Kendon Smith Lecture Series

The Kendon Smith Lecture Series is an endowed annual lecture series that brings international experts to UNCG to discuss a topic related to mind and behavior that is of general interest to both the academic community and the public. The lectures are hosted by the Department of Psychology at UNCG. They usually occur on the UNCG campus over a two-day period, and they are open to the public free of charge.

The Kendon Smith Lectures are named in honor and memory of Dr. Kendon Smith, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, UNCG. Professor Smith was a former Head of the Psychology Department and had served the University and the Department for many years as a respected scientist, scholar, teacher and friend.

Kendon Smith

Fall 2025 Event

Out of the Lab and Into ‘the Wild’:
Understanding the Real-World Contexts and Interactions that Shape Early Development

Date: Thursday November 13, 2025
Location: EUC Auditorium

  • 1:30-1:40: Introductory Remarks
  • 1:40-2:55: First Talk
    • Dr. Catherine Tamis-LeMonda
      Professor, Department of Applied PsychologyNew York University
      Title: Advancing Science on BABIES: Babies’ Activities and Behaviors in Everyday Settings
  •   2:55-3:15: Break
  • 3:15 – 4:30: Second Talk
    • Dr. Sam Wass
      Professor, Department of Psychology and Human Development
      University of East London
      Title: The Still Point of the Turning World: Real-World Co-Regulatory Dynamics in Development

Date: Friday, November 14, 2025
Location: School of Education Building, Room 120

  • 9:00-10:15: First Talk
    • Dr. Kathryn L. Humphreys
      Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Human Development
      Vanderbilt University
      Title: How Early Environments Shape the Developing Brain 
  • 10:15-10:35: Break
  • 10:35-11:50: Second Talk
    • Dr. Barbara Rogoff
      UCSC Foundation Distinguished Professor, Psychology Department
      UC Santa Cruz
      Title: Collaborative Interactions in Early Childhood in Families and Communities
  • 11:50-12:20 Concluding Panel Discussion
The Kendon Smith Lectures are free and open to the public.

For disability accommodations, or other information, please contact Kelsey Hewitt at kemckinn@uncg.edu or 336.334.5480. Please allow at least 72 hours advance notice if you need accommodations so we have time to book services for the event.

Past Lecture Series

  • Dr. Helen Tager-Flusberg, Professor Emerita, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University
  • Dr. Karen Emmorey, Distinguished Professor, School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University
  • Dr. Gary Dell, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois

  • Identity and Agency in Diverse Online Worlds, Dr. Linda Charmaraman, Senior Research Scientist, Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) Wellesley College
  • The Costs of Sexy: Exploring the Impact of Media’s Sexualization of Girls and Women, Dr. L. Monique Ward, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Psychology University of Michigan
  • Technology, Sociality, and Youth, Dr. Patricia Greenfield, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, UCLA; Associate of Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
  • Remote Acculturation and Enculturation: How Youth are Curating Cultural Identities in the Digital Age, Dr. Gail Ferguson, Associate Professor, Institute of Child Development University of Minnesota

  • Historical Migration Patterns Shape Contemporary Cultures of Emotion, Dr. Paula Niedenthal, Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • The Impact of the Race of Perceiver and Targets on Percetions of Trustworthiness: A Black and White Perspective, Dr. Kerry Kawakami, Professor of Psychology and Walter Gordon York Research Chair in Equity and Diversity, York University
  • Modeling Impressions from Faces, Dr. Alexander Todorov, Leon Carroll Marshall Professor of Behavioral Science and Richard Rosett Faculty Fellow, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
  • Judging by First Impressions: The Persistent (and Pernicious) Impact of Appearance, Dr. Kerri Johnson, Professor of Psychology, Professor of Communication, and Associate Dean of Research for the Social Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles

  • Food Justice, Food Apartheid and Urban Planning, Dr. Julian Agyeman, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University
  • Strategic Science: Harnessing Science to Create Social and Policy Impact, Dr. Kelly Brownell, Robert L. Flowers Professor of Public Policy, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, and Director of the World Food Policy Center, Duke University
  • We Eat What We Like: Insights from the Beginning, Dr. Julie A. Mennella, Monell Chemical Senses Center
  • What the Child Brings to the Table:  The Role of Temperament in Parent Feeding, Child Eating and Child Weight Status, Dr. Cynthia Stifter, Professor Emeritus of Human Development,  Pennsylvania State University

