Thomas D. Griffin   Research Assistant Professor    1054D BSB    Department of Psychology    University of Illinois at Chicago    1007 W Harrison St (MC 285)    Chicago IL 60607    E-Mail: tgriffin@uic.edu

Assistant Research Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2006-present 
Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2003-2006 
Ph.D., Social Psychology, Methods & Measurement Minor, UIC, 2003 
M.A., Social Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1999 
B.S., Psychology, California State University, San Marcos, 1996 

Honors/Awards/Grants:
2007    Co-PI on grant from Institute of Education Sciences to study 
"Improving Metacomprehension and Self-regulated Learning from Scientific Texts" 
2003    Upshaw Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Illinois at Chicago 
2001    Cognitive Science Society Graduate Travel Award 
1999    Sigma Xi, Graduate Research Forum Award 
1996    Elected Chair, 3rd Annl Southern California Psi-Chi Research Fair 
1994    Phi Theta Kappa National Honors Society 
1993-6 Dean's Highest Honors, CSUSM 

Research Interests

Publications:

         Griffin, T. D. (2008). Faith: serving emotional epistemic goals rather than evidence coherence. In V. Sloutsky, B. Love, and K. McRae (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

       Wiley, J., Griffin. T. D., & Thiede, K. W. (2008). To understand your understanding you must understand what understanding means. In V. Sloutsky, B. Love, and K. McRae (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

       Thiede, K. W., Griffin, T. D., Wiley, J., & Anderson, M. (in press). Poor Metacomprehension Accuracy as a Result of Inappropriate Cue Use. Discourse Processes. 

       Thiede, K. W., Griffin, T. D., Wiley, J., & Redford, J. (in press) Metacognitive Monitoring During and After Reading. To appear in D. J. Hacker, J. Dunlosky & A. C. Graesser (Eds). Handbook of Metacognition in Education. Routledge. 

       Griffin, T. D., Wiley, J. & Thiede, K. W. (2008) Individual differences, rereading, and self-explanation: Concurrent processing and cue validity as constraints on metacomprehension accuracy.  Memory & Cognition, 36(1), 93-103. 

        Newman, L. S., Caldwell, T. L., & Griffin, T. D. (2007). The undesired selves of repressors. Cognition and Emotion, 1-11. 

        Jee, B., Wiley, J., & Griffin, T. D. (2006). Expertise and the illusion of comprehension. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 387-392. 

       Thiede, K. W., Dunlosky, J., Griffin, T. D., & Wiley, J. (2005). Understanding the delayed keyword effect on metacomprehension accuracy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 31(6), 1267-1280. 

        Wiley, J., Griffin, T. D. & Thiede, K. W. (2005). Putting the comprehension in metacomprehension.  Journal of General Psychology, 132(4), 408-428. 

        Newman, L. S., Caldwell, T. L., Chamberlin, B., Griffin, T. D. (2005). Thought suppression, projection, and the development of stereotypes. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27, 259-266. 

        Griffin, T. D. (2003). Learning: Formal and Informal Reasoning. Encyclopedia of Education, 2nd Ed. Macmillan Reference, USA. 

        Skitka, L. J., Mullen, E., Griffin, T. D., Hutchinson, S., & Chamberlin, B.  (2002). Dispositions, ideological scripts, or motivated correction?  Understanding ideological differences in attributions for social problems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 470-487. 

Manuscripts Under Review or in Preparation:  

Griffin, T. D. (under review). Accepting Evolution: Not just the skill but the will to reason about the evidence. Science.

Jee, B., Griffin, T. D. & Wiley, J. (invited resubmission). Expert Calibration of Comprehension: Examining the Effects of Domain Knowledge on Relative and Absolute Metacomprehension Accuracy. Memory & Cognition.

Griffin, T. D. (in preparation). Mental representations of evidential versus emotional beliefs and their effect on comprehending belief-relevant information.

Griffin, T. D. (in preparation) “Belief  Bias” in Logical Deduction: Non-normative, but Logical Use of the Identity Principle.

Wiley, J., Griffin, T. D., & Thiede, K. W. (in preparation). Effects of Test Expectancy and Reading Instructions on Metacomprehension Accuracy.

Conference Presentations:       

         Griffin, T. D. (2008). Faith: Serving emotional epistemic-goals rather than evidence-coherence. Presented at the 30^th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Washington, D.C.

