Faculty & Staff

ELSA ERMER

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

I A P S, DERNER INSTITUTE

BLODGETT HALL
ROOM 212B

p - 516-877-4824

f - 516-877-4805

e - EERMER@ADELPHI.EDU

w - http://sites.google.com/site/els aermer/home

Show Disclaimer

Links provided to external websites, including personal faculty sites, do not imply an endorsement by Adelphi University of those sites, their content, or associated products and services.

Hide Disclaimer
 

Back to Faculty Listings


Print the Profile

Diplomas/Degrees

PhD, University of California Santa Barbara (2007)
MA, University of California Santa Barbara (2002)
BA, Franklin & Marshall College (2000)

Recent Courses

Neuropsychology
Psychological Research
Psychological Research Lab

Research Interests

My research examines human reasoning, judgment, and decision-making mechanisms hypothesized to be specialized for the social world, using methods from experimental psychology, experimental economics, and cognitive neuroscience. My research focuses on the design features of information-processing mechanisms for social cognition, their biological and neural basis, and the extent are these mechanisms impaired or preserved in clinical and forensic populations (e.g., psychopathy, schizophrenia, autism). A thread running through my research is the comparison of normative theories drawn from probability, logic, and economics versus models of computational design based on evolutionary biology and principles of ecological rationality.

Grants/Sponsored Research

Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Institute of Mental Health, 2010-2012.
DOE Mind Research Network Internal Award grant, 2010-2011.
Humanities/Social Sciences research grant, Graduate Division, UCSB, 2005-2006.
UCSB/Dartmouth Brain Imaging Program research grant, 2002-2004.

Book Chapters

Ermer, E., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (2007). Functional specialization and the adaptationist program. In S. W. Gangestad & J. A. Simpson (Eds.). The Evolution of Mind: Fundamental Questions and Controversies. (pp. 153-159). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Ermer, E., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (2007). Cheater detection mechanism. In R. F. Baumiester & K. D. Vohs (Eds.). Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. (pp. 138-140). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.


Refereed Articles

Showing first 5 of 9.
View All


Ermer, E., Cope, L.M., Nyalakanti, P. K., Calhoun, V.D., & Kiehl, K. A. (2013), Aberrant paralimbic gray matter in incarcerated male adolescents with psychopathic traits. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 52, 94-103.

Kornreich, C., Brevers, D., Canivet, D., Ermer, E., Naranjo, C., Constant, E., Verbanck, P., Campanella, S., & Noel, X. (2012), Impaired processing of emotion in music, faces, and voices supports a generalized emotional decoding deficit in alcoholism. Addiction, in press.

Kornreich, C., Delle-Vigne, D., Campanella, S., Noel, X., Papgeorgiou, C., Brown, O., Verbanck, P., & Ermer, E. (2012), Conditional reasoning difficulties in polysubstance dependence patients. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 26, 665-671.

Ermer, E., Cope, L. M., Nyakalanti, P. K., Calhoun, V. D., & Kiehl, K. A. (2012), Aberrant paralimbic gray matter in criminal psychopathy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121, 649-658.

Ermer, E., Kahn, R. E., Salovey, P., & Kiehl, K. A. (2012), Emotional intelligence in incarcerated men with psychopathic traits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103, 194-204.

Kornreich, C., Delle-Vigne, D., Knittel, J., Nerincx, A., Campanella, S., Noel, X., Verbanck, P., & Ermer, E. (2011), Impaired conditional reasoning in alcoholics: a negative impact on social interactions and risk-prone behaviors? Addiction, 106, 951-959.

Ermer, E., & Kiehl, K. A. (2010), Psychopaths are impaired in social exchange and precautionary reasoning. Psychological Science, 21, 1399-1405.

Ermer, E., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (2008), Relative status regulates risky decision-making about resources in men: Evidence for the co-evolution of motivation and cognition. Evolution & Human Behavior, 29, 106-118.

Ermer, E., Guerin, S. A., Cosmides, L., Tooby, J., & Miller, M. B. (2006), Theory of mind broad and narrow: Reasoning about social exchange engages TOM areas, precautionary reasoning does not. Social Neuroscience, 1, 196-219.


Invited Presentation/Lecture

Ermer, E (2008, February). Coalitional support and the regulation of welfare tradeoff ratios. Evolutionary Psychology Pre-conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Albuquerque, NM.


Conference Presentations/Papers

Showing first 5 of 16.
View All


Ermer, E., & Kiehl, K.A. (2012). Cognitive and neural deficits in psychopathy. In Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference. Albuquerque, NM.

Ermer, E. (2011). Social decision-making: tradeoffs and reciprocity in psychopathy. In Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference. Montpellier, France.

Ermer, E., Greene, J. D., & Kiehl, K. A. (2011). Utilitarian moral judgments in incarcerated psychopaths. In Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy Conference. Montreal, Canada.

Ermer, E., & Kiehl, K. A. (2010). Social reasoning in psychopathy. In Social and Affective Neuroscience Society. Chicago, IL.

Ermer, E., Kahn, R. E., & Kiehl, K. A. (2010). Are psychopaths impaired in emotional intelligence? In Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference. Eugene, OR.

Ermer, E., & Kiehl, K. A. (2009). Social reasoning in psychopathy. In Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference. Fullerton, CA.

Ermer, E. (2007). Coalitional support and resource divisions. In UCLA-UCSB joint conference series on Evolution, Mind, and Behavior. Los Angeles, CA.

Ermer, E., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (2007). Regulation of resource division by coalitional status. In Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference. Williamsburg, VA, United Arab Emirates.

Ermer, E. (2007). Reasoning about social exchange engages theory of mind. In Neural Systems of Social Behavior. Austin, TX.

Ermer, E., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (2006). Sex bias in welfare tradeoff ratios. In Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference. Philadelphia, PA.

Ermer, E., Cosmides, L., Tooby J. (2005). Social status affects men’s taste for risk. In American Psychologyical Society (now Assocition for Psychological Science). Los Angeles, CA.

Ermer, E., Cosmides, L., Tooby, J., & Miller M. (2004). Exploring the brain basis of social exchange and precautionary reasoning. In Cognitive Neuroscience Society. San Francisco, CA.

Ermer, E. (2003). Social status and the taste for risk. In Human Behavior and Evolution Society. Lincoln, NE.

Ermer, E. (2002). Losses, gains, and status in risky decision-making. In Human Behavior and Evolution Society. New Brunswick, NJ.

Ermer, E. (2001). Social status and risky decision-making. In Human Behavior and Evolution Society. London, United Kingdom.

Ermer, E. (1999). Depression, gender, and social support. In Pennsylvania Psychological Association. Philadelphia, PA.


Honors and Accomplishments

Regents’ Special Fellowship, University of California Santa Barbara, 2000-2005.
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention, 2000.
Beinecke Brothers Memorial Scholarship, 1999-2005.

Professional Activities

Committees:
Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Derner Psychology, Adelphi University.
STEP Steering Committee, Adelphi University.

Ad hoc reviewer for:
Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice
Cognition
Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology
Emotion
Evolution & Human Behavior
Evolutionary Psychology
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making
Neuropsychologia
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Oxford University Press
Social Neuroscience
The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (Incorporating Man)

Affiliations:
Association for Psychological Science.
Center for Evolutionary Psychology, University of California Santa Barbara.
Cognitive Neuroscience Society.
Human Behavior and Evolution Society.
Social and Affective Neuroscience Society.
Society for Personality and Social Psychology.