  • The self-expansion model: Implications of recent behavioral and neural research for understanding and enhancing relationships, Dr. Arthur Aron, Research Professor of Psychology, Stony Brook University 
  • The all-or-nothing marriage, Dr. Eli Finkel, Professor of Psychology, and Management and Organizations, Northwestern University
  • The everyday lives of families: How our experiences, emotions and biology become interlaced with close others and shape our health, Dr. Rena Repetti, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Partner buffering of attachment insecurity, Dr. Jeff Simpson, Professor of Psychology, University of Minnesota

  • Does the Psychological Context of Trauma Matter? An Alternative Approach to Comorbidity, Dr. J. Gayle Beck, University of Memphis
  • Project Valor: Using Patient Registries to Inform Research on Psychopathology, Outcomes, and Utilization, Dr. Terence Keane, Boston University School of Medicine
  • The State of the Evidence on Psychotherapy for PTSD, Dr. Paula Schnurr, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
  • The Evolution of Cognitive Processing Therapy, Dr. Patricia Resick, Duke University School of Medicine

  • The hippocampus: Memory in time, Dr. Howard Eichenbaum, Boston University 
  • Memory and Imagination: Functions of Episodic Simulation and Retrieval, Dr. Daniel Schacter, Harvard University
  • Origins of Autobiography: Development of Memory and the Life Story, Dr. Elaine Reese, University of Otago
  • Asking Child Witnesses about Time and Number, Dr. Thomas Lyon, University of Southern California Gould School of Law

  • Pugnacity Genes? It Depends on What You Believe, Dr. Stephen B. Manuck, University of Pittsburgh
  • What’s the Brain Got To Do With It? Everything! Dr. Ahmad Hariri, Duke University
  • The Ballad of the Serotonin Transporter Gene, Dr. Avshalom Caspi, Duke University
  • Using Genetics to Understand the Development of Health and Well-being Across the Life Course, Dr. Avshalom Caspi, Duke University

  • We Are All Flawed Intellects But Unaware of It, Dr. David Dunning, Cornell University
  • The Social Self: Relationships in the Egosystem and the Ecosystem, Dr. Jennifer Crocker, The Ohio State University
  • Identity Based Motivation: Core Processes and Intervention Examples, Dr. Daphna Oyserman; University of Southern California
  • The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological Intervention, Dr. Geoffrey Cohen, Stanford University

  • A Perfect Storm: Disparities for Immigrant Youth Needing Behavioral Health Care., Dr. Margarita Alegria
  • Transationalism of the Heart: Psychological and Educational Implications of Family Separations., Dr. Carola Suarez-Orozco
  • Trajectories of academic and psychological well being among ethnic minority adolescents: Findings from the Center for Research on Culture, Development, and Education., Dr. Diane Hughes
  • Why do Latino Teens Help Their Family and What Does it Mean for their Development?, Dr. Andrew Fulgini

  • Experimental investigations of children’s skills at experimentation., David Klahr, Carnegie Mellon University
  • What scientists, students and neuroscience reveals about the acquisition, testing, and understanding of scientific concepts., Dr. Kevin Dunbar, University of Maryland
  • Evolving Minds: Developing conceptions of purpose and change in nature, Dr.Deborah Kelemen, Boston University
  • Scientific thinking: What develops and what needs to develop, Dr. Deanna Kuhn, Columbia University

  • Understanding and Reducing Risk for Depression, Dr. Ian Gotlib, David Starr Jordan Professor of Psychology, Stanford University
  • Toward an Objective Characterization of Depressive Phenotypes: Clues from Affective Neuroscience, Dr. Diego Pizzagalli, John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
  • Common and specific risk factors for mood and anxiety disorders: Prospective four year follow-up results from the Youth Emotion Project, Dr. Susan Mineka, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Northwestern
  • Social Anxiety: The Role of Emotion (Dys)Regulation in Its Nature and Treatment, Dr. Richard Heimberg, Professor and David Kipnis Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Psychology, Temple University

