Four UB psychology professors named APS fellows

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Four faculty members of the University at Buffalo Department of Psychology have been named fellows of the Association for Psychological Science (APS). 

Micheal Dent and Peter Pfordresher, professors of psychology, and Kenneth DeMarre and John Roberts, associate professors of psychology, were recognized for enduring contributions to the science of psychology through research, teaching, service or application. 

“I am so proud to be part of a dynamic and innovative group of psychological scientists at UB. The Association for Psychological Science is one of the premier professional societies for our discipline. It is humbling to be recognized, along with my colleagues, as part of such a highly esteemed group,” says Pfordresher, PhD, who is also associate dean for academic affairs in the UB College of Arts and Sciences. 

DeMarree, PhD, examines how our attitudes and opinions change, influence judgment and affect behavior. His current research examines whether and how people’s attitudes change when having conversations with others we disagree with, with a goal of fostering more open-minded dialog across differences.

 A prolific scholar, DeMarree’s work has appeared in top journals in his field and has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation. He has served as an associate editor or on the editorial board of four journals. 

He is also a fellow of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Midwestern Psychological Association, Psychonomic Society, and Society of Experimental Social Psychology.

Dent, PhD, is an expert in the perception of auditory stimuli in birds and mice. Her studies explore how animals detect and extract information from complex auditory environments, which has important implications for understanding human hearing and hearing disorders including tinnitus and hearing loss. 

Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Hearing Health Foundation and Deafness Research Foundation. 

She currently serves as associate editor of Acoustics Today and coordinating editor of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. She is also a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and an elected member of the society’s executive council. 

A fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and president of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, Pfordresher is a renowned expert in musical cognition and on the relationship between music and language. His research focuses on the way people retrieve complex event sequences in real time, whether in the course of perceiving or producing these sequences. 

He has published three books and over 70 peer-reviewed articles since joining UB in 2006. 

His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Fulbright Canada, the Grammy Museum Foundation and the European Research Council, among others. 

A researcher in the psychosocial aspects of mood disorders, Roberts’ work explores the etiology, maintenance and recovery from depressive conditions, as well as how depression can impact people’s lives. His most recent work examines the impact of the physical environment including green space, air pollutants and ambient temperature on mental health. 

A prolific author, Roberts, PhD, has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and delivered more than 140 presentations at scientific meetings. He has served as an associate editor or on the editorial board of five journals.