         Wiley, J., Griffin, T. D., & Thiede, K. W. (2008). To understand your understanding, you must understand what understanding means. Presented at the 30^th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Washington, D.C.

        Griffin, T. D. (2008). Faith: Wishful thinking or evidence of things unseen? Presented at the 20^th Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.
. 
        Wiley, J., Sanchez, C. A., Griffin, T. D., & Thiede, K. W. (2007, October 12) Two Routes to Improving Understanding from Expository Text: Mental Models and Metacomprehension. Developmental Science goes to School. Spencer Foundation Conference, Chicago, IL.               
  
        Thiede, K. W., Wiley, J. & Griffin, T. D. (2007) Does test expectancy affect metacomprehension accuracy? Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Long Beach, CA. 

         Griffin, T. D. (2007). Individual Differences in Epistemic Goals and the Acceptance of Evolution.  Poster presented at the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Nashville. 

        Griffin, T. D., Wiley, J., & Thiede, K. W. (2007). Improving Metacomprehension with Comprehension Instructions. Paper presented at the Winter Text Conference, Jackson Hole, WY. 

        Wiley, J., Sanchez, C. A., & Griffin, T. D. (2007). Designing for Understanding: The Impact of Tasks and Individual Differences on Learning Science from the Web. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Text & Discourse, Glasgow, Scotland. 

        Thiede, K. W., Anderson, M., Wiley, J. & Griffin, T. D. (2007) Constructing Concept Maps Improves the Accuracy of Comprehension Monitoring.  Paper presented at AERA, Chicago, IL. 

        Wiley, J., Thiede, K. W. & Griffin, T. D. (2007) What does it mean to learn from and understand science text? Paper presented at AERA, Chicago, IL. 

        Griffin, T. D., Wiley, J., & Thiede, K. W. (2006). Interactive Effects of Rereading, Working-Memory, and Reading-Ability on Metacomprehension. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Houston, TX. 

         Thiede, K. W., Anderson, M., Griffin, T. D., & Wiley, J. (2006). Generating concept maps improves metacomprehension.  Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Houston, TX. 

       Griffin, T. D. (2006). Disbelief in evolution and a general tendency to favor affect over evidence.  Poster presented at the 18th Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, New York, NY. 

      Griffin, T. D., Wiley, J., & Thiede, K. (2006). Improving Metacomprehension: Paradigms and Performance.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. 

       Jee, B., Wiley, J. & Griffin, T. (2006) Expertise and the illusion of comprehension. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Cognitive 
Science Society. Vancouver, BC. 

       Thiede, K. W., Griffin, T. D. (2005).  Methods for promoting and assessing metacomprehnesion accuracy. Poster Presented at the Forty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Toronto, Canada. 

        Griffin, T. D., Wiley, J., & Thiede, K. W. (2005). Putting the 'meta' in metacomprehension. Paper presented at the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Society for Text & Discourse. Amsterdam, Netherlands. 

        Thiede, K.W., Wiley, J. & Griffin, T. D. (2005). Improving metacomprehension accuracy.  Paper presented at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada. 

        Griffin, T. D. (2004). The effects of prior beliefs on comprehension depend upon the underlying basis for prior beliefs. Paper presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Diego, CA. 

         Thiede, K., Griffin, T. & Wiley, J. (2004). New attempts to improve monitoring accuracy.  Paper presented at the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Society for Text & Discourse. Chicago, Il. 

        Griffin, T. D. (2004). The role of belief conflict and the evidence-affect basis of prior beliefs in comprehending belief-relevant texts. Paper presented at the Fifteenth Annual Winter Conferenceon Discourse, Text, and Cognitiion. Jackson Hole, WY 

        Thiede, K. W., Griffin, T. D. (2004).  Improving metacomprehension accuracy: Delay is critical. Poster Presented at the Forty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Minneapolis, MN. 

         Griffin, T. D. (2003). Intellectual values and their impact on evidence-based reasoning about biological evolution. Paper presented at the American Education Research Association. Chicago, IL. 

       Griffin, T. D. (2003). Claims of belief-bias in deductive reasoning: Our flawed interpretation of our participants' flawed reasoning. Paper presented at the Fourteenth Annual Winter Conferenceon Discourse, Text, and Cognitiion. Jackson Hole, WY. 

