Dr. Chin-Parker began teaching at Denison in the fall of 2004. He teaches Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods, Cognitive Psychology, Research in Cognitive Psychology, and a seminar titled “Creativity and Cognition”. When he is not in the classroom (or his lab), Dr. Chin-Parker enjoys spending time with his family, running on the trails of the Denison Biological Reserve, and attempting to play the guitar.
Learning & Teaching
Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods, Psychology of Thinking, Research in the Psychology of Thinking, Cognitive Psychology, Research in Cognitive Psychology, Seminar on Creativity and Cognition, Seminar on (un)Consciousness, History and Systems of Psychology, W101: Myths of Innovation.
Research
My research program focuses on the interplay between conceptual knowledge and experience: Our conceptual knowledge shapes the interactions we have with the world, and it is shaped by those interactions. Reflecting this interplay between knowledge and experience, I have recently pursued two lines of research. The first explores the constraints in play during explanatory processing, and the second examines how a person's immediate goal constrains the acquisition of relevant conceptual knowledge.
Works
Articles:
- Chin-Parker, S. & Bradner, A. (2017). A contrastive account of explanation generation. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24, 1387–1397. doi: 10.3758/s13423-017-1349-x
- Chin-Parker, S. & Birdwhistell, J. (2017). Category learning by doing: How goal directed tasks constrain conceptual acquisition. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 29, 450-468. doi: 10.1080/20445911.2017.1280499
- Chin‐Parker, S., & Cantelon, J. (2016). Contrastive constraints guide explanation‐based category learning. Cognitive Science, doi:10.1111/cogs.12405
- Chin-Parker, S., & Bradner, A. (2010). Background shifts affect explanatory style: How a pragmatic theory of explanation accounts for background effects in the generation of explanations. Cognitive Processing, 11, 227-249.
- Patalano, A. L., Chin-Parker, S., & Ross, B. H. (2006). The importance of being coherent: The role of category coherence in reasoning about cross-classified entities. Journal of Memory and Language, 54, 407-424.
- Erickson, J., Chin-Parker, S., & Ross, B. H. (2005). Inference and classification learning of abstract coherent categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 31, 86-99.
- Chin-Parker, S., & Ross, B. H. (2004). Diagnosticity and prototypicality in category learning: A comparison of inference learning and classification learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 30, 216-226.
- Chin-Parker, S., & Ross, B. H. (2002). The effect of category learning on sensitivity to within-category correlations. Memory & Cognition, 30, 353-362.
- Anderson, A. L., Ross, B. H., & Chin-Parker, S. (2002). A further investigation of category learning by inference. Memory & Cognition, 30, 119-128.
Refereed Proceedings:
- Chin-Parker, S., & Brown, E. (2019). Task goals structure conceptual acquisition. In A. Goel, C. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Chin-Parker, S., Cowling, S., & Mei, M. (2019). The explanatory value of mathematical information in everyday explanations. In A. Goel, C. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society
- Chin-Parker, S. (2011). What varying the learning task and category structure reveals about inference learning. In L. Carlson, C. Hölscher, & T. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Chin-Parker, S. (2010). (Category) Learning by Doing: How Goal Directed Tasks Constrain Conceptual Acquisition. In S. Ohlsson & R. Catrambone (Eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Chin-Parker, S. & Bradner, A. (2008). The Pragmatics of Explanation. In V. Sloutsky, B. Love, & K. McRae (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society
- Chin-Parker, S., Hernandez, O., & Matens, M. (2006). Explanation in Category Learning. In R. Sun & N. Miyake (Eds.), Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society
- Chin-Parker, S., & Ross, B. H. (2003). When As and Bs are Cs and Ds: The effect of the cross-classification of items on learned concepts. In R. Alterman & D. Kirsh (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society
- Patalano, A. L., Chin-Parker, S., & Ross, B. H. (2003). The role of coherence in category-based explanation. In R. Alterman & D. Kirsh (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Chin-Parker, S., & Ross, B. H. (2002). Diagnosticity in category learning by classification and inference. In W. D. Gray & C. D. Schunn (Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society
Recent Presentations:
- Chin-Parker, S., & Brown, E. (July 2019). Task goals structure conceptual acquisition. Paper presented at the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Montreal, QC.
