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This George �鶹��Ƶ psychology researcher is clocking in to make workplaces safer for all

Sarah Holland — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 20:09:11 +0000

This George �鶹��Ƶ psychology researcher is clocking in to make workplaces safer for all Sarah Holland Thu, 06/26/2025 - 16:09

Researchers have estimated that the average American will spend approximately one-third of their life at work. With more than 90,000 hours of our lives spent in our places of employment, we want those spaces to be as safe and welcoming as possible.

Photo provided

Yijue Liang, assistant professor of industrial/organizational psychology at �鶹��Ƶ, has made occupational health the focus of her work. Now, she’s working to develop a better understanding of workplace sexual harassment and how companies can protect their employees.

Liang started her career in finance, but an interest in workplace dynamics led her to shift to psychology. “I was interested in gender topics, exploring how women can thrive in the workplace and how we can make the workplace more friendly and safer for women,” she said. Specifically, the #MeToo movement inspired her to investigate sexual harassment in the workplace.

“After the #MeToo movement, we realized that this issue is more prevalent than many of us thought,” Liang said. “And we haven’t seen much improvement.” Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) data show sexual harassment claims remain high and have yet to trend downwards; as Liang notes, that only includes what is considered severe enough to be reported to the EEOC and is therefore limiting.

But by expanding the relevant research on workplace sexual harassment, Liang hopes to see those numbers start to decrease.

Liang found that most of the previous research has focused on the victims or targets of sexual harassment in the workplace, leaving a gap in understanding the bystanders’ role. “There isn’t enough research about what people can do to help the victim, whether a direct bystander who witnesses the event, or a secondary bystander who hears about the event.”

Building on the research she completed for her dissertation, she developed a scale of different bystander behaviors—confronting the harasser, distracting the harasser, supporting the target, reporting the incident to an authority, and discussing the incident with a coworker—including identifying combinations of those behaviors. From there, Liang, along with YoungAh Park at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, developed three latent profiles based on the combinations of behaviors: no or limited intervention, low-risk intervention, and active intervention.

According to this paper, all forms of intervention are received positively by victims, which she hopes will encourage more people to engage in low-risk or active intervention.

Organizations should also work toward a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual harassment, Liang said. She suggests looking at policies and procedures to make sure the situation is treated seriously, with protection for the reporters and the victims and meaningful consequences for the harasser.

“We want to see more encouragement of active intervention, while emphasizing that even low-risk intervention can make a difference,” she said. “Hopefully, we can reduce or break the myth about intervention not being welcomed by the target or victims.”

Liang has another ongoing project to assess how harassers respond to different forms of intervention in order to map which interventions could be most effective in different use cases.

Liang is expanding her research beyond the office as well, with an ongoing project on gig workers and their experiences with customer sexual harassment. Preliminary research shows gig employees—such as rideshare and delivery drivers, dog walkers, care assistants, independent contractors, etc.—are particularly vulnerable to harassment, due to their proximity to customers, a lack of bystanders, and lack of collective representation or support.

“If people have negative experiences at work, that can lead to negative work behaviors,” Liang explained. “Having a healthy, supportive, and safe workplace for everyone is critical for higher employee performance.

“We spend so many hours at work each week, and our workplace experiences have a great impact on our well-being. We need to do what we can to make these places safe and supportive for all.”

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Image memorability can sharpen our sense of time, finds psychology professor

Colleen Rich — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 15:48:39 +0000

Image memorability can sharpen our sense of time, finds psychology professor Colleen Rich Mon, 07/22/2024 - 11:48

Research by George �鶹��Ƶ professor Martin Wiener recently demonstrated that the more memorable an image is, the longer and more accurately its viewers can perceive the passage of time. In a series of experimental studies, participants were more likely to say more memorable images stayed on screen longer, they made that response faster, and they were more consistent about their responses with more memorable images, saying consistently that they stayed on-screen longer.

Martin Wiener. Photo provided

“That study touched on something called memorability, which is the likelihood that you will remember something later,” explained Wiener. “It’s an open question of why there are some things that we just remember very well and some things we forget. Cognitive scientists and computer scientists have been very interested in this question, especially from a machine learning/AI perspective.”

