Todd Williams
Professor - Social Psychology
- B.A., University of Alberta, Canada
- Ph.D. (2009), University of Alberta, Canada
Office: 2313 Au Sable Hall
Phone: (616) 331-8976
Email: [email protected]
Co-Director of GVSU Social Cognition Laboratory, Social Cognition Lab
Specialization
Social Cognition
Courses Taught
PSY 101 - Introductory Psychology
PSY 300 - Research Methods in Psychology
PSY 360 - Social Psychology: Psychology's View
PSY 400 - Advanced Research in Psychology
PSY 492 - Capstone
Research Interests
My research focuses on belief change and our awareness of our own psychological processes (metacognition). Specifically, my research examines how people develop and maintain their beliefs, how accurately they recognize change over time, and the consequences of this awareness for information-seeking, learning, and decision-making. I study questions such as: When individuals encounter evidence that contradicts their prior beliefs, do they revise those beliefs, and are they aware that they have done so? Does recognizing that one’s beliefs have changed increase openness to new information, or do people instead rely on biases that reinforce existing views?
I typically employ experimental and longitudinal approaches to examining how awareness of change affects individuals’ cognition and behavior. Together, this research integrates cognitive and social psychological methods to better understand how metacognitive awareness influences learning and real-world decision-making, with applications to education, health decision-making, and how people engage with controversial or complex information in everyday life.
Recent Publications
Hart, L., Wolfe, M., Williams, T. J. & Russell, G. (2024). Belief change after reading predicts argumentative essay content. Instructional Science, TBD, doi: 10.1007/s11251-024-09663-x?
Wolfe, M. B. & Williams, T. J., Dewey, E., Mitchell, J., Pomp, A. & Wolfe, B. (2023). Awareness of health change is associated with weight loss following bariatric surgery. Health Psychology, 42(6): 403-410. doi: 10.1037/hea0001279
Monaghan, C., Bizumic, B., Williams, T., & Sellbom, M. (2020). Two-dimensional Machiavellianism: Conceptualization, theory, and measurement of the views and tactics dimensions. Psychological Assessment, 32(3), 277–293. doi: 10.1037/pas0000784
Wolfe, M. B. & Williams, T. J. (2018). Poor metacognitive awareness of belief change. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71, 1898-1910. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2017.1363792
Wolfe, M. B. & Williams, T. J. (2017). Effects of text content and beliefs on informal argument evaluation. Discourse Processes, 54, 446-462. doi: 10.1080/0163853X.2017.1319654