Amy Lynne Shelton, PhD
Amy Shelton is the executive director of the Center for Talented Youth and a professor in the School of Education. She holds a joint appointment in the School of Medicine and serves on the steering committees for the university-wide Science of Learning Initiative. She was on the faculty in psychological and brain sciences at JHU from 2002 to 2013 before assuming the joint position with the Center for Talented Youth and the School of Education. She also serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General and on the editorial board for Spatial Cognition and Computation. She is affiliated with a number of different professional organizations in psychology, neuroscience and education. Her research in cognitive psychology/cognitive neuroscience focuses on spatial skills, individual differences and mechanisms of learning, couched in the broad context of understanding the characterization and needs of the individual learner. She has a track record of publications in major academic journals and grant support, and her professional orientation takes a strong basic science approach that is informed by the problems and questions of practice and application.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Vanderbilt University, 1999, Cognitive Psychology
M.A. Vanderbilt University, 1997, Cognitive Psychology
B.S. Illinois State University, 1993, Psychology
COURSES TAUGHT
Applied Multiple Regression Analysis, 883.602, Johns Hopkins University
Brain Myths & Folk Psychology, 200-214, Johns Hopkins University
Intro to Cognitive Psychology, 200-110, Johns Hopkins University
Intro to Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 200-155, Johns Hopkins University
Advanced Statistical Methods, 200-314, Johns Hopkins University
Advanced Research Design and Analysis, 200-315, Johns Hopkins University
Career Development Seminar, Johns Hopkins University
Core Topics in PBS, Johns Hopkins University
Cognitive Proseminar (Team-Taught Graduate Seminar), Johns Hopkins University
Graduate Seminar: Memory, Johns Hopkins University
Signal Detection Theory (Graduate Seminar), Johns Hopkins University
Structural Equation Modeling (Graduate Seminar), Johns Hopkins University
GRANTS AND CONTRACTS AWARDED
CHS: Small: Collaborative Research: Improving Wayfinding and Navigation in Immersive Virtual Environments. (PI: Shelton). NSF 1526611. 11/1/2015-10/31/2018
Teacher Priorities, Differentiation, and Teaching to “the Bubble”. (PI: Shelton). Overdeck Family Foundation. 1/1/2015-12/31/2017
Place and Response Mechanisms in Human Spatial Learning. (PI: Shelton). NSF 0920221. 9/15/2009-8/31/2013
Bridging Cognitive Aging in Rodents to Man using fMRI in Amnestic MCI. (PI: Gallagher). NIA RC2AG036419. 9/30/2009-9/29/2011
RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
Plucker, J.A., & Shelton, A.L. (2015). General Intelligence (g): Overview of a Complex Construct and Its Implications for Genetics Research. Hastings Center Report, 45(5), S21-S24. www.thehastingscenter.org/Publications/HCR/Detail.aspx?id=7590#ixzz3qghV1g8z
Hansen, E., Gluck, S., & Shelton, A.L. (2015). Obligations and Concerns of an Organization Like the
Center for Talented Youth. Hastings Center Report, 45(5), S66-S72.
www.thehastingscenter.org/Publications/HCR/Detail.aspx?id=7601#ixzz3qgi7uKFx
Marchette, S.A., Sever, M.W., Flombaum, J.I., & Shelton, A.L. (2015). Individual Differences in Representational Precision Predict Spatial Working Memory Span. Spatial Cognition & Computation, 15(4), 308-328. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13875868.2015.1078334
Furman, A.J., Clements-Stephens, A.M., Marchette, S.A., & Shelton, A.L. (in press). Persistent and Stable Biases in Spatial Learning Mechanisms Predict Navigational Style. Cognitive Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience.
Clements-Stephens, A. M., Vasiljevic, K., Murray, A. J., & Shelton, A. L. (2013). The Role of Potential Agents in Making Spatial Perspective Taking Social. [Original Research]. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7. http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00497/abstract
Yerramsetti, A., Marchette, S.A., & Shelton, A.L. (2012). Accessibility vs. accuracy in retrieving spatial memory: Evidence for suboptimal assumed headings. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 39(4), 1106 – 1114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0030905
Bakker, A., Krauss, G., Albert, M.S., Speck, C.L., Jones, L.R., Stark, C.E., Yassa, M.A., Bassett, S.S., Shelton, A.L., & Gallagher, M. (2012). Levetiracetam treatment attenuates excess hippocampal activity with cognitive benefit in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Neuron, 74(3), 467-474. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S089662731200325X
Shelton, A.L., Clements-Stephens, A.M., Lam, W.Y., Pak, D.M., & Murray, A.J. (2012). Should social savvy equal good spatial skills? The interaction of social skills with spatial perspective taking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(2), 199-205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0024617
Walsh, M. K., Montojo, C. A., Sheu, Y.-S., Marchette, S. A., Harrison, D. M., Newsome, S. D., Zhou, F., Shelton, A. L., & Courtney, S. M. (2011). Object working memory performance depends on microstructure of the frontal-occipital fasciculus. Brain Connectivity, 1, 317-329. doi: 10.1089/brain.2011.0037
Marchette, S.A., Bakker, A., & Shelton, A.L. (2011). Cognitive Mappers to Creatures of Habit: Differential Engagement of Place and Response Learning Mechanisms Predicts Human Navigational Behavior. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(43), 15264-15268. http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/43/15264.abstract
Clements-Stephens, A.M., McKell-Jeffers, G.O., Maddux, J.-M., & Shelton, A.L. (2011). Strategies for spatial organization in adults and children. Visual Cognition, 19(7), 886-909. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2011.595742
Marchette, S., Yerramsetti, A., Burns, T., & Shelton, A.L. (2011). Spatial memory in the real world: long-term representations of everyday environments. Memory & Cognition, 39(8), 1401-1408. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13421-011-0108-x
Shelton, A.L., & Marchette, S.A. (2010). Where do you think you are? Effects of conceptual current position on spatial memory performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 36, 686-698. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018713