| Kara L. Bopp, Ph.D., Assistant Professor |
 Dr. Bopp received her BA from Hamilton College, a small liberal arts college in Central New York, with thesis honors in Psychology. She obtained her MA from New York University’s Cognition-Perception program, and her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at Syracuse University. She was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Award, a Certificate in University Teaching, and Honors for her dissertation.
Throughout her education her research focus has been on memory and aging. As a lifespan cognitive psychologist her research purpose is two-fold: 1) to understand the impact of aging on memory and attention, and 2) to examine old and new types of cognitive processes through age dissociations. She currently studies working memory, a process that allows for simultaneous storage and processing of information. Working memory is considered a basic cognitive feature necessary for many everyday tasks such as reading, calculating a tip, and driving a car.
Presently, Dr. Bopp teaches:
- Introductory Psychology (110)
- Cognitive Science (310)
- Senior Thesis (451, 452)
- Interim
Email: Boppkl@wofford.edu
Go to Dr. Bopp's Web Page
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| John C. Lefebvre, Ph.D., Professor and Department Chair |
 Dr. Lefebvre received a D.E.C. from Vanier College in Montreal before receiving his B. A. degree from McGill University with first class honors in psychology. While a student at McGill, he had the opportunity to be actively involved in research projects involving pain research. After completing his degree at McGill, Dr. Lefebvre received his Ph.D. degree in 1998 from Duke University in clinical psychology. He also completed his pre-doctoral internship in clinical psychology at Duke University Medical Center. As a graduate student, his research involved how people cope with pain, the efficacy of cognitive behavioral treatment of chronic pain, pain assessment, and pain in children. Dr. Lefebvre spent a year at Ohio University as an Assistant Research Professor, then came to Wofford in 1999. He also has an appointment as Assistant Consulting Professor at Duke University Medical Center where he is primarily involved in research, and he is a member of the Spartanburg Regional Medical System Pain Management Team. Dr. Lefebvre was appointed Chairman of the Psychology Department in February, 2004.
Dr. Lefebvre’s research interests continue to focus on pain. He has developed a research program with psychology students looking at how people cope with pain. The research has focused on both clinical pain populations as well as undergraduates. In his spare time, Dr. Lefebvre enjoys spending time with his family, especially at Wofford social and athletic events.
Presently, Dr. Lefebvre teaches:
During the interim, Dr. Lefebvre has taught courses on amateur architecture and service learning. He recently sponsored an interim in which a small group of Wofford students traveled to London, England to work as volunteers in non-profit organizations. While in London, they lived with local families and traveled through the city using mass transit. This year, Dr. Lefebvre will be teaching an interim on artificial intelligence with Dr. Kay in the philosophy department.
Email: john.lefebvre@wofford.edu
Go to Dr. Lefebvre's Web Page
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Cecile M. Nowatka, Ph.D., Associate Professor
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 Dr. Nowatka received her B.A. degree from the University of Virginia in French, her M.A. in Psychology from the College of William and Mary, and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Kentucky.
She taught for three years at Washington State University, and then returned to the University of Kentucky to teach for two years. Dr. Nowatka came to Wofford in 1999 and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2003. Her research interests involve the impressions that people form of other people, and how those impressions are maintained or altered.
Presently, Dr. Nowatka teaches:
Concepts and Methods (104)
Psychology of Adjustment (160)
Abnormal Psychology (220)
Child Development (240)
Adult Development and Aging (340)
Psychological Assessment (430)
Senior Thesis (451, 452)
Interim
Dr. Nowatka's interim courses have included "Psychopathology at the Movies," and "The Literature of J. R. R. Tolkien."
Email: nowatkacm@wofford.edu
Go to Dr. Nowatka's Web Page
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David W. Pittman, Ph.D., Associate Professor
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 Dr. Pittman received his B.S. degree (Psychology) from Wofford College. Continuing with graduate training at the Florida State University, Dr. Pittman received his M.S. degree in Psychology and his Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience. At the Florida State University, he taught classes in sensation and perception, conditioning and learning, and biological psychology and was awarded an "Outstanding Teaching Award" from the Program of Instructional Excellence. Dr. Pittman's research training was as a sensory physiologist specializing in taste electrophysiology and ingestive behavior psychophysics.
