» Dr. Connie Shears

Associate Professor

Schmid College of Science and Technology

Psychology , Crean School of Health and Life Sciences

Office:

Crean Hall 501 W. Palm Ave

Phone:

(714) 744-7914

Email:

shears@chapman.edu

Education

California State University, Fullerton, Bachelor of Arts
California State University, Fullerton, Master of Arts
University of California, Riverside, Ph.D. in Psychology

Biography

Research Interests & Teaching

My research investigates comprehension of language, semantic memory processes, and attentional limits related to cognitive resource demands.  I have a research liaison with an adult rehabilitation program for survivors of acquired brain injury where I examine how brain injury disrupts these comprehension processes.  I direct an active research program in my Cognitive Science lab at Chapman University, which provides many students with first-hand experience in psychological research activities and has supported several student-based research projects.  I also teach undergraduate courses in Statistics, Research Methods, Advanced Research Design, Perception and Cognitive Psychology.  Most of these courses are designed to offer students direct experience with the scientific method of psychological research and support student projects that reflect mastery of hypotheses testing and APA research reports.

Manuscripts Submitted

• Head, James, Shears, Connie, Neumann, Edwald, and Helton, William.  (2012). Novel word

         processing. (in revision to The Journal of General Psychology).

• Shears, C., Twachtmann, L., Kee, T., Cosme, D., Brown, B., Siegler, R. and Ung, S. (2012).  Emotion as a knowledge domain:  Does emotional language support causal inferences?  (in revision to Discourse Processes).

• Shears, C., Baker, M., Green, J., Ung, S., Barr, S. (2012).  Hemisphere differences in processing emotional language using causal inferences.  (in submission to Laterality).

• Shears, C., Twachtmann, L., Kee, T., Cosme, D., Brown, B., Sigler, R. and Ung, S. (2010).  Emotion as a knowledge domain:  Does emotional language support causal inferences?   (submitted to The Journal of Emotion).

Manuscripts in Preparation

• Shears, C., Flax, S., Brown, C., Liebman, R., Siegler, R., Glenn-Hall, T., Brown, B. (2012).  Knowledge Domains under overload: Are inference processes sustained? 

• Shears, C., Twachtmann, L., Glenn-Hall, T., Head, J., Cosme, D., Lindsey, L., Brown, B. (2012).  Emotional language in story contexts: Do response tasks impair inference processes?

• Brown, B. and Shears, C., (2010).  Perceptual differences of emotional images between homosexual and heterosexual men.

• Sigler, R. and Shears, C., (2010).  Resilience and learning in third grade youth.

Conferences and Presentations

• Shears, C., Barr, S., Flax, S., and Brown, C. (2012). If the left-hemisphere is reading and the right-hemisphere is feeling, what happens when you read about feelings?  Poster accepted for presentation at Psychonomics Society Annual Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

• Shears, C., Baker, M., Green, J. (2011). Laterality of emotional language and causal inferences.  Poster presentated at The Annual Cognitive Neuroscience Society April 2011.

• Ung, S., Shears, C. (2011).  Defining creative potential with passion, personality and major choice.  Poster presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Los Angles, CA.

Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications

Head, James, Shears, Connie, Neumann, Edwald, and Helton, William. (2012). Novel word processing. (in revision to The Journal of General Psychology). The Journal of General Psychology is a top-tier journal with an impact factor of 1.043.

Shears, C., Twachtmann, L., Kee, T., Cosme, D., Brown, B., Siegler, R. and Ung, S. (2012). Emotion as a knowledge domain: Does emotional language support causal inferences? (in revision to Discourse Processes). Discourse Processes is a leading journal with an impact factor of .447.

Shears, C., Baker, M., Green, J.,Ung, S., Sorenson, T. Barr, S. and Head, J. (2012). Hemisphere differences in processing emotional language using causal inferences. (in submission to Laterality). Laterality is a top-tier journal with an impact factor of .765.

Head, J., Helton, D, Neuman, E. Russell, P. and Shears, C. (2011)Text-speak processing. Human Factors and Ergonomics Society's Procedures.

Cabral, J. and Shears, C. (2010). Are you aware? Context effects on emotional ratings. Psi Chi Journal of undergraduate research.

Shears, C., Hawkins, A., Varner, A., Lewis, L., Heatley, J., Twachtmann, L. (2008). Knowledge-based inferences across the hemispheres: Domain makes a difference. Neuropsychologia, 46, 2563-2568.

Shears, C., Miller, V., Ball, M., Hawkins, A., Griggs, J., Varner, A. (2007). Cognitive demand differences in causal inferences: Characters’ plans are more difficult to comprehend than physical causation. Discourse Processes, 43, 1-24.

Chiarello, C., Kacinik, N., Shears, C., Arambel, S., Halderman, L., and Robinson, Cathy (2006). Exploring cerebral asymmetries for the verb generation task. Neuropsychology, 20, 88-104.

Miller, V. and Shears, C. (2005). Emotion vs language processing across the cerebral hemispheres: Apathy as an emotional and semantic construct. Brain and Cognition, 60, 304-32.

Axline, C. and Shears, C. (2005). Measure facial features and perceived attractiveness of faces. Graduate Women in Science, 16th Science Conference, California State University, Fullerton.

Shears, C. and Gauvain, M. (2004). Mapping comprehension of planning knowledge. Presentation as a talk at Psychonomic Society Annual Conference, St. Paul, MN.

Shears, C. and Chiarello, C. (2004). Knowledge-based inferences are NOT general. Discourse Processes, 38, 31- 55.

Shears, C. and Weiss, E. (2004). Inference vs Control sentences: Are readers able to detect our intended differences? Brain and Cognition, 57, 195-197.

Chiarello, C., Shears, C., Liu, S., Kacinik, N. (2004). Influence of Word Class Proportion on Cerebral Asymmetries for High and Low Imagery Words. Brain and Cognition, 57, 35-38.