Campus Directory
Gia Macias
Title: | Lecturer |
Office: | Warde Academic Center |
Phone: | 773-298-3477 |
Email: | gmacias@sxu.edu |
Department: | Psychology |
Biography
Gia M. Macias, Ph.D., is currently a lecturer at Saint Xavier University, specializing in cognitive psychology with a particular focus on attention, learning and memory. Macias earned both her bachelor's degree in psychology and master's degree in psychological sciences from CSU, San Bernardino. She earned her doctorate in cognitive psychology and a certificate in psychological statistics from Purdue University in 2024.
Macias' research interests include memory and attentional processes. Her dissertation examined how interruptions with related content impacted learning while reading. Learning suffered when reading was interrupted by tasks that were related to the text's content. This suggests that interruptions might disrupt mental models about the content in the text, which are developed over time as one reads. This research has implications in educational (e.g., in the classroom; studying for exams), clinical (e.g., therapeutic techniques for ADD), and workplace settings (e.g., medication administration; air-traffic control; and human-computer interaction).
Previous projects have also examined the effects that state and trait anxiety have on components of attention, such as executive control and alerting and recognition memory performance for emotional versus neutral words using modified Flanker and Stroop tasks. Furthermore, she has conducted research on how event boundaries affect executive control using an AX-CPT task.
Education
Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology
Purdue University
M.A. in Psychological Sciences and B.A. in Psychology
California State University, San Bernardino
Areas of Specialization
- Interruption effects on learning from text
- Trait, state, and math anxiety’s effects on attention and memory
Certification/Licensure
- Certificate of Psychological Statistics
- Certificate for a Faculty Fellowship entitled: Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation
Selected Honors/Awards
- Psychonomic Society: Graduate Conference Award (2021)
- Office of Student Research: Summer Research Grant (2016)
Courses Taught
- PSY-101: Introduction to Psychology
- PSY-315: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
- PSY-390: Research Capstone
Presentations/Publications/Productions
Manuscripts
Macias, G. M. (in prep). Interrupting Learning with Related Tasks.
Macias, G. M., & Schneider, D. W. (in prep). Interrupted Reading with Similar and
Dissimilar Information.
Schneider, D. W., & Macias, G. M. (in prep). Alertness and Cognitive Control in the
Simon Task.
Conference talks
Macias, G. M. (2019). “Trait Anxiety and its Effects on an Emotional Stroop Task.” Paper presented at the annual Western Psychological Association Convention, Pasadena, Calif.
Conference posters
Macias, G. M. & Schneider, D. W. (2024). “Relationship Between Trait Anxiety and Components of Attention.” Paper presented at the annual Midwestern Psychological Association Convention, Chicago, Ill.
Macias, G. M. & Schneider, D. W. (2022). “Relationship Between Trait Anxiety and Components of Attention.” Paper presented at the 63rd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, Mass.
Macias, G. M. & Schneider, D. W. (2021). “Interrupted Reading With Similar and Dissimilar Tasks.” Paper presented at the 62nd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Virtual.
Schneider, D. W. & Macias, G. M. (2020). “Alertness and Cognitive Control: Interactions in the
Simon Task.” Paper presented at the 61st annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Virtual.
Macias, G. M., Selim, S., Ruelas–Godinez, B., Radvansky, G., & Reimer, J. (2019). “The
Influence of Event Boundaries on Cognitive Control.” Paper presented at the annual Western Psychological Association Convention, Pasadena, Calif.
Koshino, H., O’Donnell, K. A., & Macias, G. M. (2018). “Effects of Anxiety on the Trial Sequence in Emotional Attention Tasks.” Paper presented at the 59th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, New Orleans, La.
Macias, G. M. (2018). “Effects of Anxiety on an Emotional Stroop Task.” Paper presented at the
annual Western Psychological Association Convention, Portland, Ore.
Macias, G. M., Kim, H., & Koshino, H. (2017). “Does High State Anxiety Have an Effect on
Emotional Attention?” Paper presented at the annual Western Psychological Association Convention, Sacramento, Calif.
Macias, G. M., O’Donnell, K., Kim, H., & Koshino, H. (2017). “Interactions Between Anxiety
and Emotional Attention.” Paper presented at the 58th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Vancouver, Canada.
Macias, G. M. (2016). “Conflicting Motivation: Understanding Latino’s Responses to In–Group
Member’s Claims of Discrimination.” Paper presented at the annual Meeting of the Minds, San Bernardino, Calif.
Professional media contributions
“Twitternome”, Psychonomic Society
Gia Macias – Purdue University, Spark Society
#psynom20: Interview with Twitternome Gia Macias, Psychonomic Society