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Diane F. Halpern, Ph.D. Trustee Professor of Psychology & Roberts Fellow, Claremont McKenna College Graduate Faculty in Psychology, Claremont Graduate University President, 2004 American Psychological Association |
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Research Interests |
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Contact Diane Halpern Department of Psychology, Claremont McKenna College, 850 Columbia Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711 |
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I have a wide range of research interests, which are loosely rooted in human cognition, including expert-novice differences in Scrabble players, sex differences in cognitive abilities, critical thinking, using the principles of cognitive psychology to enhance teaching and learning, and work and family interactions.
Here are some projects that I am working on.
Operation ARIES: Acquiring Research Investigative and Evaluation Skills This project is funded by a grant the Department of Education, Institute for Educational Sciences to Keith Millis, University of Northern Illinois, Art Graesser, University of Memphis, and Diane Halpern, Claremont McKenna College. It is currently being published by Pearson, Allyn, & Bacon and will be commercially available soon!
Operation ARIES is an intelligent tutoring system that using principles from the science of learning and serious learning games. Students participate in a game-like setting that begins when they sign up to be agents for the Federal Bureau of Science to save the earth from aliens from the ARIES constellation that are attempting to colonize the Earth. These aliens are taking over the Earth by turning humans into mindless consumers by using bad science. Students have to learn scientific principles to be able to identify the alien spies and prevent the earth from being colonized. The training proceeds in three stages: first they learn about science by reading the Fuath's Guide to the Bean's World of Science, which was written by aliens (Fuaths). They then identify potential aliens by evaluating realistic case studies, some of which are faulty, and finally by interrogating potential aliens. Students are tutored by fellow student and expert avatars using natural language. Although we are midway into this project, preliminary results on the effectiveness of automated tutoring are positive.
This is a brief overview of the game.
This is the introductory video that students watch when they begin the game.
Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment: Critical thinking is universally listed as a key area to be cultivated in higher education. The Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment (HCTA) is designed to measure critical thinking skills in adult populations. It has been used with multiple populations including high school seniors, community college students, students at state universities and elite colleges, and a random sample of working adults. The HCTA consists of 25 everyday scenarios. No specialized knowledge is needed because the focus is on using critical thinking skills in common situations. Each scenario is presented twice, first requiring a constructed response and the second time requiring a force choice response. The purpose of two types of responding is to separate generation of a response from recognition processes. The assessment has two forms. It is available online and has been translated and used in Spanish, Chinese, and Turkish. The HCTA is available as part of the Vienna Testing System in multiple languages (Schuhfried publishers).
If you are interested in the HCTA, please CLICK HERE for more information.
Can Fluid Intelligence be Enhanced with Cognitive Training? Clayton Stephenson, a doctoral student at Claremont Graduate University is working on this project as his dissertation (under my supervision). The purpose of this study is to extend earlier findings that performance on Raven's Progressive Matrices, a standard test of fluid intelligence, which is the ability to solve novel problems, can be improved with practice on a grueling cognitive task know as the double-n back test. We will be looking at performance on several different measures to see if there are generalized gains in fluid intelligence. This is a key question in the intelligence literature, and if it were to replicate over various conditions, it is likely that computer-mediated cognitive training programs will proliferate.
Research with CMC and Other Claremont University Students: Being involved in research is an important part of a quality undergraduate education. I always have a group of students working with me and working independently under my supervision on a wide range of research topics. Here is a sample of student research:
Heather Butler: “The Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment Predicts Real-world Outcomes” Courtney Dern: “Work and Words: The Effects of Work-Family Conflict and Parental Beliefs About Early Learning on Preschoolers’ Vocabulary” David I. Miller: “Improving the spatial visualization skills of Harvey Mudd first-year students” Clayton Stephenson, doctoral dissertation: “Does training to increase working memory improve fluid intelligence?” Anna Beninger: "Ask for It: The Impact of Self-Esteem, Situational Characterization, and Gender on Propensity to Initiate Negotiation" Jonathan Strahl "Bilingualism, Motivation, and Non Verbal Abilities: A Study of High School Math Students" Ana Cristina Leal: "Can Theories of Self-Efficacy Explain Migrant Student Academic Success?" Karen Cheung: "Does Reading Chinese at an Early Age Enhance the Development of Children's Visual-Spatial Skills?" Abby Quinn: "The Opt-Out 'Revolution': Pull to Motherhood or Escape from the Workplace? Freda Feng: " The Magic of Music: Effects of Music on Mood and Memory for Old and Young Adults" |