Psychology professors and students recently presented research at the Midwestern Psychological Association’s annual conference in Chicago.

Jessica LaPaglia	Jessica Pleuss

Morningside College psychology professors recently presented research at the Midwestern Psychological Association’s annual conference in Chicago.

Jessica LaPaglia, assistant professor of psychology, presented “Prequestioning Enhances Student Learning,” where she and students Alejandra Castillo and Shelby Petersen found that asking students questions about course material before a lecture improved learning of both prequestioned and nonprequestioned concepts, and “Project-Based Integrative Learning in Cognitive Psychology,” where she shared her Integrative Experience course design and Cognitive Psychology course assessment data.

Jessica Pleuss, assistant professor of psychology, presented research on “Who Reads Instructor Feedback?” and research from the Play and Parenting Lab at Morningside. She presented “The Impact of Toy Type on Preschoolers’ Developing Skills,” co-authored with student research assistants Allie Van Houten, Laura Garcia and Veronica Johnson, and “Pink or Blue? Children at Play with Gender Stereotype Influences,” authored by Van Houten as a senior thesis project and coauthored by Johnson and Pleuss.

LaPaglia joined the Morningside College faculty in the fall of 2013. She has a doctorate in psychology from Iowa State University in Ames.

Pleuss came to Morningside College in fall of 2012. She received her doctorate in child psychology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.