Wiener and colleagues conducted several experiments to determine how the size, memorability, and clutter of images affects our perception of time while viewing them. To examine memorability, they used a database built by computer science researchers at MIT that scores images at varying rates of memorability.

“We were trying to understand our visual sense of time by looking at how different types of images can influence it, and that led to a strong connection to memory that hadn’t really been explored before.”

Wiener and colleagues were also curious if this impacted how likely participants were to remember the images later, so they asked participants 24 hours later if they had seen the images, and they were more likely to remember seeing the images that were more memorable. Additionally, if they had reported seeing the image for a longer period of time (by holding down the space bar), they were even more likely to remember them the next day.

Given the findings of the experimental study with human participants, they used the same test with an artificial intelligence (AI) machine model of the visual system (a recurrent convolutional neural network). This model also reported that it saw the more memorable images for a longer period of time and made this response faster and more consistently. This meant that the findings were not just limited to their experimental study and suggested that there was a mechanism for how the brain processes these images.

An example of the types of photos used in the study using open-source photos. Graphic provided

Wiener explained the significance of these findings. “For some stimuli, the more memorable the images, the brain thinks this is very important. I need to process it as quickly as I can and gather as much information as I can, and in order to do that, I’m going to dilate time a little bit. The experience becomes longer, it becomes expanded. What that translates to is a better encoding into memory so that you can retain that better and remember it better a few hours later, 24 hours later, etc. That’s where we got this connection between memory and time. Our sense of time seems to be something controllable by the brain and used by the brain to gather information.”

Wiener’s work is unique in that it is looking at very complicated images of scenes and pictures, seeing how those influence the sense of time. Previous researchers studied very simple visual stimuli—different sized squares, or high and low contrast images.

Adding to his work on memory, Wiener runs the Spatial, Temporal, Action, Representation (STAR) Lab at George �鶹��Ƶ, which is uncovering how the senses build a perception of time. Students at all levels—from high school volunteers to doctoral students—work with Wiener on studies exploring very short intervals of time—everything from a few hundred milliseconds to multiple seconds to a maximum of about a minute. Some of their work has explored movement and time, which also has critical applications in fields beyond psychology, such as dance and music.

They found that when people are allowed to freely move, their sense of time is sharpened, meaning they perceive the passage of time more precisely. More recent work is exploring how people learn intervals of time—how feedback and learning lets you acquire, understand, and measure intervals of time. Their findings could change how we teach topics and skills related to time.

All this discussion about time may leave you wondering if we can slow down time. As Wiener explains, you can, but generally it’s not a good thing. They tend to be cases of high arousal—very frightening or intense situations. “Usually situations in which time slows down tend not to be pleasant ones,” he said. “They are often frightening or emotional or upsetting, like when you see something scary or something dangerous is occurring.”

He said time also slows down in very boring and monotonous situations, such as waiting on hold or being stuck in traffic. “In those situations, we become more keenly aware of the passage of time, and the more you think about the passage of time, the slower it becomes.”

Why does Wiener study this topic? “The stuff that excites me about time is how little we still know about the way the brain perceives it and measures it but how fundamental it is to everything,” he said. “It’s one of those things…on the surface it might not seem that interesting, but the more you think about it, the more you go wait, how does that happen?”

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“I will respond to your email when I return”: Psychology professor explores how to be better at taking vacation

Sarah Holland — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 16:41:16 +0000

“I will respond to your email when I return”: Psychology professor explores how to be better at taking vacation Sarah Holland Wed, 07/10/2024 - 12:41

With schools out and summer in full swing, many of us take advantage of �鶹��Ƶ’s location to spend some vacation time at the nearby beaches, local mountains, or even just at home. For most of us, it’s relaxation. For Lauren Kuykendall, it’s research.

Kuykendall, an associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology at George �鶹��Ƶ, is working to define the relationship between out-of-office availability and organizational culture in order to help employees and employers be better about taking restful, recuperative vacation time.