  • Universal Social Cognition: Early Theory of Mind, Dr. Henry M. Wellman, Harold W. Stevenson Collegiate Professor of Psychology University of Michigan;
  • What Does it Mean for Children to Have a Folk Science?, Dr. Frank C. Keil, Professor of Psychology and Linguistics Yale University;
  • Young Children Seek Agreement, Dr. Paul L. Harris, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Education Harvard University
  • How People Make Sense of Human Action: From Perception and Inference to Explanation and Moral Judgment, Dr. Bertram F. Malle, Professor of Psychology, Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University

  • Dr. Naftali Raz, professor of gerontology and psychology at the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University. “Brain Aging, its Modifiers and Cognitive Correlates”
  • Dr. Denise Park, director of the Center for Vital Longevity at the University of Texas at Dallas. “The Adaptive Brain: Responding to the Challenge of Cognitive Aging,”
  • Dr. Neil Charness, William G. Chase Professor of Psychology at Florida State University. “The Role of Culture in Developing and Maintaining Mental Fitness”
  • Dr. Arthur Kramer, professor of human perception and performance at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Enhancing Cognition and Brain Health through Physical Activity and Cognitive Training”

  • Dr. Ronald Rapee, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia.  Assessing the overlap between fearful temperament and anxiety disorders.
  • Dr. Nathan Fox, University of Maryland.  Mechanisms of attention moderate relations between temperament and anxiety in children.
  • Dr. Kathryn Kerns, Kent State University.  Parent-child relationships and social anxiety in middle childhood: Considering unique influences and mediating mechanisms.
  • Dr. Dina Hirschfeld Becker, Harvard Medical School.  Social phobia is common, debilitating, and persistent.

  • Andrew Meltzoff, University of Washington [Roots of Social Cognition: The “Like Me” Hypothesis]
  • Patricia Bauer, Emory University  [The Versatility of Imitation: A Tool to Study and Enhance Thought]
  • Susan Gelman, University of Michigan [Language as a Tool for Thought: Evidence from Young Children]
  • Duane Rumbaugh, Great Ape Trust of Iowa and Georgia State University  [Why and How Monkeys, Apes, and Human Learn by Observation and Social Influence: The Roots of Intelligence via Basic Processes]

  • Michael Meaney, McGill University  [Programming Individual Differences in Emotion and Reproductive Strategies Through Variations in Maternal Care]
  • Alison Fleming, University of Toronto  [Mothering begets Mothering: Is the Rat Model a Useful One?]
  • Katherine Wynne-Edwards, Queens University [Becoming “Daddy”: Hormonal and Social Cues That Influence the Other Parent]
  • Marc Bornstein, National Institutes of Health/NICHD  [Methodological, Cross-Cultural, and Theoretical Issues Contemporary Parenting Studies]

  • Dr. Judith D. Singer, Harvard Graduate School of Education [Longitudinal Research: Current Status and Future Prosects]
  • Dr. John R. Nesselroade, University of Virginia   [Intra-individual Variability Perspectives on Studying Change]
  • Dr. Kenneth A. Bollen, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill  [On the Origins of Latent Curve Models]
  • Dr. John J. McArdle, University of Southern California   [Recent Developments in Latent Growth Curve Modeling]

  • Dr. John Bargh, Yale University [The Nonconscious Operation of Working Memory Structures]
  • Dr. Jonathan Cohen, Princeton University   [The Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Control]
  • Dr. Larry Jacoby, Washington University  [Modes of Cognitive Control: Toward Rehabilitating the Memory Performance of Older Adults]
  • Dr. Gordon Logan, Vanderbilt University [The Homunculus and the Thought Pump: An Exploration of the Cognitive Origins of Causal Agency]

  • Dr. Norm Anderson,CEO, American Psychological Association and UNCG Alumnus [Role of APA in the Translation of Research to Practice and Public Policy]
  • Dr. Jane Knitzer, Deputy Director of the National Center for Children in Poverty at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University [Research, Policy and Practice Perspectives on Early Childhood Mental Health: Facing the Challenge]
  • Dr. Sharon Landesman Ramey, Susan Mayer Professor in Child and Family Studies and the Founding Director, along with Craig Ramey, of the Center on Health and Education  [Promoting Young Children’s Success in School and Life]
  • Dr. Barbara Friesen, Director of the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health  [Families, Early Childhood and Evidence Based Practice: How Does it all Come Together?]

