Associate Professor
Academic Degrees
Hilary E. Stebbins, Associate Professor of Psychological Science, earned her B.S. (2001) in psychology from Mary Washington College and her Ph.D. (2007) from Brown University in experimental psychology with a focus in cognitive neuroscience. Her dissertation work focused on dissociating explicit and implicit memory and category learning systems in aging populations as well as patients with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. Since that time she has published and presented work on attentional mechanisms aiding emotional face processing. Her current research interests focus on the cognitive effects of sleep deprivation, especially those related to individual differences in dopamine function.
Dr. Stebbins is a member of several professional organizations, including the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for Neuroscience, and the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. Furthermore, she is an active member of the UMW chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and served as President of the Kappa of Virginia Chapter in 2016.
In addition to her work with independent research students, Dr. Stebbins typically teaches classes related to biological psychology including Psychopharmacology, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Biological Psychology. She also teaches research and process classes such as Research Methods in Psychology, Research Seminar in Biological Psychology, and a Freshman Seminar on the Science of Sleep.