Erica Kleinknecht

Professor
eko@pacificu.edu
503-352-1542
UC Box 
A165
Carnegie Hall 303 (Forest Grove)
Areas I Teach 
Psychology
Professor Erica Kleinknecht is a cognitive-developmental psychologist. Dr. Kleinknecht’s early research work emphasized questions about basic processes, for example: (i) What are the conditions that lead to memory accuracy or bias? (ii) What factors come together in early childhood to enable the emergence of episodic /autobiographical remembering? However, over the years, her interests have evolved, and now lean towards application to educational contexts. With teaching as the primary activity for faculty at Pacific though, much of her professional energy goes towards developing and fine-tuning high-impact courses that focus on Cognition, Development, and Educational Applications. As well, Dr. Kleinknecht rotates with her colleagues in teaching Introduction to Psychology and Senior Capstone / Advanced Topics in Cognition. Time permitting, Dr. Kleinknecht additionally engages undergraduate students in research, both basic (e.g., Memory in Context) and applied (e.g., educational program evaluation and usability testing of educational curricular materials).

Education

Post-doctoral research fellowship, Institute of Child Development from 2000-2002
PhD in experimental psychology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark. in 2000
Master of science in general psychology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Wash., in 1997
Bachelor of arts in psychology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Wash., in 1995

Current Research Interests

As noted above, with a background in applied cognition and cognitive development, Dr. Kleinknecht's research interests span from assessing “remembering in social contexts” to embodied cognition perspectives in cognitive development, to the evaluation and assessment of educational practices. As of this writing (May, 2019), she is working at varying levels of intensity on the following projects:

1. Embodied Cognition Project
  • This program of experimental research examines how embodied concepts like “approach v. avoid” or “ambient body temperature”, or “mindfulness practices” influence remembering (e.g., memory accuracy via DRM; memory phenomenology and quality via autobiographical recollection).
2. Project OWL: Optimizing learning outcomes With social emotional Learning
  • A book and companion curriculum for later elementary teachers
  • Curriculum centers on infusing social emotional learning concepts into the school day, across a 3-year span (3rd – 5th grade).
3. Enhancement of Learning Skill Sets (e.g., metacognitive self-regulation, self-efficacy, autonomous motivation) in after school programs.
  • Pixel Arts Game Education. Dr. Kleinknecht works in partnership with a local non-profit organization called Pixel Arts. Pixel Arts is a maker-based after school program, where youth learn to create playable video games. Pixel Arts’ curriculum and mentor training program has been carefully designed to enhance youth’s sense of efficacy as both makers and as learners. Ongoing program evaluations show that participating youth experience significant growth in their self-efficacy for learning and in their metacognitive self-regulation in learning contexts.
  • Looking ahead to future projects, Dr. Kleinknecht plans ...
    • ... to continue examining how the digital landscape can act as a catalyst for healthy cognitive development in middle childhood.
    • ... to expand the framework on enhancing learning skill sets in other well-designed educational spaces like music education programs.
4. The Girl's Salon: A framework for after school programs for school-aged girls
  • A curriculum developed to help school-aged youth recognize and mitigate the effects of culturally perpetuated, systemic gender bias.
  • Two pilot programs have been run, one with school-aged girls, and another with school-aged boys.
  • Continuing work centers on fine-tuning the curricular materials and planning the companion book and/or website
5. CognitionEducation & Nurture-Science: Professional Blogging, done to heed the APA's call to "Give Psychology Away"
  • CognitionEducation is a blog site where Dr. Kleinknecht posts essays on cognitive science, learning science, parenting, culture, and issues in higher education
  • Nurture-Science is a collaborative website, where peer-reviewed articles written for the site are posted with the intent to help parents navigate the challenges of childrearing with empirically based advice.

Courses Taught

Introductory Psychology
Introductory to Cognition
Memory & Mind
Cognitive Development
Cognitive Science
Self: Fact of Fiction
Social Emotional Learning and Education
Advanced Topics in Cognition
Senior Capstone

Grants and Awards

1999 | Marie Wilson Howells' Fund, Dissertation Award
2000 | Institute of Child Development, Training Grant Fellowship Recipient, University of Minnesota
2005 | Pacific University Junior Faculty Award
2013 | President’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in recognition of outstanding, innovative teaching and dedicated student mentorship
2013 | Invited speaker for Fall convocation
2016 | PRISM summer research grant recipient: "Change in the making: Helping youth grow through game education"