She started her research last year with a survey of away messages.

Lauren Kuykendall. Photo provided.

“We wanted to see how people signal availability, and how that aligns with their perceptions of the norms of their team or work group,” she explained. “Most people don’t want to check emails on vacation, but if this is normalized in your work group, you start to worry about what others will think if you’re gone for two weeks.”

They found evidence that people in groups with high expectations for responsiveness, for example, were more likely to avoid setting firm no-contact boundaries in their away messages.

This inspired Kuykendall to design a more robust research model. During summer 2024, she will be conducting more comprehensive surveys with research participants before and after their vacations to better understand how workplace social dynamics impact vacation experiences.

As an expert in employee well-being, burnout, and work-nonwork balance, Kuykendall believes that “people do things because they are desirable and because they are feasible. Vacations are desirable, but they don’t always feel feasible because of the repercussions: hundreds of emails, working long hours right before in order to be able to go on vacation, so on and so forth. So people sometimes choose not to bother. They don’t see the net positive of it.”

But she believes there are ways employees can set up themselves and their teams for vacation success. First, through forming habits around recuperative and restful behaviors. “Habits are essentially self-controlled behavior, and it’s funny to think about leisure as a self-controlled behavior,” she said. “But it’s important for us to have these leisure activities that are habits for us to create that separation between work and nonwork. It’s a great protection against burnout.”

Second, Kuykendall emphasized that a group’s culture of work-nonwork boundaries is established through modeling. “The leaders, supervisors, and organizations as a whole have a crucial part to play in making it easier for people to set and maintain the balance,” she said. “And there are practical things that teams and leaders can do, like encouraging their team to plan for expected absences.”

She uses the phrase “pausing requires planning.” People don’t go on vacations because there is a fear that taking time away doesn’t feel feasible, whether you’re working on complex projects, running interdependent research, or supervising employees or students. But even the act of preparing others for your absence can make a huge difference.

“The sooner you tell people your plans, the more time everyone has to prepare and set up alternative workflows to accommodate,” she said. “And, if you’re in a leadership position, it models for employees that vacations are possible.”

Kuykendall said it’s become more commonplace, now, for colleagues in her department to let others know their upcoming out-of-office dates well in advance, a behavior that was modeled by a former department chair so everyone could plan accordingly for his absence. Several of her colleagues now include their upcoming unavailability in their email signatures.

These practices aren’t just for multi-week vacations. “There’s a place for all lengths of vacations and breaks in our work-nonwork balance,” she said. “Everything from lunch breaks to week-long vacations have a purpose in restoring us.”

Skipping lunch every day but taking a two-week sojourn every six months, for example, isn’t an effective long-term solution for most people. It’s about the total package, Kuykendall said, and how we prioritize healthy work-rest rhythms in both the short- and long-term that will protect us from burnout.

Kuykendall is teaching and researching over the summer. But she also has her own vacation coming up in August to the Pacific Northwest. Talking about her upcoming vacation served as a reminder to for her to send an email with further information about her departure and what to expect while she’s gone.

“It’s PTO,” she joked. “I have to Prepare The Others."

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New psychology special topics course puts theory into practice around campus

Colleen Rich — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 16:31:58 +0000

New psychology special topics course puts theory into practice around campus Colleen Rich Mon, 07/17/2023 - 12:31

From better cell phones to safer cars, the study of human factors—how people interact with technology—improves our lives every day. It’s a rapidly growing field, and while PSYC 340 Human Factors Psychology provides a solid foundation on the subject, �鶹��Ƶ psychology professor Yi-Ching Lee saw a need for a more advanced course at the undergraduate level, particularly for students considering human factors as a profession.

Psychology professor Yi-Ching Lee. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Lee designed PSYC 461 Advanced Topics in Human Factors, an interactive, hands-on curriculum that challenges students to solve real-life issues, with those students in mind. It was offered for the first time in the spring 2023 semester.

The course started with the study of advanced human factors principles before progressing to a series of projects that gave students the opportunity to apply those principles to human factors projects on campus.

