Leigh Richards
Graduate Student
Lar206@lehigh.edu

Academic History
East Stroudsburg University
B.A. 2005, Magna Cum Laude, Psychology

Lackawanna College
A.S. 2003, Summa Cum Laude, Human Services

Research Interests
Cognitive development and neuropsychology; memory, emotion, and behavioral and developmental disorders in children

I have extensive interest in cognitive and developmental psychology, particularly in the cognitive development and function of memory, and the effects caused by brain damage. I have experience in examining the effects that preterm birth has on implicit and explicit memory in young children and that there is limited research regarding the effects that this has on children born premature.

Secondly, I am fascinated by how children develop. I am interested in childhood behavioral and developmental disorders, and also in how children can adapt to or even overcome these impediments. I am currently researching how children recognize facial expressions and how this affects their recognition for reading emotions in different individuals. By studying the effects of their adaptation to specific facial emotional expressions within familiar and unfamiliar faces, I hope to find a link between children who cannot recognize general facial emotion with the possibility that their caregivers and family members are not expressing or interacting with their children on a healthy and mutual level, most beneficial to their child.  cognitively, and specifically how they become aware of their world and of themselves.

Honors
Sigma Xi Award for B.S. Psychology/Research Concentration, 2006
Certificate for Exceptional Academic Achievement, 2006
National Who’s Who Among American Colleges and Universities, 2005
Academic President’s and Dean’s Lists, 2003-2005
Sigma Alpha, Lambda, American Society of Success and Leadership, 2005Entrepreneurship Institute Scholarship, 2003

Professional Memberships
American Psychological Association
American Psychological Society
Psi Chi, The National Honor Society in Psychology
Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, 2003