- Chin-Parker, S., Cowling, S., & Mei, M. (July 2019). The explanatory value of mathematical information in everyday explanations. Poster presented at the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Montreal, QC.
- Chin-Parker, S., & Brown, E. (April 2019). Evaluating the Goal Structure Hypothesis. Paper presented at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Midwest Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
- Chin-Parker, S. (November 2018). Contrastive Constraints on Downstream Effects of Self-Explanation. Poster presented at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society. New Orleans, LA.
- Cowling, S., Chin-Parker, S., & Mei, M. (September 2018). What Makes Platonists Tick? Explanatory Preferences in Mathematical Matters. Talk presented at the AALAC Collaborative Workshop: Explanation Across the Disciplines. Middlebury, VT.
- Chin-Parker, S. (April 2018). Explaining Explanation: Implications for Learning. Invited talk, UIUC Cognitive Brownbag Series, Champaign, IL.
- Chin-Parker, S. (November 2016). Goal-directed conceptual acquisition: Examining the goal framework hypothesis. Poster presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society. Vancouver, BC.
- Chin-Parker, S., Jaramillo, M., & Krumholtz, V. (May 2016). Preliminary evidence for the goal structure hypothesis. Paper presented at the 88h Annual Meeting of the Midwest Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
- Krumholtz, V., Jaramillo, M., & Chin-Parker, S. (May 2016). A novel paradigm for studying conceptual acquisition using goal directed behavior. Paper presented at the 88h Annual Meeting of the Midwest Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
Service
- The Psychonomic Society
- The Cognitive Science Society
- The Association of Psychological Science
- Midwest Psychological Association
Other
Hannah Morton, Summer 2019, Denison Early Experience Scholar
Title: Examining the Development of Feature Language During Goal-Directed Interactions
Jaihao Ran, Summer 2018, Anderson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: Efficacy of self-explanation with different prompts in educational gaming
Eric Brown, Summer 2017, Anderson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: Continued study of goal-directed conceptual acquisition
Victoria Krumholtz, Summer 2015, Anderson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: Conceptual acquisition through meaningful interactions: A study of learning behaviors.
Manuella Jaramillo, Summer 2015, Anderson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: Conceptual acquisition through meaningful interactions: Evidence for the goal-structure hypothesis through a category-goodness task.
Sarah Sheldon, Summer 2013, Hodgson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: A Further Exploration of Classification and Inference Learning Using Manipulations to Cue and Category Validity.
Julie Cantelon, Summer 2012, Bowen Summer Research Assistantship
Title: The effect of goal-directed interactions on the recognition of features in a novel domain.
Harshida Pancholi, Summer 2012, Anderson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: The effect of structure on causal reasoning
Avraham Baranes, Summer 2010, Anderson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: Working memory and decision making: A look at the somatic marker hypothesis
Amy Milewski, Summer 2010, Denison University Research Funded Assistantship
Title: The effects of use-relevant information and diagnosticity on conceptual organization
Elizabeth Cummings, Summer 2008, Anderson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: Coherence effects in naturally occurring knowledge
Julie Tucker, Summer 2008, Anderson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: Coherence in real world categories in natural groups
Jessie Birdwhistell, Summer 2007 and Spring 2008, Anderson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: Beyond the solution: Learning about categories during problem solving
Amber Hill, Summer 2006, Hughes Summer Research Assistantship
Title: The interaction of knowledge and learning with cross-classified items
Robert Horn, Summer 2006, Denison University Research Funded Assistantship
Title: Constraints on explanations: Empirically testing philosophical theories of explanation
Catherine Mehta, Summer 2006, Anderson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: Structural alignment across category learning paradigms
Olivia Hernandez, Summer 2005, Hughes Summer Research Assistantship
Title: A process model of explanation-based learning
Murray Matens, Summer 2005, Anderson Summer Research Assistantship
Title: A comparative study of category learning through classification and explanation