“Knowing the theory is one thing, but using it to make a human interaction more enjoyable is another,” said Lee, who is an associate professor of psychology.

Collaboration with University Libraries and University Sustainability

The timing of the course was just right for students to apply human factors principles to assist �鶹��Ƶ’s University Libraries with a website improvement project. After meeting with a library consultant on the goals of the project, students analyzed the requirements and developed recommendations to help improve the user experience. They presented their solutions to University Libraries staff.

The course culminated with a project that examined the Bigbelly smart waste bins located outside of the Starbucks on the northern side of campus. To start, University Sustainability staff briefed students on the “behind-the-scenes" technology of the smart bins, as well as campus guidelines that must be adhered to.

One group of students analyzed the design of the bins and made recommendations to optimize their design, function, and accessibility, with a focus on making the differences between recycle and compost bins more intuitive.

The second group studied the app and website dashboard that alerts the pickup crew when bins are full and made recommendations to optimize design, features, and function. Students presented their ideas to members of �鶹��Ƶ’s University Sustainability staff.

Greg Farley, director of University Sustainability, was impressed with the students’ work. “The students brought forward some very good ideas and strong recommendations for improvement,” he said.

Getting the hands-on experience employers demand

Students worked with University Sustainability to improve the use of the bins on campus. Photo by Evan Cantwell/OUB

“Watching the students’ presentation was like watching a consultant firm pitch a solution to a client—it was hard to remember these were undergraduate students,” said �鶹��Ƶ psychology professor Keith Renshaw, the former Department of Psychology chair, who also attended the presentations.

Renshaw, who will transition to become �鶹��Ƶ’s associate provost for undergraduate education in August, said he is excited that undergraduate students had this experience. “This type of course is precisely what our students need, and future employers are demanding—strong coverage of relevant knowledge, and then hands-on experience in applying that knowledge to real-world problems.”

Throughout the semester, Lee invited guest speakers from the field to the class, providing valuable insight on potential career paths.

Psychology major Thema Green, who took the class as a sophomore, said the guest speakers and the opportunity to build her professional portfolio were highlights of the class. She is already putting skills she learned into practice as a paid intern working on 3D programming and virtual reality development at the University of Massachusetts Amherst this summer.

“I would recommend that everyone interested in psychology or design take this course,” Green said. “Your contribution is greater than you know because, in the world of human factors and applied cognition, diversity is a necessity. Varying backgrounds offer new insights, which often improve project outcomes.”

Lee said she hopes to teach the special topic course again in spring 2024 semester and wants to find similar opportunities for the next group of students.

“One of the reasons why I collaborated with the University Libraries and University Sustainability was that I wanted students to do something that would benefit the entire university community,” she said. “The implications of this class go beyond this semester. They are making the university better for the next generation of students.”

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Translating stage skills to life skills

Shayla Brown — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 18:42:02 +0000

Translating stage skills to life skills Shayla Brown Wed, 02/08/2023 - 13:42

When Thalia Goldstein studies children in theater, she looks at the skills they’ve gained not only in acting, but in life. She’s aiming to help them develop a heightened sense of empathy as a result of the bonding and teamwork they experience during various theater exercises and activities.

Goldstein, an associate professor of applied developmental psychology at �鶹��Ƶ, studies how participating in theater helps children to develop essential life skills and better communicate with others.

Thalia Goldstein. Photo by Shelby Burgess

“The great thing about psychology is you can use the tools and techniques to study basically anything, and I use them to study acting, theater, play and imagination,” said Goldstein, who has been studying the topic for her entire career.

Theater teachers rate students on social-emotional skills such as communication, creativity, teamwork, initiative, and problem solving, at the beginning and end of each semester, which Goldstein and her research partners then take into consideration to see what effect theater has had on different aspects of their personalities.

For the last six years, this longitudinal study has followed more than 1,000 theater students ages 5-18, and looking at the effects of formal theater activities on their social and emotional skills.

