faculty portrait if available
Rick Stevens
Professor
School of Behavioral & Social Sci
STRS 322
318-342-1354
ULM logo

Rick Stevens, PhD
Professor, Psychology

Education

Ph D

1990, Psychology
University of Oklahoma

MS

1984, Psychology
University of Oklahoma

BS

1977, Psychology
Phillips University

Biographical Sketch

After receiving my doctorate from the University of Oklahoma I worked several short-term jobs, the most interesting of which were teaching a year in Malaysia for a program in which the students there were giving experience with American teaching before coming to the United States to complete their degrees and teaching a year in Korea on American military bases.  In between those two I worked at UNLV for a year.  I have been at ULM since 1997.

Research Interests

I have recently been turning my research interests to issues of critical thinking and why people believe things like conspiracy theories which have little empirical support, and I have started a research project involving eyewitness testimony.

Recent Publications

Lewing, C., Stevens, R., Sivils, C. Motivational and Cognitive Predictors of Belief in Conspiracies. Monroe, LA: Multidisciplinary Psychology.
Stevens, R. Virtual Location Changes and Improvement in Recall. Monroe: Contemporary Southern Psychology.
Lewing, C., Stevens, R. “Psychological Reactance, Magical Ideation, and Paranoia as Predictors of Belief in Conspiracies. Dallas, TX: Applied Cognitive Psychology/Wiley.
Stevens, R. (2021). Anger, Internet Memes and Belief (pp. 19). Louisiana: Contemporary Southern Psychology.
Wilkerson, K., McGahan, J., Stevens, R., Williamson, D., Low, J. (2009). Judgment and judgment latency for freedom and responsibility relatedness as a function of subtle linguistic variations (pp. 641-656). Journal Of Psychology: Interdisciplinary And Applied.
Stevens, R. (2012). Memory Enhancement Using Virtual Worlds (pp. 4). El Cajon, CA: National Social Science Association.
Stevens, R., Hill, W. T., Theriot, M. M. (2012). The Impact of Environmental Cues on Learning in a Virtual World. El Cajon, CA 92020: National Social Science Technology Journal.
Nielson, M. E., Stevens, R. (2001). Descriptions of Religious Experience among U.S. Christians and Malaysian Muslims. (pp. 77-90). North American Journal of Psychology.
Stevens, R. (1997). The impact of the socio-linguistic aspects of culture on learning in Malaysia (pp. 35-39). Sociological Imagination.
Kanak, N. J., Stevens, R. (1992). PI and RI in serial learning as a function of environmental context (pp. 589-606). Malden, MA: Applied Cognitive Psychology.
Eckert, E., Stevens, R., Kanak, N. J. (1984). Memory for frequency as a function of environmental context (pp. 507-510). Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society.

Research Grants

Barnett, W. (Principal), Stevens, R. (Co-Principal), "Spatial Location Methods for Teaching Data Analysis in Virtual Reality" (Funded), Sponsored By Academic Innovation Center, The University of Louisiana at Monroe, $5010. (November 19 2019 - Present).

Awards & Honors

September 2011 Upshaw Family Endowed Professorship.

December 2009 LACUE Teacher of the Year - Region 8 - 2009.

Courses Taught

PSYC 2001INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY, 27 course(s)

PSYC 2003CHILD PSYCHOLOGY, 5 course(s)

PSYC 3016SENSATION AND PERCEPTION, 18 course(s)

PSYC 3018Perception Lab, 16 course(s)

PSYC 3025HUMAN LEARNING AND COGNITION, 18 course(s)

PSYC 3039INTRO TO RESEARCH METHODS, 16 course(s)

PSYC 4011ADVANCED TOPICS, 5 course(s)

PSYC 4039STATISTICS, 24 course(s)

PSYC 4099ADV GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY, 1 course(s)

PSYC 5001COGNITION, 7 course(s)

PSYC 5022QUANTITATIVE METH/BEHAV SCI, 19 course(s)

PSYC 5023RESEARCH METHODS, 27 course(s)

PSYC 5029DIRECTED STUDY, 21 course(s)

PSYC 5034THEORIES OF LEARNING, 8 course(s)

PSYC 5091PRACTICUM IN PSYCHOLOGY, 7 course(s)

PSYC 5097INDEPENDENT RESEARCH, 19 course(s)

PSYC 5099THESIS, 20 course(s)