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Catherine Forestell

Director of Neuroscience and Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences

Office: Integrated Science Center, Room 1151
Phone: 757 221 3892
Email: [[caforestell]]
Website: {{https://cforestell.wixsite.com/forestell}}
CV: {{https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hMm12toJbL7IsumUeCE1rB5E_8o07u13PieMR6ILLHo/edit?usp=sharing,Google Doc}}

Educational Background

PhD in Experimental Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, 2002

MSc in Experimental Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, 1997

BSc in Psychobiology with honors, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, NB, Canada, 1995

Research Interests

My research interests intersect the areas of learning and memory, developmental psychology, and sensation and perception, with a specific focus on the mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of food preferences and eating habits from infancy to adulthood. This work involves 1) investigating how early experiences with flavors affects children’s liking of foods as measured by the Facial Action Coding System, 2) assessing strategies for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in children, 3) examining the role of classical conditioning in children’s flavor learning, and 4) investigating the role that restrained eating plays in the development of eating habits, such as vegetarianism, in young adults, and  5) investigating how early exposure to parental tobacco and alcohol use affects later affective responses and implicit attention toward substance-related cues. 

Courses Taught at W&M
  • The Interplay of Nature & Nurture, PSYC 100
  • Developmental Psychology, PSYC 310
  • Health Psychology, PSYC 356
  • Infancy, PSYC 453
  • Graduate Research Methods, PSYC 632