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Brigette Oliver Ryalls

Associate Professor of Psychology

Brigette Ryalls

Contact Information

347 Arts and Sciences Hall

(402) 554-2331

Email: bryalls@mail.unomaha.edu

 

 

 

 

Educational Background

Murray State University, 1988, B.S.

Indiana University, 1994, Ph.D. (Advisor: Linda B. Smith)

 

Professional Experience

University of Nebraska at Omaha, Assistant Professor, 1994-2000

Member, Graduate Faculty College, University  of Nebraska, 1998-present

University of Nebraska at Omaha, Associate Professor, 2000-present

Director of Developmental Psychology, 2000-present

 

Teaching Interests

Child development, cognitive development, language development, cognitive psychology, the psychology of language.

 

Teaching Experience

I have been the instructor of record for the following courses:

Undergraduate Courses

Graduate Courses
  • Methods of Experimental Psychology
  • Research Methods in Developmental Psych.
  • Child Development
  • Proseminar in Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Psycholinguistics (cross-listed)
  • Cross-Cultural Psychology
  • Seminar: Memory & Mechanisms of Dev.
  • Psycholinguistics (cross-listed)
  • Seminar: Language Acquisition
  • Laboratory in Sensation & Perception
  • Seminar: Cognitive Development
  • Laboratory in Cognitive Psychology
  • Seminar: Human Development and Culture

 

Research Interests

Very broadly, I am interested in the development of cognition and language. More specifically, I am interested in the following: The acquisition of dimensional adjectives and other relational words; the development of play and the use of play as a form of cognitive assessment in young children; the impact of bilingual education on cognitive and social development.

 

Research Supervision

I have directly supervised numerous undergraduate and graduate research assistants and graduate students completing independent projects, Master’s theses, Ed.S. projects, and dissertations. Listed below are the M.A. and Ph.D. committees that I have chaired.

• Ruby Gul: Thesis title:  Peer versus adult models: Infants immediate and deferred imitation of familiar and novel events.

• Becca Starr: Thesis title: Temporal integration in 17- and 20-month-old infants as assessed by elicited imitation.

• Isabelle Cherney: Thesis title: Incidental memory for spatial information in young children as a function of age and gender.

• Marnie Arkenburg: Thesis title: Variability in word learning: Phonological sensitivity and phonological memory.  

• Isabelle Cherney: Dissertation  title: Gender-linked differences in the development of incidental and intentional memory for static and dynamic stimuli.

• Jason Reimer: Dissertation title: Developmental and individual differences in the influence of contextual information on visual word recognition.

• Yee Lee Shing: Senior thesis title: Academic Orientation and Visual-Spatial Representation as a Problem-Solving Tool

• Jill Ramet: Thesis title: Fears and the Presence of Imaginary Companions and Personified Objects in Preschool Children.

• Melanie Felton: Dissertation title: Sibling Language: Conversational Interactions in Dyadic and Triadic Family Groupings

 

Publications

Kelly-Vance, L., Nero, C., Casas, J. F., Ryan, C. S., Ryalls, B. O., Kurien, S. A., & Ferguson, A. (in press). Parental involvement in education: A comparison of English and Spanish speaking parents. The New Mexico Review.

Casas, J. F., Ryan, C. S., Kelly-Vance, L., Ryalls, B. O., Ferguson, A., & Nero, C. (2005). Examining the impact of parental involvement in a dual language program: Implications for children and schools. OLLAS Special Report No. 2. Omaha, NE: Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Kelly-Vance, L., & Ryalls, B. O. (2005). A Systematic, Reliable Approach to Play Assessment in Preschoolers.  School Psychology International, 26, 398-412.

Cherney, I. C., Kelly-Vance, L., Gill, K., Ruane, A., & Ryalls, B. O. (2003). The effects of stereotyped toys and gender on play-based assessment in children aged 18-47 months. Educational Psychology, 22(5), 95-106.

Kelly-Vance, L., Ryalls, B. O., & Glover, K. (2002). The use of play assessment to evaluate the cognitive skills of two- and three-year-old children.  School Psychology International, 23(2), 169-185.

Ryalls, B. O. (2000). Dimensional adjectives: Factors affecting the ability to compare objects using real and novel words. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 76, pp. 26-49.

Ryalls, B. O., & Smith, L. B. (2000). Adults’ acquisition of novel dimension words: Creating a semantic congruity effect. Journal of General Psychology, 127, pp. 279-326.

Ryalls, B. O., Gul, R. E., & Ryalls, K. R. (2000). Infant imitation of peer and adult models: Evidence for a peer model advantage. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 46, 188-202.