At Wofford, Dr. Pittman's laboratory examines how taste neural signals are sent from the mouth to the brain and how the sense of taste then affects feeding behavior in both humans and rat animal models. Two main questions are currently being explored in the laboratory. Dr. Pittman is interested in understanding how dietary fats produce taste sensations and motivate the consumption of high-fat foods. Additionally, research is also exploring how anti-anxiety drugs, such as Valium, may alter taste sensations to increase the palatability of food and thus increase our food consumption when taking those medications. Dr. Pittman has also developed and supports a school-based intervention for elementary school lunch programs called Healthy Eating Decisions which aims to reduce childhood obesity in Spartanburg County. Dr. Pittman is the chair of the College Animal Care and Use Committee, Coordinator for the Program in Neuroscience, faculty advisor for the Psychology Kingdom and Kappa Sigma student organizations, and is a member of the Spartanburg County Childhood Obesity Task Force.
Presently, Dr. Pittman teaches:
During Interim terms, Dr. Pittman has taught a variety of courses ranging from supervising independent student research projects to traveling to Jamaica to a seminar course entitled "Songwriting & Storytelling" in which student learn how to compose original song lyrics and examine songwriting from psychological, literary, and entertainment perspectives including guest lectures from successful independent artists.
Email: pittmandw@wofford.edu
Go to Dr. Pittman's Web Page
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| Alliston K. Reid, Ph.D., Reeves Family Professor of Psychology |
 Dr. Reid received his B. S. degree from Wofford College in 1975 with a major in psychology. As a student, he was passionately involved in research in experimental psychology and neuropsychology, working closely with Dr. Pilley and Dr. Scott on several research projects. Dr. Reid received his Ph.D. degree from Duke University in experimental psychology with a minor in zoology. While at Duke, Dr. Reid also studied electrical and computer engineering. Dr. Reid taught for three years in the graduate program of psychology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City, Mexico, where he obtained tenure and received his first teaching award, teaching all his classes in Spanish. Dr. Reid also taught briefly in 1984 at Universidad Konrad Lorenz in Bogotá, Colombia, before returning to Duke University. In 1985 he moved to Oregon to teach computer science at Eastern Oregon University, where he eventually became full professor of computer science and psychology. During his 11 years in Oregon, Dr. Reid served as chairman of the mathematics & computer science program and later as chairman of psychology. While teaching computer science and later psychology in Oregon, Dr. Reid was awarded teaching awards seven times. He came to Wofford College in 1996 when his favorite mentor, Dr. John Pilley, decided to retire. Dr. Reid served as chairman of the psychology department from 1998 to 2004. At Wofford, Dr. Reid was awarded the Governor's Distinguished Professor Award by Governor Mark Sanford in 2004. At graduation in May 2005, Dr. Reid was awarded the Roger Milliken Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Science, which provides $50,000 over a ten-year period to promote faculty development. For three years, he served as Program Chair for the Society for the Quantitative Analyses of Behavior (SQAB) and special editor of the journal, Behavioural Processes, which publishes a special SQAB issue each year. Currently, Dr. Reid serves as President of the Society for the Quantitative Analyses of Behavior. In 2010 Dr. Reid was appointed Reeves Family Professor of Psychology due to the continued generosity of Ed Reeves and his family.
Dr. Reid's research interests center on the basic mechanisms of learning and memory across species. His research often focuses on the rules of integration of responding and environmental cues to produce adaptive patterns of behavior. His approach to these topics involves the experimental analysis of behavior with rats, pigeons, and humans, along with mathematical modeling and computer simulation of these basic processes. Students are involved in all aspects of this research and frequently are coauthors of published papers and conference presentations. Like his previous mentor, Dr. John Pilley, Dr. Reid's true passion is working closely with students in the lab. He even started liking basketball once he and his students learned to teach rats to play one-on-one, leading to tournaments such as the Final Four Rat Basketball Tournament and the Hoop-Rat Classic.
Presently, Dr. Reid teaches:
During Interim terms, Dr. Reid often combines teaching with adventurous activities in other lands. Here are some examples of his interim courses: "Kayaking the nature preserves," "Wetlands ecology by kayak," "Personal insight through tropical adventure," "Welcome to Oaxaca!", and "Eyewitness Testimony." Next year, he plans to take students to explore "Turkey: At the Crossroads."
Email: reidak@wofford.edu
Go to Dr. Reid's Web Page
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