Carr, Valerie
Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Psychology
Advisor, minor in Applied Computing for Behavioral and Social Sciences
PI, Carr Lab Investigating Memory and the Brain (CLIMB)
Telephone
408-924-5630
Office hours
Fall 2024:
DMH 318, Tu/Th 1:30-2:30pm
Courses
Fall 2024:
ENGR 120: Programming Concepts for Social Sciences
Education
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychology, Stanford
- Doctor of Philosophy, Neuroscience, UCLA, 2008
- Bachelor of Science, Biological Psychology, The College of William & Mary, 2001
Bio
Dr Valerie Carr earned her PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA and afterwards completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. She is currently an Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Faculty Success in the SJSU Department of Psychology, where she leverages her knowledge of cognitive neuroscience to understand factors that influence the content, quality, and durability of memories across the lifespan.
Students in her lab conduct research investigating whether and how factors such as aerobic fitness, mobile device use, and wakeful rest affect long-term memory and executive function. Additionally, Dr Carr maintains strong collaborative relationships with researchers at Stanford University and members of the Hippocampal Subfields Group regarding the structure and function of medial temporal lobe subfields. Finally, given Dr Carr’s passion for teaching social science students how to program (see: Applied Computing for Behavioral and Social Sciences and Applied Programming Experiences), she is involved in pedagogical research regarding interdisciplinary computing and is an advisor for the minor.
Recent Publications and Conference Proceedings
(See CLIMB website for a full list and links to papers)
Carr, V. A., Avena, J., Smith, M. C., Lee, W., Schuster, D., & Wei, B. (2024). Work in Progress: Community college student experiences with interdisciplinary computing modules in introductory biology and statistics courses. In 2024 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings.
Carr, V. A., Avena, J., Schuster, D., Lee, W., & Wei, B. (2023). Work in Progress: Applied Programming Experiences (APEX) for community college students. In 2023 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings.
Smith, M. C., Carr, V. A., & Wei, B. W. (2022). Faculty perspectives on developing interdisciplinary computing programs: Benefits, necessary supports, and recommendations. In 2022 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings.
Carr, V. A., Smith, M. C., Wei, B. W., & Jones, M. E. (2021). Learning experiences of social science students in an interdisciplinary computing minor. In 2021 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings.
Trelle, A. N., Carr, V. A., Wilson, E. N., Swarovksi, M. S., Hunt, M. P., Toueg, T. N., ... Mormino, E. C. (2021). Association of CSF biomarkers with hippocampal-dependent memory in preclinical Alzheimer's disease. Neurology.
Wisse, L. E. M., Chetelat, D., Daugherty, A. M., de Flores, R., la Joie, R., Mueller, S. G., Shinohara, R. T., Stark, C. E. L., Wang, L., Yushkevich, P. A., Olsen, R. K., & Carr, V. A. (2020). Best practices for hippocampal subfields research using structural MRI. Human Brain Mapping.
Carr, V. A., Wei, B. W., & Jones, M. E. (2020). A Technology Pathway Program in data technology and applications. In 2020 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings.
Trelle, A. N., Carr, V. A., Guerin, S., Thieu, M. K., Jayakumar, M., Guo, J., … Wagner, A. D. (2020). Hippocampal and cortical mechanisms at retrieval explain variability in episodic remembering in older adults. eLife.
Carr, V. A., Wei, B. W., & Jones, M. E. (2020). Interdisciplinary Computing: Applied Computing for Behavioral and Social Sciences Minor. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science.
Olsen, Carr, V. A., Daugherty, A. M., la Joie, R., … Wisse, L. E. M., for the Hippocampal Subfields Group (2019). Progress update from the hippocampal subfields group. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment, & Disease Monitoring, 11, 439-449.
Marbouti, F., Carr, V. A., Wei, B. W., Jones, M. E., & Strage, A. (2018). Applied Computing for Behavioral and Social Sciences (ACBSS) Minor. In 2018 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition.
Carr, V.A., Bernstein, J. D., Favila, S. E., Wagner, A. D. & Kerchner, G. A. (2017). Individual differences in associative memory among older adults explained by hippocampal subfield structure and function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114, 12075-12080.
Wisse, L. E. M., Daugherty, A. M., Olsen, R. K., Berron, D., Carr, V. A., …, la Joie, R., for the Hippocampal Subfields Group (2017). A harmonized segmentation protocol for hippocampal and parahippocampal subregions: Why do we need one and what are the key goals? Hippocampus, 27, 3-11.
Brown, T. I., Carr, V. A., LaRocque, K. F., Favila, S. E., Gordon, A. M., Bowles, B., & Wagner, A. D. (2016). Prospective representation of navigational goals in the human hippocampus. Science, 352, 1323-1326.
Yushkevich, P. A., Amaral, R. S. C., Augustinack, J. C., Bender, A. R., Bernstein, J. D., Boccardi, M., Bocchetta, M., Burggren, A. C., Carr, V. A., ... Zeineh, M. M. (2015). Quantitative comparison of 21 protocols for labeling hippocampal subfields and parahippocampal cortical subregions in in vivo MRI: Initial steps towards a harmonized segmentation protocol. Neuroimage, 11, 526-541.
Carr, V. A., Castel, A.D., & Knowlton, B. J. (2015). Age-related differences in subsequent memory performance after attending to distinctiveness or similarity during learning. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 22, 155-169.