Kelly-Vance, L., Needelman, H., Troia, K., & Ryalls, B. O. (1999). Early  childhood assessment: A comparison of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and play-based assessment in two-year-old at-risk children. Developmental Disabilities Bulletin, 27, 1-15.

Cherney, I. D., & Ryalls, B. O. (1999). Gender-linked differences in the incidental memory of children and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 72, 305-328.

Ryalls, B. O., Winslow, E., & Smith, L. B. (1998). A semantic congruity effect in children’s acquisition of high and low. Journal of Memory and Language, 39, 543-556.

Ryalls, B. O., & Pisoni, D.B. (1997). The developmental course of talker normalization in pre-school children. Developmental Psychology, 33, 441-452.

 

Recent Conference Presentations

Ryalls, B. O., Nero, C., & Ferguson, A. (2006). Parents’ Reasons For and Against Enrolling Children in Dual Language Education. Presentation to be presented at the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) Annual Meeting, Pheonix, AZ.

Kelly-Vance, L., Ryalls, B. O.(2006). Presentation to be presented at the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) Annual Meeting, Pheonix, AZ.

Ryalls, B. O., Kucera, M., Esquivel, S., Johannesen, S., & Evans, D. (2005). Maternal Usage of Big and Little in Spontaneous Conversation: Implications for the Acquisition of Dimensional Adjectives. Poster to be presented at the 2005 SRCD Biennnial Meeting, Atlanta, GA.

Casas, J., Ryalls, B. O., Ryan, C.S., Kelly-Vance, L., & Nero, C.L. (2005). Parental Involvement, Perceptions of Success, and Acculturation In Dual Language Programs. Poster to be presented at the 2005 SRCD Biennnial Meeting, Atlanta, GA.

Kelly-Vance, L.,  Nero, C. Wells, J., Kurien, S., Ryan, C., Ryalls, B.O., & Casas, J. (2005). Parental involvement and perceptions of success in dual-language programs. Poster to be presented at the Annual meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists, Atlanta, GA.

Nero, C., Kelly-Vance, L., Kurien, S., Wells, J., Ryan, C., Casas, J., & Ryalls, B.O. (2005). Context-based collaborative research: Linking university and practitioner resources to provide better outcomes for children. Paper to be presented at the Annual meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists, Atlanta, GA.

Cherney, I.  D.,  & Ryalls, B. O. (2001). Gender-linked differences in the development of incidental and intentional memory for static and dynamic stimuli. Poster presented at the second meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Virginia Beach ,  VA.

Gill-Glover, K. G., McCaslin, L., Kelly-Vance, L., & Ryalls, B. O. (2001). A comparison of play based assessment and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-Second Edition with Spanish and English speaking children. Poster presented  at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists

Ryalls, B. O., Gill, K., Ruane, A., Cherney, I., Schoneboom, N., Cunningham, J., & Ryan, C. (2000). Conducting valid and reliable play-based assessments. Poster presented  at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists, New Orleans, LA.

Kelly-Vance, L., Gill, K., Schoneboom, N., Cherney, I., Ryan, C., Cunningham, J., & Ryalls, B. O. (2000). Coding play-based assessment: Issues, challenges, and recommendations. Poster presented  at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists, New Orleans, LA.

 

Professional Societies

Society for Research in Child Development

Cognitive Development Society

National Association for Bilingual Education

 

Funded Projects, Honors, and Awards

• OLLAS Grant (with Juan Casas, Lisa Kelly-Vance, Collette Nero, & Carey Ryan), $2,500.00, "Parent Involvement Among Students in Dual Language Programs", University of Nebraska Omaha, 2004.

• University Committee on Research Grant-in-Aid and Summer Fellowship (with Lisa Kelly-Vance, Ph.D.), $6,000.00, “The Use of Play-Based Assessment to Evaluate the Developing Skills of Exceptional Children”, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1999.

• Travel Fellowship ($600.00), 29th Annual Carnegie Symposium on Cognition, 1998, Pittsburgh, PA.

• University Committee on Research Grant-in-Aid (with Lisa Kelly-Vance, Ph.D.), $2,250.00, “Play-Based Assessment: Empirical Validation in 18-48 Month Old Children”, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1998.

• University Committee on Research Grant-in-Aid and Summer Fellowship,$7,350.00,  “Creating a Semantic Congruity Effect”, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1997.

• PHS National Research Service Award Predoctoral Fellowship #MH10403-01, $23,600.00 The Semantic Congruity Effect in Children and Adults 9/92-8/94.

• Griffin Award, 73rd annual meeting of the Kentucky Academy of Science, 1988.