        Griffin, T. D. (2003). Why we believe matters more than what we believe when attempting to understand belief-relevant discourse. Paper presented at the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Society for Text & Discourse. Madrid, Spain. 

        Griffin, T. D. (2003). Impact of intellectual values on forming evidence-based conclusions in emotionally charged contexts. Mid-Western Psychological Association. Chicago, Il. 

        Skitka, L. J., Mullen, E., Griffin, T., Hutchinson, S., & Chamberlin, B. (2002). Dispositions, scripts, or motivated correction? Understanding ideological differences in explanations for social problems. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association: Chicago, IL. 

        Griffin, T. D., Hemmerich, J. (2002). Prior beliefs and contradictory information: Two experimental approaches. Poster presented at The Center for the Study of Learning, Instruction, and Teacher Development. Chicago, Il. 

        Griffin, T. D. (2002). Affect-based beliefs and their implications for conceptual learning. Paper presented at the Thirteenth Annual Winter Conference on Discourse, Text, and Cognition. Jackson Hole, WY. 

        Caldwell, T. L., Newman, L. S., Griffin, T. D., & Chamberlin, B. W.  (2001).  Thought suppression, projection, and the development of stereotypes.  Poster presented at annual meeting of the American Psychological Society Toronto, ON. 

        Griffin, T. D & Ohlsson, S. (2001). Beliefs vs. Knowledge: A Necessary Distinction for Predicting, Explaining and Assessing Conceptual Change. Presented at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society: Endinburgh, Scotland. 

        Newman, L., Griffin, T. D., & Calwell, T. L.  (2000, July). The psychological significance of the undesired self: Repressive coping as an illustrative example. Paper presented at the American Psychological Society annual conference, FL. 

        Griffin, T. D., & Skitka, L. J. (2000, May). Giving others the benefit of the doubt: A positivity bias in trait inferences. Paper presented at the Mid-Western Psychological Association annual conference, Chicago, IL. 

        Griffin, T. D., & Skitka, L. J. (1998, May). The interactive effect of political ideology and trait valence on trait inferences. Paper presented at the Mid-Western Psychological Association annual meeting, Chicago, IL. 

        Griffin, T. D., & Birch, M. A. (1996). Metaphysical causal attributions in situations that evoke a need for justice. Paper presented at the Western Psychological Association annual meeting, San Jose, CA. 

        Griffin, T. D., & Birch, M. A. (1996, April). The misuse of science in the popular media. Special paper presentation at the Southern CA Psi Chi Conference, California State University San Marcos. 

Invited Presentations:
        Griffin, T. D. (March, 2006). Bliss is ignorance: Believing what you want can hinder understanding. Invited Talk given at the Cognitive Psychology Brown Bag Series, Northern Illinois University. 

Teaching:
My research on evidence-based versus affect-based beliefs dovetails with my approach to teaching. My general approach is to foster students' skills in and disposition towards evidence-based reasoning within a domain and to help them grasp the logical ties between empirical methods, the quality of the evidence, and how these constrain the relative plausibility of alternative theoretical frameworks.  While certain details may be particular to the field of behaviorial science, I seek to ground these details in a larger framework of issues that are common to all scientific inquiry. 
To date, I have only implemented this approach in courses on research methods. However, I think most content area courses would benefit from an applied version of this approach, even if the greater depth of analytical reasoning requires a reduction in the number of topics covered by the typical mile-wide-&-inch-deep approach.

 Courses Taught:
Fall     07: Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology 
Spring 07: Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology 
Fall     02: Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology 
Spring 02: Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology 

Academic Work Experience:
2003-2006, Post-Doctoral Research Associate, University of Illinois at Chicago (funded by the Institute for Education Sciences, U.S. Dept. of Education) 
2000-2000, Research Consultant, Suzuki-Orff School for Young Musicians, Chicago 1997-2002, Graduate Research Assistant, University of Illinois at Chicago 
1996-2001, Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Illinois at Chicago 
1998-1998, Research Consultant, Public Opinion Laboratory, NIU 
1996-1996  Teaching Assistant, California State University, San Marcos 
1995-1996, Research Assistant, University of California, San Diego 

Links to Personal stuff:
 Wedding Page 
 Beer Travels