Hello, and welcome!

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Cosmo, one of my research subjects.
Thank you for taking the time to visit my personal website. I am an associate professor of psychology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. I also serve as the chair of the Psychology Department (2022-2025). I earned my bachelor's of science degree in Psychology from Denison University in 2007, and my master's and doctoral degrees in Psychology from the University of Georgia in 2009 and 2013, respectively.

My research interests include origins of language, animal cognition, interspecies social relationships, and comparisons between parrot speech and child language. Both my master's thesis and my dissertation explored one parrot's use of speech to regulate and manipulate her social relationship with her. I teach Introductory Psychology, Research Design in Psychology, History and Systems of Psychology, Animal Cognition, Learning and Behavior, and an interdisciplinary seminar on consciousness in other species.

I devote much of my time and energy to developing my skills as an instructor and undergraduate mentor. I am the proud faculty adviser of Visible Spectrum, a campus club for BIPOC STEM students. I am also the coauthor of a research mentoring handbook for students and faculty titled the SURE (Specialized Undergraduate Research Experience) Workbook. This interactive guide was developed with my colleague, Dr. Elizabeth Simpson. 

This website provides an overview of my research, student mentoring, and other professional activities. Please feel free to contact me with any questions at [email protected].

Lab Shout Outs!

​Colby Smith presented his cross-species raptor cognition project at the Conference on Comparative Cognition in April.
Lab alum Devin Anderson's summer research study, Quantity Discrimination and Dog-Directed Speech, was selected to be featured by the University. Congratulations, Devin!
Click here to learn more about the book I co-authored with my colleague Allison Kaufman.