Goldstein co-directs the �鶹��Ƶ Arts Research Center, a National Endowment for the Arts lab. When she spoke at the 2018 Arts Education Partnership Annual Convening where she met future colleague Julane Havens, who had already collected years' worth of research from her previous position at the Commonwealth Theatre Center (CTC) in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I didn't want all those binders of data to just sit there and collect dust,” said Havens, the Associate Director of Learning at Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC. “It was just good luck or fate that Thalia was there that day and that I was also moving to the Washington, D.C. area.”

Julane Havens with binders of research from Commonwealth Theatre Center. Photo provided.

Working with Goldstein and Havens is Megan Stutesman, a fourth-year PhD student and graduate research assistant in �鶹��Ƶ’s Psychology Department.

“I came to �鶹��Ƶ to study under Thalia,” said Stutesman. “In the early stages, I took on the role of cataloging, organizing, and getting these hard copy files into a digital format. I had a really good working knowledge of what the data looked like and what we could potentially do more scientifically and psychologically with it.”

Havens said that assessment tools built at CTC helped the students by scheduling 15-minute ‘end of semester conversations’ with students at the advanced level—typically teenagers with a couple years or more experience.

For example, “a 15-year-old, hard-working, and naturally gifted student, who was regularly cast in leading roles, was often overly critical of his work and relied heavily on feedback from his teachers,” said Havens. “On the rubric under creativity, we could point to ‘Student can describe their artistic choices and progress, but often relies on the opinions of others to be sure of their work’ and discuss with this student ways he could work on progressing to ‘Student gives carefully considered reasons for their choices, and progresses without the approval of others.’”

The goal is for the student to develop his own definition of success, so he can continue working without constant reassurance. “It was a privilege to witness this student's confidence grow. By the time he was a senior in high school, he was a leader in class who frequently uplifted and supported the younger students.”

Theater helps students with their expression, communication, creativity, teamwork, initiative, and problem solving. Photo by Getty Images

The students work with complex plays, scripts, and characters, said Goldstein, who teaches a class in psychology of creativity and innovation.

“Theater has a sense of containment that means students are free to do all sorts of things they might not feel comfortable doing in the real world,” said Goldstein.

For example, within the confines of a practice space, a group of three students might be asked to improvise a scene where they are waiting at a bus stop, which allows them to not only rely on one another throughout the exercise, but get to know one another and the way their peers are thinking.

“The arts are a potential place for children to better themselves, and in particular, to better the things that they may not be getting in a traditional academic classroom,” said Stutesman. “Theater and other performing arts are a space where kids can practice and utilize those skills and therefore develop those skills.”

“You see them connecting with folks in a different way. They’re off of the phones, off of the computers,” said Havens. “My hopes and dreams for this work as we continue it results in more resources and support for theater and theater teachers.”

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Leah Adams and Amarda Shehu honored with SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Awards

John Hollis — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 16:44:36 +0000

Leah Adams and Amarda Shehu honored with SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Awards John Hollis Wed, 02/02/2022 - 11:44

In This Story

Amarda Shehu

�鶹��Ƶ’s Amarda Shehu and Leah Adams were among the 12 educators from around the state who were formally recognized by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) with 2022 Outstanding Faculty Awards.

Shehu, a professor in the Department of Computer Science within the College of Engineering and Computing, and Adams, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Women and Gender Studies Program, were among the recipients chosen for their superior accomplishments in teaching, research and public service.

Leah Adams. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

Shehu received the Outstanding Faculty Award. Adams received the Rising Star Award reserved for faculty with more than two complete years of full-time experience, but less than six. Beginning in 2010, two Rising Star recipients have been selected annually.

Adams and Shehu became �鶹��Ƶ’s 26th and 27th overall selections since the inception of the Outstanding Faculty Awards in 1987. They will be recognized at a ceremony on March 1 in Richmond.

They both recently sat down with Communications Manager John Hollis to talk about the honor.

What does this recognition by SCHEV mean to you and what does it mean for your work?

