Dr. Jeffrey Coldren
Chair Professor
Psychological Sciences & Counseling
DeBartolo Hall 321
phone: (330) 941-1617
Bio
I am a Professor and Department Chair of Psychological Sciences and Counseling at Youngstown State University. I earned my Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in Child Development and Developmental Psychology under the direction of Prof. John Colombo and my MA in Human Development under the supervision of Prof. Frances Degen Horowitz. I earned my BA from Albright College. Prior to attending KU, I entered the Life-Span Developmental Psychology Program at West Virginia University. Following my graduate training, I completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toledo with Prof. Robert Haaf. I also did a sabbatical leave at McGill University under the direction of Prof. Thomas Shultz in the Laboratory for Natural and Simulated Cognition.
Research Interests
My research investigates the development of cognition and learning across the lifespan involving processes such as stimulus dimensionalization, transfer, response shifting, attention, hypothesis-testing, and executive functioning. I have conducted studies with infants, preschool and elementary school children, and college students. Most of my research questions have both theoretical and applied aspects of cognitive processes. In addition to conducting empirical experiments, I also use computational models to simulate the development of psychological processes. Currently, I am conducting studies on learning cessation in autonomous learning agents (i.e. humans and computers). Specifically, do humans of different ages (kindergarten children and college students) self-regulate their learning to maintain engagement when making progress toward a goal, and importantly cease learning when it no longer becomes productive?
Teaching Interests
I teach Principles of Development for School Psychology, Advanced Statistical Techniques for Psychology, Statistics for Psychology, Research Design and Methods, Child Development, and Educational Psychology.