Bill Whitlow
Dr. Whitlow studies noncontingent learning processes, such as habituation and classical conditioning, from the theoretical perspective of Activation-Evocability Theory (AET). This perspective distinguishes between stimulus-specific changes in activation potential and relatively nonspecific changes in response evocability. Work in his laboratory has applied AET to the analysis of habituation of the rabbit eyeblink reflex, and he plans to extend this analysis to look at habituation in humans. His interests in metamemory and cognition drive his research on how students decide what materials to study and how to study it. This practical question offers a way to look at decision making and beliefs about learning in ways that may yield some interesting results from a theoretical and pedagogical perspective.
Dake Zhang
Dr. Zhang received her Ph.D. in Special Education from Purdue University. She taught K-12 math for students with math difficulties in China and the United States. Dr. Zhang is interested in the assessment and intervention for students with mathematics learning difficulties.