Shehu: I think it’s a very well-rounded review of your research, teaching, mentorship, and service. … I [also] think it’s a recognition of the role that we play, the opportunity that we have to shape the lives of our students and to steer students along. I’ve always been driven by putting people first and helping my students in any way, whether it was by leading them or cheering them along. I’ve always been a champion of my students. So this is what the award means to me—recognition of the responsibility we have, the privilege that we have, to turn stories of difficulty and hardship into stories of persistence and success. Our students are getting a great life lesson that will serve them even after they leave the university.

Amarda Shehu. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

Adams: For me, winning this award feels a little like a full-circle moment because, when I was a fourth-grader moving to Virginia, I knew immediately the impact that my teachers were having. To be able to now be in a place where I’m being recognized for the impact I’m trying to have on students just feels really amazing. It was very unexpected, but it does feel really nice. As far as my work, I think it will help bolster some of the projects I’m working on. I’m working on a couple of research projects that are specifically focused on Virginia, so it highlights the work I’m doing.

Tell me a little bit about your research and why is it potentially significant?

Shehu: I’m a computer scientist, but, in my training, I was exposed to interdisciplinary research, and I have really kept that focus, even here at �鶹��Ƶ. I am a firm believer that real-world problems are the ones that give us the most challenging questions [and] also inspire us and motivate us to design new computational methodologies, new algorithms. I’ve always looked to make an impact beyond computer science, to improve health and other aspects of the human condition. So it’s always been computing in the service of something greater. That has always been my philosophy.

Adams: My research sits at the intersection of a lot of different areas. I’m a clinical psychologist by training, but I’ve always brought in ideas and concepts that expand beyond psychology. So my work [is] trying to understand how people can improve the quality of their lives—mostly folks who are dealing with chronic illnesses or who are at risk for illness or living with acquired disability. How can we maximize quality of life, maximize creating a life that is valuable and meaningful to them? One of the two places where my work can be helpful is in that real-world applied aspect. It’s also multidisciplinary, and it really highlights that—to solve those big problems—we have to be thinking together and working collaboratively.

What has been the biggest obstacle you’ve faced in your research and how have you managed to overcome those obstacles?

Shehu: There are many challenges for a researcher, but I think self-doubt is probably the biggest challenge. Everything else is outside, but self-doubt is probably the most difficult, because it’s inside of you. You get better at it over time. It’s not that you’re NOT going to have it, but you point yourself to your experiences and your past accomplishments, and you convince yourself that you can do it again.

Adams: One of the biggest obstacles is we don’t have a medical school, and so much of my research is focused on folks who have medical conditions. The way that I’ve overcome that is the way that I’ve tried to overcome everything—that is, finding collaborators, finding other folks to kind of put our heads together and work through.

Did you always know that you wanted to be an educator?

Shehu: I always knew I wanted to be a scientist. I remember in high school telling one of my friends that if I ever became somebody who sat in front of his computer 10 hours a day, I would not be happy. But I’m happy to say I’m NOT sitting 10 hours a day in front of my computer. What I actually enjoy and have been very good at is working with people, with my collaborators and with my students.

Adams: Absolutely not. I always thought that I was going to be a journalist. As a child, I was the one kid who was watching “20/20.” I was like “Barbara Walters is everything.” I loved Barbara Walters, I loved the interviews and all those kinds of things.

Can you tell me something about you that people wouldn’t know just from reading your bio?

Shehu: I am very much into fitness. I find that exercise is very effective at blocking other pain pathways, which tend to accumulate as you advance in age Lately, since the pandemic started, I have gotten much more into running. When I run, I like to mix it up in my music choices, mainly international music and European pop. Lately, I have started to listen more to African American gospel music. The music does a great deal to distract me from the aches and pains of running. And there is just so much history and culture in those songs that, being raised in a different country, I have completely missed on. I am catching up.

Adams: I’m very into baking, and I think I even take a scientific approach in that. I have so many cookbooks. I’m like a lot of people who like to cook—you just collect them, and you don’t actually cook out of them. I’ve started a year of cooking where every week I’m going to cook a different recipe in one of my cookbooks. But I’m also rating it on a quality scale of 0 to 10 and keeping notes about how to improve it. I’ve already done four weeks.

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