COVER STORY

RECKONING WITH INTANGIBLES

David Landy and the science of learning math

In 2007 PBS professor David Landy was a Ph.D. student at IU in computer science and cognitive science, studying the cognitive process by which people learn and perform mathematical problems. He was also the father of a newborn baby girl. Graduate research and new parenthood do not always happily coexist. But on one particular night, as Landy held and rocked his daughter into the late hours of the night, he had an idea that decisively shaped the course of his career as a scholar and scientist: a computer program that could dramatically change the way we learn and do math.

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FEATURE STORIES

THE ORIGINAL TWITTER

A bird's eye view of social networks

Introvert or extrovert? The two terms hover over the research of Gregory Kohn (Ph.D. ’15) like the birds that inhabit the aviaries of the Animal Behavior Farm, aka the lab of PBS professor Meredith West and senior scientist Andrew King. Kohn has worked and studied in this lab, first as a Ph.D. student, then as a post-doctoral researcher.

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SCIENCE WITH THE STARS

Inclusiveness and diversity take center stage, as one PBS director passes the torch to the next

How many kids grow up aspiring to be experimental psychologists, or scientists of any stripe? It’s a question that PBS professor Preston Garraghty has contemplated for the past 16 years as director of STARS, Science, Technology and Research Scholars Program in the IU College of Arts and Sciences. 

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ALUMNI RECOGNITION + HOMECOMING 2016

Now in its fourth year, the annual PBS Alumni Recognition and Homecoming celebrates our current and former students, faculty and staff, and the PBS community-at-large.
Richard C. Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: Susan Dumais, Distinguished Scientist and Deputy Managing Director, The Microsoft Research Lab
Early Career Award Winner: Winter Mason, Data Scientist, Facebook
Early Career Award Winner: Christopher Honey, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Distinguished Alumni Award Winner: Elaine Hull, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Florida State University
PBS professor Cara Wellman introduces graduate student Justin Bollinger at the Homecoming and Alumni Recognition Symposium.
At the Homecoming and Alumni Recognition Poster Session, first-year graduate students present their research.
First-year graduate students present their research at the Homecoming and Alumni Recognition Poster Session.
A jazz trio from the IU Jacobs School of Music performs at the Alumni Recognition Banquet.
The cocktail hour preceding the Alumni Recognition Banquet
PBS professor Olaf Sporns (center) with Early Career Award Winner Christopher Honey (right).
RESEARCH + NEWS

TOOL OR WEAPON?

Research throws new light on ancient artifacts

Professor Geoffrey Bingham and a team of former students and archeologists have thrown new light on a longstanding paleolithic puzzle: the purpose of the large number of spherical stone artifacts at a major archaeological site in South Africa, dating from 1.8 million to 70,000 years ago.

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SELF-SABOTAGE PEAKS AT OUR FAVORITE TIME OF DAY

A study by PBS professor Ed Hirt, graduate student Julie Eyink and others in Hirt’s lab shows that people are more likely to undermine their performance at stressful tasks when they’re operating at “peak capacity,” when according to their circadian rhythm, they’re at their peak time of day.

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IMAGING SPATIAL ABILITIES

Building blocks vs. board games

New research has found that structured block-building games improve spatial abilities in children to a greater degree than board games.

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A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE BLOG

On the first day of the new academic year, an ambitious new blog hit the ground running. ScIU: Conversations in Science @ Indiana University is a brand-new tool for connecting with life in the lab at the IU College of Arts and Sciences.

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