- Ph.D. 2011 Kent State University
- Experimental/Cognitive Psychology
- Dissertation: Preschool Children’s Judgments of Learning: The Effects of Delay and Practice
- M.A. 2008 Kent State University
- Experimental/Cognitive Psychology
- Thesis: Young Children’s Awareness of Their Own Lexical Ignorance: Relations to False Belief Understanding and Basic Memory Processes
- B.A. 2005 Mount Union College
- Psychology (Magna Cum Laude)
- University Department Psychology
- Location Norcross 209
- Phone Number +1 (336) 841-9455
- Email [email protected]
Courses Taught:
- Introduction to Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
- Child Psychology
- Cognitive Development
- Research Methods in Psychology
- Perception
- Lifespan Development
- Honors Social Scientific Inquiry
- Honors Methods, Proposal, and Planning
- Honors Qualifying Signature Project
- First Year Seminar: Child’s Play
Research Interests:
The highest level goal of my program of research is to promote student learning. I am interested in understanding how children learn, and using this knowledge to help them become more competent learners. One way to improve student learning is to help them develop their ability to monitor what they know. Although young children do not usually engage in self-directed study, it is important to understand when and how metacognitive monitoring develops. In order to teach this skill, it is necessary to know how much children understand about how the mind works. In addition, all students should eventually learn the skill of distinguishing between well-learned and less well-learned information. This skill will help students allocate study time appropriately because they will know which items need to be studied further.
Previous research has shown that preschoolers are overconfident when making predictions about their memory. I am interested in examining factors that may help young children monitor their memory more accurately. Specifically, I have been studying preschooler’s item-by-item judgments of learning (JOLs), which are judgments about whether previously studied items will be recalled on a subsequent memory test. My research indicates that two factors, the timing of the judgment and retrieval practice with feedback, can reduce overconfidence in preschoolers.
More recently, I have also begun examining the benefits students can derive from being tested on material, relative to having the opportunity to restudy the material. Research with college students suggests that tests themselves can be surprisingly effective tools for learning, rather than just assessments of learning. I am interested in determining whether the benefit of testing extends to young children. The mechanisms underlying the testing effect are not well understood. Thus, I am also interested in studying possible explanations for why testing is beneficial for memory. I am currently examining several of these explanations, including category access, category clustering, and item-specific processing.
Honors Scholar Faculty Fellow (Fall 2019 – present)
Growth Mindset Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grant (2018)
Teaching Scholar, High Point University (Fall 2016 – Spring 2017)
Presentations, Publications, and other Professional Activities:
Fiser, B., Lipowski, S. Vess, S., & Clark, A. (2020). Student and Faculty Growth through the Creation and Implementation of an Advanced Interdisciplinary Research Experience. Presented virtually at the annual conference of the National Collegiate Honors Council.
Lipowski, S. L., Canda, A. M.., & Pyc, M. A. (2019, November). The production effect and metacognitive monitoring in preschoolers. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Lipowski, S. L. (2019, April). Making scholarship effective for good. Featured speaker at Alpha Chi Honors Society New Member Induction. High Point, NC.
Lipowski, S. L., Canda, A. M.., & Pyc, M. A. (2018, November). An examination of the production effect in preschoolers. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, New Orleans, LA.
Lipowski, S. L., Ariel, R., Tauber, U. S., & Dunlosky, J. D. (2017). Children’s agenda-based regulation: The effects of prior performance and reward on elementary school children’s study choices. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 164, 55-67.
Lipowski, S. L. (2016, May). Three benefits of testing your students every day. Talk given at Speaking SoTL: Student Centered Approaches to Teaching and Learning, High Point, NC
Lipowski, S. L., Ariel, R., Tauber, S. K. U., & Dunlosky, J. (2016, February). The influence of metacognitive monitoring and reward on children’s study choices. Presented at the North Carolina Cognition Conference, Winston-Salem, NC.
Lipowski, S. L. (2015, February). How testing can be used to promote student learning. Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning Ed Talk given at High Point University, High Point, NC.
Lipowski, S. L., Pyc, M. A., Dunlosky, J., & Rawson, K. A. (2014). Establishing and explaining the testing effect in free recall for young children. Developmental Psychology, 50, 994-1000.
Lipowski, S. L. (2014, April). Four things we may be doing all wrong. Talk given at High Point Christian Academy Teacher Training, High Point, NC.
Lipowski, S. L., Merriman, W. E., & Dunlosky, J. (2013). Preschoolers can make highly accurate judgments of learning. Developmental Psychology, 49, 1505-1516.
Lipowski, S. L. (2013, December). Improving student learning in young children: Metacognition and the testing effect. Talk given at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC.
Lipowski, S. L., Tauber, S. K. U., Ariel, R., & Dunlosky, J. (2013, April). The influence of incentive on self-regulated learning in elementary school children. Presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA.
Lipko, A. R., Dunlosky, J., Lipowski, S. L., & Merriman, W. E. (2012). Young children are not underconfident with practice: The benefit of ignoring a fallible memory heuristic. Journal of Cognition and Development, 13(2), 174-188.
Lipowski, S. L. & Merriman, W. E. (2011). Knowledge judgments and object memory processes in early childhood: Support for the dual criterion account of object nameability judgment. Journal of Cognition and Development, 12(4), 481-501.
Lipowski, S. L., Pyc, M. A., Dunlosky, J & Rawson, K. A. (2011, May). An examination of developmental trends and mechanisms underlying the testing effect in young children. Talk given at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference, Chicago, IL.
Lipowski, S. L., Merriman, W. E., & Dunlosky, J. (2010, May). The influence of response biases and practice on preschoolers’ delayed judgments of learning. Talk given at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference, Chicago, IL.
Lipowski, S. L., & Merriman, W. E. (2009, April). Young children’s awareness of lexical ignorance: Relations to false belief understanding and the efficiency of object processing. Presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, CO.
Lipko, A. R., Dunlosky, J, Lipowski, S. L., & Merriman, W. E. (2009, April). An investigation of the underconfidence-with-practice effect with young children. Presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, CO.
Lipowski, S. L., & Merriman, W. E. (2007, March). Children’s understanding of the mind: Relations among awareness of lexical ignorance, false belief, and memory. Presented at the Biennal Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, MA