Rachel L. Jobe
University of Houston
Department of Psychology
126 Heyne Building
Houston, TX 77204-5022
Work Phone: (713) 743-8500 / Cell Phone: (434) 942-9441
Email: rljobe2@uh.edu / Email: rachellynnjobe@gmail.com
Education
May 2016 (anticipated)
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX
Dissertation:
Advisor: Hanako Yoshida, Ph.D.
August 2013
Master of Science in Psychology, Lehigh Universtiy, Bethlehem,
PA
Thesis: Bilingual Lexical Interactions: Inevitable or Malleable?
Advisor: Barbara C. Malt, Ph.D.
May 2010
Bachelor of Science in Psychology and English, University of Mary
Washington, Fredericksburg, VA
Magna Cum Laude
Publication
Malt, B.C., Jobe, R.L., Pavlenko, A., & Li, P. (Submitted for publication). What constrains
simultaneous mastery of first and second language word use? International Journal of
Bilingualism, X (XX).
Conference Presentations
Jobe, R.L., Malt, B.C. Li, P., Ameel, E., & Pavlenko, A. (2013, November). Bilingual lexical
interactions: Inevitable or malleable? Poster presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the
Psychonomic Society, Toronto, Canada.
Jobe, R.L., Meredith, L., & Smith, M. (2009, April). Political opinions and parenting styles. Poster
presented at the annual Psi Chi Symposium at the Universtiy of Mary Washington,
Fredericksburg, VA.
Caramillo, E., Jobe, R.L., Magnoli, K., & Myers, M. (2010, April). Tasting the dictionary: A study
of lexial-gustatory synesthesia. Poster presented at the annual Psi Chi Symposium at the
University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA.
Dofflemyer, A., Jobe, R. L., Kelley, S., Messinger, C., & Paulson, G. (2010, April). Tell me about
your first period: A mixed methods study of women's menarche experiences. Paper presented
at the annual Psi Chi Symposium at the University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA.
Dofflemyer, A., Jobe, R. L., Kelley, S., Messinger, C., & Paulson, G. (2010, April). Tell me about
your first period: A mixed methods study of women's menarche experiences. Paper presented
at the student research day as part of the annual meeting of the Virginia Psychological
Association, Norfolk, VA.
Employment
January 2015-May 2015
Teaching assistant for Professor Amelia Coffman, Introduction to
Personality Psychology: graded exams and assignments; met with
students regarding questions on material, scheduling, etc.; Houston, TX
January 2015-May 2015
Teaching assistant for Professor Chad Brandt, Introduction to
Psychology (two sections): graded exams and assignments; met with
students regarding questions on material, scheduling, etc.; Houston, TX
August 2014-December 2014
Teaching assistant for Professor Evelina Tapia, Introduction to
Cogntive Psychology (Online): graded exams and assignments; met
with students regarding questions on materail; helped resolve student
difficulties in using the technology relevant to the course; Houston, TX
May 2014-August 2014
Research assistant for Professor Hanako Yoshida: collected
experimental data, input data, data analysis, performed other duties as
asked; Houston, TX
January 2014-May 2014
Teaching assistant for Professor Duc N. Tran, Introduction to Statistics
(Online): graded exams and assignments; helped resolve student
difficulties in using the technology relevant to the course; Houston, TX
August 2013-December 2013
Teaching assistant for Professor Richard Kasschau, Introduction to
Psychology: graded exams and assignments; met with students
regarding questions on material, scheduling, etc.; Houston, TX
June 2012-July 2013
Reasearch assistant for Professor Barbara Malt: collected experimental
data; input data; data analysis; performed other duties as asked;
Bethlehem, PA
January 2012-June 2012
Teaching assistant for Professor Kiri Lee, Introduction to Linguistics:
graded exams and assignments; met with students regarding questions
on material, scheduling, etc.; Bethlehem, PA
January 2012-June 2012
Teaching assistant for Professor Aladdin Yaqub, Introduction to
Cognitive Science: graded exams and assignments; met with students
regarding questions on material, scheduling, etc.; Bethlehem, PA
August 2011-December 2011
Teaching assistant for Professor Jessecae Marsh, Introduction to
Cogntive Psychology: graded exams and assignments; met with
students regarding questions on material, scheduling, etc.; Bethlehem,
PA
August 2010-August 2011
Level II Teacher, New England Center for Children: taught children in
a residential school for students with autism; provided daily care and
social, academic, and behavioral instruction; served as case manager
for one student; Southborough, MA
January 2009-July 2010
In-home applied behavioral analysis therapist: conducted therapy
sessions with a seven-year-old child with autism; recorded data and
observations obtained during therapy to monitor the child's progress;
helped implement changes to improve the child's life skills; Stafford,
VA
January 2010-May 2010
Computer lab aide, University of Mary Washington: enforced computer
lab code of conduct for students; updated and maintained computer
software and supplies as needed; provided basic Microsoft Office
troubleshooting assistance for other students; Fredericksburg, VA
Research Experience
2013-Present
Graduate research project
The Role of Statistical Learning in a Bilingual Context
One way in which children learn word boundaries in the language they
hear around them is thought to be statistical learning: tracking the
probabilities of particular sounds occurring together. To date, all infant
studies of this skill have been conducted using only a single language at
a time. This study exposes infants to two artificial languages, with
some overlap between the languages, to determine if bilingual-learning
infants are likely to use these statistical learning skills in the same way
that monolingual-learning infants do. Additionally, the generalizability
of this skill is tested across different contexts.
