Education

BA, The University of Texas at Austin, Psychology and English

2021

My research interests broadly overlap areas of authenticity-support, mindset, motivation, stress, achievement, adolescence, education, qualitative methodologies, and natural language processing. In my work, I hope to focus on developing tools and materials that help educators create the most supportive environment possible for adolescents.

Research Interests

Projects

  • Partisan Animosity Intervention: I co-designed an intervention working with Dr.s Christopher Bryan and Cameron Hecht aimed at reducing partisan animosity and the spread of outrage-inducing media. This intervention was tested by the Strengthening Democracy Challenge and was among the top two interventions of 250 submissions to reduce political partisan animosity. A working paper published as part of the challenge can be found here.

  • Mindset Natural Language Processing: As part of this study, I led study design and the development of stimuli. Working with Dr. David Yeager, we tested whether NLP-generated text can effectively support students’ growth mindsets as compared to real educators’ language. This project is ongoing, with a final goal to create a tool for educators that offers advice on how to embed growth mindset and otherwise supportive language in their communication with students.

  • Transparency Project: Through work with Dr. Kyle Dobson, I co-designed and ran a study reviewing how transparency statements from officers can help to reduce threat and stress in civilians during an interaction. The manuscript for that project can be found here.

Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellow

This position is part of a nationally selective fellowship designed to introduce early scholars to multi-disciplinary work and provide graduate school readiness. As part of my training, I designed and led multiple studies outlined below, coordinated literature reviews, managed research assistants and data interns, and developed necessary and relevant skills for academia. Below are some of the most relevant projects I’ve worked on.

Texas Behavioral Science and Policy Institute (TxBSPI), The University of Texas at Austin

Research Experience

May 2021 - August 2023

Psychology Department, The University of Texas at Austin

August 2023 - Present

PhD Student

My advisor is David Yeager. Please see below for publications I have worked on in this position.

Publications

Voelkel, J. G., Stagnaro, M., Chu, J., Pink, S. L., Mernyk, J. S., Redekopp, C., Ghezae, I., Cashman, M., Adjodah, D., Allen, L., Allis, V., Baleria, G., Ballantyne, N., Van Bavel, J. J., Blunden, H., Braley, A., Bryan, C., Celniker, J., Cikara, M., … Willer, R. (2023). Megastudy Identifying Effective Interventions to Strengthen Americans’ Democratic Attitudes. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/y79u5

Demszky, D., Yang, D., Yeager, D. S., Bryan, C. J., Clapper, M. V., Chandhok, S., Eichstaedt, J. C., Hecht, C., Jamieson, J., Johnson, M., Jones, M., Krettek-Cobb, D., Lai, L., JonesMitchell, N., Ong, D. C., Dweck, C. S., Gross, J. J., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2023). Using Large Language Models in Psychology. Nature Reviews Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00241-5

Presentations

Clapper, M. V., Hecht, C., Jones, M., JonesMitchell, N., Johnson, M., Dennison, D., Demszky D., Yeager, D. (2023, July 7). Evaluating LLM's Generation of Growth-Mindset Supportive Language in Middle Years Math. Artificial Intelligence in Education. Tokyo, Japan

Fellowships & Awards

Texas Behavioral Science and Policy Institute Fellow ($45,000 for two years)

2021

Teaching Experiences

Invited Lecturer, University of Texas at Austin, Sociology of Education
Presented, “School Resource Officers; the history and impacts of school policing”

Workshop Leader, UT Spitshine, Austin TX
Created curriculum for weekly writing workshops, provided feedback on creative writing.

2021

2019-2020