Dr. Chris Wahlheim is the recipient of the 2021 Thomas Undergraduate Research Mentor Award for pre-tenured faculty.
Dr. Chris Wahlheim is a cognitive psychologist with expertise in memory, metacognition, and cognitive aging. He teaches undergraduate courses in cognitive psychology and human memory, and graduate seminars in everyday cognition, and memory and aging. He directs the Memory and Cognition Lab, which examines human episodic memory including research in episodic memory updating, beliefs and memory in fake news corrections, exercise effects on memory acuity, and age differences in memory organization. His work, which is carried out with collaboration from graduate and undergraduate students, appears in top journals in his field, such as Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Wahlheim mentors McNair scholars and MARC U STAR fellows and guides them in taking an active role in the research lab. Undergraduates become immersed in the research environment through frequent meetings with Dr. Wahlheim and graduate students, and they are supported in their work on sponsored projects and honors theses.
“What I loved the most about him as a mentor was that he allowed room for independent work while providing a moderate amount of structure. For instance, I had the opportunity to not only work independently by preparing IRB documentations and building the program for my Honors Thesis through modeling after previous lab experiments but also work collaboratively with Dr. Wahlheim to design the study and formulate hypotheses. Along the lines of collaborative work, it is very important to me as a mentee to have a mentor who welcomes different opinions, even if those of the mentee diverge from their own, and who listens intently when the mentee shares their opinions. Dr. Wahlheim effortlessly accomplished this: various opinions I provided on the project during our meetings were always seriously considered and were often incorporated to the study design and protocols. If my proposed idea wasn’t something that was achievable, he always explained why and how we could modify that idea to make it achievable… Joining Dr. Wahlheim’s lab was indeed a pivotal moment in my undergraduate career. Under his mentorship, I was able to develop rigorous scientific skills that are foundational to conducting research as well as grow further as a junior scientist, who now has the potential to conduct more complex experiments through the acquisition of a well-rounded and comprehensive research background.”
-Ei (Crystal) Thinzar ’20
“When I first began working in the Memory and Cognition Lab (MAC lab), I was really nervous about conducting research and all of the processes that went into keeping track of records and important information. Dr. Wahlheim, graduate students, and other lab assistants were very patient as I was still getting into the swing of things. I first knew that Dr. Wahlheim cared about my success as a student when on my second day there he asked me, ‘What do you hope to gain from working in my lab?’ I very plainly answered that I was interested in just gaining research experience in general. He then proceeded to ask questions to get more at what kinds of projects I would want to be working on. I really appreciated that conversation on my second day because I could tell that he wanted to make sure that I gained experience that was most beneficial to me. The mentorship that I received from Dr. Wahlheim really grew once I was inducted into the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program. The purpose of this federally-funded program is to prepare underrepresented undergraduate students for graduate school studies. Being a part of this program allowed me to gain even more research experience with Dr. Wahlheim during the summer of 2017. During that summer my relationship with Dr. Wahlheim grew as he was constantly showing me tips and tricks to guide me through the entire research process. Something that really stuck out to me was his patience with me as I was learning many new techniques and software. When I would do something incorrectly he was never quick to criticize negatively. Instead, he would always use things as a learning opportunity so that I never made the same mistake again. Another thing I appreciated about him as my mentor was his honesty. I remember there were many summer days while conducting research that I would get frustrated with any and everything. He could always tell when I was frustrated and he would always say, ‘The research process is a labor of love.’ That phrase stuck with me and is still with me today, as I am now in graduate school and conducting a research project. Lastly, the thing I appreciate about Dr. Wahlheim the most was his ability to be relatable with me. We come from different backgrounds but when we sat down and had a one-on-one talk about graduate school preparation, he was very open and real about his experiences and things I should consider and avoid when searching for graduate programs. That conversation made me realize that we had more in common than not.”
-McKayla Bohannon ’19