Selected Manuscripts & Publications

Kleinknecht, E. (2013). Design and Assessment of a Maker-Based Game Camp for Youth. Assessment report submitted to Pixel Arts Personnel. (Note: professional report, not peer reviewed. Available for download from common knowledge: http://commons.pacificu.edu/casfac/57/)
Güler, E. O., Larkina, M., Kleinknecht, E., & Bauer, P.J. (2010). Memory strategies and picture recall in preschool children: Relations to maternal behavior over time. Journal of Cognition and Development.
Larkina, M., Guler, O.E., Kleinknecht, E., & Bauer, P.J. (2008). Maternal provision of structure in a deliberate memory task in relation to their preschool children’s recall. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 100, 235 – 251.
Kleinknecht, E., & Beike, D.R. (2004). How knowing and doing inform an autobiography: Relations among preschooler's theory of mind, narrative, and event memory skills. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 745-764.
Beike, D. R., Kleinknecht, E., & Wirth-Beaumont, E. T. (2004). Open versus closed event memories. In D.R. Beike, J.M. Lampinen, & D.A. Behrend (Eds.), The Self and Memory. Psychology Press. (Note: invited, edited book chapter)
Bauer, P.J., Burch, M., & Kleinknecht, E.E. (2002). Developments in early recall memory: The mean the variability behind it. H.W. Reese and R. Kail, (Eds.) Advances in Child Development and Behavior. Academic Press. (Note: invited, edited book chapter)
Bauer, P. J. & Kleinknecht, E.E. (2002). To “ape” or to emulate? Young children's use of both strategies in a single study (Invited commentary to Want & Harris). Developmental Science, 5, 18-20.
Behrend, D., Scofield, J. M., & Kleinknecht, E. E., (2001). Beyond fast mapping: Young children’s extensions of novel labels and novel facts. Developmental Psychology, 37, 698-705.

Select Conference Presentations

Kleinknecht, E., Blumberg, F., Flynn, R., Ricker, A. & Calvert, S. (2019, March). The Digital Landscape as a Seldom Explored Context for Examining Cognitive Development during Middle Childhood. Roundtable Discussion Hour held at the biennial meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD.

Kleinknecht, E. (2018, April). Change in the making: Self-efficacy improvements in a game-education after school, program. Presentation delivered at the American Psychological Association Technology, Mind, & Society conference. Washington DC.

Kleinknecht, E. (2017, October). Making Games for Change: Growth in metacognitive self-regulation via game education. Poster presented at the Digital Media and Cognitive Development Pre-Conference for the biennial meetings of the Cognitive Development Society, Portland, OR.

Kleinknecht, E., Boulanger, T., & Norradin, M. (2017, April). Here comes the sun: Autobiographical Memory Frame as a Function of Ambient Temperature. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Sacramento, CA.

Kleinknecht, E., Chambers, C., & Kochendorfer, J. (2017, April). Let it Go, or Here Comes the Sun? Autobiographical Memory Frame as a Function of Metaphorical Temperature. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Sacramento, CA.

Kleinknecht, E., Koch, J., & Noochan, J. (2016, April). Warm Hearts and Cold Shoulders: Body Temperature Shapes Autobiographical Remembering. Poster to be presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Long Beach, CA.

Kleinknecht, E., Gilmore, T., & VanderZanden, A. (2016, May). Change In The Making: Helping Youth Grow Through Game Education. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Long Beach, CA.

VanderZanden, A. & Kleinknecht, E. (2016, May). Making Change: Does Game Education Improve Youths' Learning Skill Sets? Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Long Beach, CA.

Kleinknecht, E & Justice, K. (2015, April). Assessment of a Program for Improving Academic and Personal Growth. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV.

Kleinknecht, E., Arbogast, S., & Carrillo, E. (2015, April). I feel you! Effects of Temperature on Social-Cognitive Judgments. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV.

Kleinknecht, E., Gilmore, T., VanderZanden, A. (2015, April). Promoting Social Change Through Game Education: A Program Evaluation. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV.

Kleinknecht, E. (2013, May). The Psychology of Studying: Using Concepts to Teach Them. Poster presented at the Teaching Institute session for the 26th Annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA.

Kleinknecht, E. (2013, May). Promoting Social Change Through Game Education: Assessment of a STEAM-inspired, Maker-based Camp. Poster presented at the 26th Annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA.

Kleinknecht, E., Bergeson, D. & Valheurdi, C. (2013, April). “The Perspective Taking Booster Program” for SchoolAged Children: An Evaluation. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Reno, NV.

Kleinknecht, E. & O’Shea, W.A. (2011, April). Assessing Efficacy, Self-Regulation and Metacognition to Predict Achievement and Boost Retention. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Los Angeles CA.

Kleinknecht, E., King, J., Nguyen, N., & Rounds, E. (2011, April). Memory in Motion: Accuracy as a Function of Approach/Avoid Behavior. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Los Angeles CA.

Kleinknecht, E. & Bulloch, M. (2011, April). Importance of “Tummy to Play” for Promoting Optimal Cognitive Development. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Los Angeles CA.