure in intergroup relations. She is the author of eight books and monographs and numerous articles on these topics. She is an expert witness in the University of Michigan’s defense of its undergraduate and law school admissions policies. In collaboration with Sylvia Hurtado, Eric Dey, and Gerald Gurin, all of the Center for Post-Secondary and Higher Education at the University of Michigan, she provided the expert report on the Educational Value of Diversity for these lawsuits.

Patricia King
Professor Higher and Post-Secondary Education
School of Education

Patricia M. King’s teaching and research focus on learning and development among late adolescents and adults, including college students. She has written two books and published more than 50 articles, and is currently Principal Investigator of the University of Michigan team of the National Study of Liberal Arts Education sponsored by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College. She served as the founding editor of About Campus: Enriching the Student Learning Experience, a bi-monthly publication sponsored by the American College Personnel. Professor King was Director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan from 2003-06. She received her PhD from the University of Minnesota.

Thad Polk
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor & Associate Professor
Psychology & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering

Thad Polk received an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in psychology and computer science from Carnegie Mellon University under the supervision of Prof. Allen Newell and did post-doctoral work in cognitive neuroscience with Prof. Martha Farah at the University of Pennsylvania. His research area is cognitive neuroscience. With support from the NIH, he is using functional MRI to study the neural architecture underlying reading, bilingualism, and number processing. He also works on developing computationally explicitly theories of cognitive architecture, particularly prefrontal control and verbal working memory. Video on his strategies. [1]

Priti Shah
Associate Professor
Psychology

Priti Shah is a cognitive and educational psychologist with the primary goal of understanding how to overcome limitations in the performance of complex cognitive tasks. In particular, she investigates cognitive tasks that require managing multiple goals, integrating different sources of information, and forming coherent, memorable representations. Dr. Shah’s research has two foci. In one line of research, she has examined the comprehension of visual displays used in a wide variety of contexts, including elementary science and math education and scientific research. Her second line of research focuses on understanding two basic mechanisms that support complex cognition, working memory and executive functions, and the degree to which they can be improved.

Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks
Associate Professor
Management and Organizations

Sanchez-Burks researches how interactions, relationships and leadership can be maximized in a global economy by understanding differences in how people interpret social emotional aspects of work. His research, for example, has shed light on the nature of American workways and its direct implications for intercultural business conflict, communication, and rapport. More recently, he has begun to address questions about how leaders make sense of and react to the emotional landscape of their organization (referred to as a leader’s emotional aperture), how this affects their success in implementing change and finally, what factors facilitate versus inhibit this collective emotion recognition. Additional collaborative research projects similarly use cultural psychology theory to better understand (a) the problem of how individuals achieve innovation and creativity in their work and (b) the drivers of pride and prejudice that inhibit the benefits of diversity in organizations. His research has been highlighted in domestic and international outlets such as The New York Times, National Public Radio, Christian Science Monitor, La Repubblica (Italy), The Express (England), Terra (Mexico), and Carp Baanberkend (Netherlands). 

back to top