  • Dr. Mark R. Leary, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, Wake Forest University[Facilitator and Discussant]
  • Dr. Carol S. Dweck, Professor, Department of Psychology, Columbia University [Self-Systems: Their Impact on Achievement, Self-Esteem, and Depression]
  • Dr. Roy F. Baumeister, Professor, Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve [The Cultural Animal: Human Nature, Social Life, and the Self]
  • Dr. Walter Mischel, Professor, Department of Psychology, Columbia University [Attention Control in the Service of the Agentic Self]
  • Dr. Hazel R. Markus, Professor, Department of Psychology, Stanford University [Sociocultural Diversit in the Construction of Action]

  • Dr. Lyn Y. Abramson, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Cognitive vulnerability and invulnerability to depression: Theory, evidence, and implications for prevention Why are some people vulnerable to depression whereas others never seem to become depressed?
  • Dr. Mark F. Lenzenweger, State University of New York at Binghamton. Explorations in schizotypy: Mapping an alternative expression of schizophrenia liability.
  • Dr. Terrie E. Moffitt, Kings College (London) & University of Wisconsin-Madison. Conduct problems, juvenile delinquency, and violent crime: Following 1000 young people from birth to adulthood.
  • Dr. Don C. Fowles, University of Iowa, Roundtable Discusstant.

  • Dr. John Flavell, Professor, Department of Psychology Stanford University  [Development of intuitions about mental experiences]
  • Dr. Jacqueline Woolley, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin  [The development of beliefs about mental-physical causality in imagination, magic, and religion]
  • Dr. Judy Dunn, Professor, Social, Genetic, and Developmental Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London  [Individual differences in understanding mind and emotion: Significance, antecedents, sequelae]
  • Dr. Alison Gopnik, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkele [Roundtable Discussion]

  • Dr. Mahzarin R. Banaji, Professor, Department of Psychology, Yale University  [The Roots of Prejudice]
  • Dr. Galen V. Bodenhausen, Professor, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University  [Unique Individual or Interchangeable Group Member? Determinants of Stereotyping in Social Perception]
  • Dr. Monica R. Biernat, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas  [The Role of American Values in Supporting and Thwarting Outgroup Prejudice]
  • Dr. Patricia G. Devine, Professor, Department of Psychology University of Wisconsin-Madison  [Acceptance or Backlash? Responses to Normative Pressure Discouraging Prejudice]

  • Dr. Lynn Hasher, Professor, Department of Psychology, Duke University  [Inhibitory Control Deficits: Cognitive Consequences]
  • Dr. Timothy Salthouse, Regents Professor, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology  [Structure and Process in Cognitive Aging]
  • Dr. David Balota, Professor, Department of Psychology, Washington University  [Attention and Memory in Alzheimer’s Disease]
  • Dr. Fergus I. M. Craik, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto [Prospective Memory and Aging: Some Recent Studies]

  • Russel A. Barkley, Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, University of Massachusetts Medical Center
  • Virginia I. Douglas, Professor, Department of Psychology, McGill University
  • Herbert C. Quay, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of Miami
  • C. Keith Conners, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center
  • TOPICS: Theory overview & discussion of cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and social deficits Discussion of how theory accounts for developmental course & comorbidity Implications for clinical asessment & treatment

  • Ross Thompson, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska “The Lessons of Early Relationships”
  • Nancy Eisenberg, Regents’ Professor of Psychology, Arizona State University “Emotion, Regulation, and Social Functioning”
  • Jude Cassidy, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland “Children’s Contributions to Creating Their Own Environments: The Role of Self-feelings”
  • Pamela Cole, Professor, Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University Roundtable Discussion

  • Robert B. Cairns, Professor of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “Stepping Stones from Aggression to Violence”
  • Leonard D. Eron, Research Scientist and Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan; Research Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois, Chicago “How Children Learn to be Criminals”
  • Mary P. Koss, Profssor of Family and Community, Pschiatry and Psychology, University of Arizona “Victimization by Sexual Violence”

