Education: Ph.D., M.A., Arizona State University, B.A., Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Dr. Matthew Lancaster brings a wealth of psychological research experience to Lourdes University. In addition to extensive teaching experience, Dr. Lancaster has worked as a laboratory coordinator at a major research institution and as a postdoctoral scholar working on a federally funded grant.
Dr. Lancaster has conducted research into how children and adults learn categories and solve problems and how to increase students’ cognitive engagement in classrooms. He has presented his research at multiple international conferences and published in multiple peer-reviewed journals, including Memory & Cognition and the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
Dr. Lancaster specializes in teaching Cognitive, Developmental, and Research Methods courses.
While at Lourdes, Dr. Lancaster has served as chair of the Program Review Committee while it updated the program review process, acted as the Federal Compliance Coordinator during Lourdes Unversity’s 10-year HLC reaccreditation review, and served as a presidentially appointed IRB committee member.
Dr. Lancaster earned his Ph.D. and Masters in Cognitive Science from Arizona State University and his B.A. in Psychology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Chapters in Books
Stump, G. S., Li, N., Kang, S., Yaghmourian, D., Xu, D., Adams, J., McEldoon, K. L., Lancaster, M., & Chi, M. T. H. (in press). Coding dosage of teachers’ implementation of activities using ICAP: A video analysis. In E. Manalo, Y. Uesaka, & C. Chinn (Eds.), Promoting spontaneous use of learning and reasoning strategies: Theory, research, and practice. Singapore: Routledge.
Journal Articles
Lancaster. M. E. & Homa, D. (2017). Feature-to-feature inference under conditions of cue restriction and dimensional correlation. American Journal of Psychology, 130(1), 35-45.
Homa, D., Rogers, D., & Lancaster, M. E. (2015). The indirect modification of categorical knowledge. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22(1), 219-227.
Lancaster, M. E., Shellhammer, R., & Homa, D. (2013). Category inference as a function of correlational structure, category discriminability, and number of available cues. Memory & Cognition, 41(3), 339-353.
Conference Presentations
Lancaster, M. E. & Campbell, R. (2017, Apr.) Parenting style predicts presidential politics. Poster session at the 89th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
Lancaster, M. E. & Homa, D. (2015, Nov.) Feature to feature inference following learning of correlated and uncorrelated category structures. Poster session at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicaco, IL.
Chi, M. T. H., Adams J., Kang, S., Lancaster M. E., Li, N., McEldoon K., Stump G., Wylie R., and Xu D. (2015, May.) Using a theory-driven and evidence-based framework to engage students in active learning. Poster session at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, New York, NY.
Lancaster, M. E. & Homa, D. (2013, Nov.) Learning and Generalization within a biological hierarchy. Poster session at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Toronto, CA.
Lancaster, M. E. & Homa, D. (2012, May). Generalization when learning different levels of a hierarchy. Poster session at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Chicago, IL.
Homa, D. & Lancaster, M. E. (2012, May). Representational alteration of a previously learned category. Poster session at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Chicago, IL.
Lancaster, M. E. & Homa, D. (2011, Dec.). Hierarchical category learning and generalization. Poster session presented at the Arizona State University and University of Arizona Joint Cognitive Science Conference, Tucson, AZ.
Lancaster, M. E. & Homa, D. (2011, May). Are category labels special? Differences in category and feature inference. Poster session at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Washington, DC.
Lancaster, M. E. & Homa, D. (2011, May). The effect of differing levels of experience on integrating novel dimensions. Poster session at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Washington, DC.
Lancaster, M. E. & Homa, D. (2010, Nov.) Is a name just a name, or more? The use of category labels for feature inference. Poster session presented at the Arizona State University and University of Arizona Joint Cognitive Science Conference, Tempe, AZ.
Lancaster, M. E. & Somerville, S. C. (2009, Oct.). Preschoolers’ strategy adoption patterns in a logical selection task: Evidence for a matching bias. Poster session presented at the meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, San Antonio, TX.
Lancaster, M. E. & Somerville, S. C. (2009, Oct.). Preschoolers know when it’s not the right answer: performance on a modified version of Piaget’s hidden-figure task. Poster session presented at the meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, San Antonio, TX.
Lancaster, M. E. & Somerville, S. C. (2009, Apr.). Shifting representations in the dimensional change card sort task. Poster session presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, CO.
Memberships
Association for Psychological Science
Psychonomic Society
Society for Research in Child Development
Cognitive Development Society
Midwestern Psychological Association
Recent Positions
Psychology Research Lab Director, 2015-Present
HLC Federal Compliance Coordinator, 2016
Chair, Program Review Committee, 2016
Concept Abstraction Lab Coordinator, 2014-2015
Learning and Cognition Lab Postdoctoral Scholar, 2013-2014
PSY 105: Pre-Professional Seminar for Psychology
PSY 110: General Psychology
PSY 110 Online: General Psychology
PSY 210: Developmental Psychology
PSY 210 Online: Developmental Psychology
PSY 222: Research & Statistics I
PSY 225: Research & Statistics II
PSY 310: Human Learning
PSY 311: Cognition
PSY 490: Psychology Capstone