Two professors from the University of Miami Department of Psychology will present at the 19th annual Association for Psychological Science Convention, in Washington, D.C., May 24-27, 2007. Professor Charles S. Carver, Ph.D., and Assistant Professor Jutta Joormann, Ph.D., will both present their research during the national convention.
Dr. Carver’s talk, titled “Action, Affect, and Feedback Control Processes” will discuss the role of the feedback loop as a fundamental building block in self-regulating systems. His research suggests that it is useful to think of behavioral regulation in terms of two layers of feedback processes. Drawing on principles of control engineering, Carver argues that this two-layer arrangement helps to create both accuracy and stability in action. His talk will be given on Friday, May 25, 2007 at 9:00 AM.
Dr. Jutta Joormann talk, titled “Biased Processing of Emotional Stimuli in Girls at Risk for Depression” will discuss her research study which investigated whether daughters of depressed mother’s exhibit biased processing of emotional information. The high-risk girls recalled fewer positive words than did the control girls and selectively attended to sad faces. These results indicate that cognitive biases might represent an important risk factor for the development of depressive episodes. Her presentation will be during the symposium, Assessing Cognitive Biases in Depression and Suicidality Using Laboratory-Based Measures on Sunday, May 27, 2007 at 9:00 AM.