2013-Present
Graduate research project
Cross-Situational Word Learning
Although laborary word learning paradigms often present words in
isolation and with only a single possible referent, learning in the real
world is often much more ambiguous. Prior evidence suggests that both
infants and adults are capable of using statistical information gained
from mulitple ambiguous word-referent pairings to determine the
intended referent of a given word. This project explores the ability of
young children to do the same, looking particularly at the differences
between monolingual and bilingual children and at properties of the
referents that may affect success on this task (i.e, whether all referents
of a given word presented during training are identical or whether
slight variation is allowed).
2012-2013
Master's Thesis
Title: Bilingual Lexical Interactions: Inevitable or Malleable?
Cross-linguistically, many words, even concrete nouns, do not
have direct one-to-one translations. Real world bilingual speakers have
been found to show transfer from each of their languages to the other.
This project investigates the question of whether or not this transfer can
be eliminated under certain learning conditions or if those interactions
are inevitable due to unavoidable cross-connections in a bilingual
speaker s lexical networks.
2011-2012
First Year Project
Title: Bilingual Lexical Interactions: Inevitable or Malleable?
This project was the first step in investigating the question also posed
in the Master's thesis (above) and provided preliminary evidence that
the lexical interactions found in real-world bilingual speakers may be
avoidable under highly constrained learning conditions. The goal of the
Master's thesis was to expand the results in conditions that ensure that
participants were engaged in typical langauge-learning processes, as
that may not have occurred in this project.
2010
Undergraduate research project
Tasting the Dictionary: A Case Study of Lexical-Gustatory
Synesthesia
A participant who claimed to experience strong gustatory associations
with spoken, heard, or read words was compared to a control
participant who reported no synesthetic experiences. The synesthetic
participant was asked to report what she tasted upon presentation of
identical words lists at two times a week apart. The control participant
was asked to make up a taste association to those same words and then
recall them a week later. EEG recordings from both participants were
also recorded while viewing words for which the synesthetic particpant
noted particularly vivid tastes. The synesthetic participant was much
more consistent with the tastes she reported to each word than the
control participant. There were no differences between the two
participants' EEG outputs.
Faculty Supervisor: Jennifer Mailloux, Ph.D.
2009-2010
Undergraduate research project
Tell Me About Your First Period: A Mixed Methods Study of
Young Women's Menarche Experiences
Young women aged 18-25 years were asked to describe the
circumstances of their first menstrual period. Upon completing the
narrative, women were also asked several multiple-choice questions
and to provide their mothers' email addresses. The same survey was
sent to the email addresses provided and mothers were asked to also
provide narrative accounts and answer the questions regarding their
daughter's menarche experience. Both quantitative and qualitative
statistical methods were used to analyze the data. The primary finding
was that young women who were well-prepared for the event were
more likely to report positive associations with menarche.
Faculty Supervisor: Virginia H. Mackintosh, Ph.D.
Honors and Awards
April 2010
Inducted into Lambda Iota Tau National Literature Honor Society
October 2009
Awarded the Emily Cella Scholarship for Students in the Social
Sciences
October 2009
Inducted into Psi Chi
March 2009
Inducted into Alpha Phi Sigma Academic Honor Society
Professional Memberships
Viriginia Psychological Association, student member
Women in Cogntive Science
Service
August 2012-May 2013
Psychology department representative to the Graduate Student Senate,
Lehigh University