  • Jason Birnholz, Diagnostic Ultrasound Consultants, Oak Brook, Illinois “Preparation for Language?”
  • Patricia K. Kuhl, Virginia Merill Bloedel Scholar, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington “Infants’ Perception of Speech: A Window on the Ontogeny and Phlogeny of Human Language”
  • John L. Locke, Director and Senior Research Scientist, Neurolinguistics Laboratory, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Massachusetts General Hospital “The Creation of Linguistic Capacity: Evolution in the Species, Development in the Child”

  • Michael I. Posner, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon “Lexical Access: From Functional Anatomy to Cogntive Development”
  • James W. Stigler, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles “Cross-Cultural Studies of Mathematics Learning: Why American Children Lag”
  • Daniel P. Keating, Department of Instruction and Special Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education “Developing a Literate Habit of Mind”

  • Mark R. Rosenzweig, Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkley “Neural Mechanisms of Learing and Memory”
  • Paul L. Gold, Department of Psychology, Life Science Laboratories, University of Virginia “Regulation of Memory Storage Processing by Glucose Levels in Rodents and Humans”
  • Robert W. Dykes, Centre de Recherche en Sciences Neurologiques, Universite de Montreal “Acetylcholine and Neuronal Plasticity: A Cellular Mechanism for Memory Storage”

  • J. A. Scott Kelso, Creech Chair in Science, Center for Complex Systems and Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University “Dynamic Patterns: A Language for Behavior” “Implications of Dynamic Pattern Theory for Learning and Development”
  • Esther Thelen, Department of Psychology, Indiana University “Self-Organization and the Acquisition of Skill” “Dynamical Systems in Movement and Development”
  • Ronald Oppenheim, Program in Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Department of Anatomy, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University “The Neuroembryological Development of Spinal Motor Systems” “Conceptual Issues in the Ontogeny of MotorActivity: Past and Present”
  • John Fentress, Department of Psychology and Biology, Dalhousie University “Developmental Processes in Movement: How Do We Evaluate Them?” “Towards an Understanding of Generalization Networks in Behavioral Development”

  • Gary B. Melton, Carl Adolph Happold Professor of Psychology & Law, and Director of the Law/Psychology Program, University of Nebraska at Lincoln “Responsibility in Childhood and Adolescence: A Post-Gault Look at the Defense of Infancy”
  • Seymour Halleck, Professor of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Law, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill “The Concept of Responsibility in Medicine”
  • Kelly G. Shaver, Professor of Psychology, College of William & Mary “Negligence, Responsibility and Blame: A Psychological Perspective”
  • Richard Bonnie, John S. Brattle Professor of Law and Director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy, University of Virginia “Concepts of Responsibility in the Criminal Law”
  • Terrance C. McConnell, Associate Professor of Philosophy, UNCG “Some Remakrs About Responsibility: A Philosophical Perspective”

  • David Kupfer, Chairman & Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Director of Research, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic “Recurrent Affective Disorders – What Do We Know?” “Aspects of Psychobiology in Depression”
  • Elliott Gershon, Chief, Clinical Nuerogenetics Branch, National Institute of Mental Health; Director, Office of Science, and Senior Science Advisor, Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration “Genetics and Biology of Major Affective Disorders” “The Dilemma of Genetic Determinations in Unwanted Human Behavior”
  • A. John Rush, Betty Jo Hay Professor of Psychiatry, Director of Mental Health Clinical Research Center, University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas “Relationship Between Biological and Bsychological Abnormalities in Depression” “Learned Versus Autonomous Depression: A Valid Distinction?”
  • John Greenwood, Department of Philosophy, UNCG “The Dimensions of Depression”

  • Endel Tulving, University of Toronto
  • Mortimer Mishkin, National Institute of Mental Health
  • William Lycan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Herb Crovitz, Duke University

  • Patricia Goldman-Rakic, Ph.D., Yale University School of Medicine “Neurobiology of Cognition” “Cortical Catecholamines and Age-Related Memory Loss in Primates”
  • Pasko Rakic, Yale University School of Medicine “Mechanisms of Development in the Rhesus Monkey Visual System” “Principles of Cell Migration”
  • Michael Gazzaniga, Cornell University
  • Irving Diamond, Duke University
  • James Davis, Duke University
  • Ron Oppenheim, Bowman Gray School of Medicine

  • Charles Brainerd, University of Alberta
  • SaraShettleworth, University of Toronto
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