Scholarly Activities
- Lawrence Lewis, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, focuses his research primarily on language development issues such as language learning differences in children and adults, how children take into account the knowledge state of listeners when talking about events, and the effects of language background (English, French, Spanish) on development. A secondary line of research addresses factors affecting spiritual growth and development. Dr. Lewis has published articles in such journals as Developmental Psychology , Child Development , and Journal of Child Language.
- Janet Matthews, Ph.D., Professor, is a consulting editor for the journal Teaching of Psychology. She is also a reviewer for Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, and for Contemporary Psychology. Her scholarly writing focuses on professional issues and ethics as well as the pedagogy of teaching. She has published in these areas over the past 25 years.
- Evan Zucker, Ph.D., Professor, has studied the social behavior of a wide variety of species of wild and captive primates since 1975. Longitudinal research conducted in Costa Rica with wild howling monkeys has led him to his current project, which has to do with the relationships between social variables and reproductive success in three species of nonhuman primates (rhesus monkeys, pigtailed monkeys, and anubis baboons), all housed in social groups at the Tulane National Primate Research Center in Covington, LA. Specifically, the key factor being investigated is the influence of matriline (or family) social status on reproductive outcomes and related variables, such as body weights, longevity, and interbirth intervals. This work falls into the general heading of “life history” research.