Vivian Hsu, Ph.D.

(She, Her, Hers)
Vivian Hsu
Associate Teaching Professor, Psychological and Social Sciences
Woodland, 213
Penn State Abington
1600 Woodland Road
Abington, PA 19001

Grants, Awards, Honors

  • 2023 Distinguished Faculty Service Award
  • Abington College Faculty Senate 2022
  • Affordable Course Content Faculty Fellowship (PSYCH 244), Abington College 2020
  • Faculty Grant (2 separate awards, HDFS 429 and PSYCH 473),
  • Academic Environment Committee, Abington Faculty Senate 2020
  • Teaching Enhancement Microgrant, Institutional Effectiveness & Faculty Development, Abington College 2020
  • Microgrant for General Education (Common Theme Guest Speaker), Office of General Education, Penn State University 2019
  • Affordable Course Content Faculty Fellowship (PSYCH 100), Abington College 2019
  • Microgrant for General Education (PSYCH 100 course development), Office of General Education, Penn State University 

Selected Involvement in campus and university organizations

  • Penn State Emerging Academic Leaders (PSEAL) Program (2023-2024)
  • Faculty Senate Chair-Elect (2021-2022); Chair (2022-2023); Past Chair (2023-2024)
  • Instructional Advisory Board, OAER Working Group of the University Strategic Plan Transforming Education Steering Committee, Board Member (2020-Present)
  • Abington Common Theme Co-Chair (2018-2019)
  • Academic Environment Committee Co-Chair (2016-2018)
  • Academic Environment Committee, Proposal and Awards Subcommittee Chair (2015-2018)
  • Faculty Senator, Social Sciences (2016 - 2020)
  • Faculty Advisor, Psychology Club
  • Faculty Advisor, Asian Student Association

Professional Organizations

  • American Psychological Association
  • Christian Association of Psychological Studies
  • International Society for Developmental Psychobiology
  • International Society of Infant Studies
  • Sigma Xi, Scientific Research Society
  • Society for Research in Child Development

My teaching philosophy involves incorporating effective strategies of relevancy so that students go from understanding the material to “living” it. To meet this experience, I am committed to encouraging students to engage in learning and build confidence in their abilities both in and out of the classroom environment. I am also passionate about collaboration and community involvement.

My specific research interests include infant and child development with an emphasis on learning and memory, understanding early emotional learning and its links to cognitive development, comparative biopsychology/neuroscience and Autism and ABA therapy.

Cognitive Psychology - August, 2021

Psychology: Inside and Out - August, 2021

Effortlessly strengthening infant memory: Associative potentiation of new learning - February, 2013
Collaborators: Carolyn Rovee-Collier, Co-Author; Katherine Mitchell, Student Author

Time windows in retention over the first year-and-a-half of life: Spacing effects. - June, 2010

The time window construct in early memory development - May, 2009
Collaborator: Carolyn Rovee-Collier, Co-Author

Memory reactivation in the second year of life - January, 2006
Collaborator: Carolyn Rovee-Collier, Co-Author

Effects of priming duration on retention over the first year-and-a-half of life - June, 2005
Collaborators: Carolyn Rovee-Collier, Co-Author; Debra Hill, Co-Author; Jill Grodkiewicz, Co-Author; Amy Joh, Co-Author

Professional Development Certificate, Essentials in Strategic Leadership, Penn State University

Certificate in Applied Behavioral Analysis, Psychology, Rutgers University

Ph D, Psychology, Rutgers University

BS, Psychology, Northeastern University

PSYCH 100: Introduction to Psychology
PSYCH 244: Introduction to the Psychology of Human Factors Engineering
PSYCH 256: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
PSYCH 301W: Basic Research Methods in Psychology
PSYCH 452: Learning and Memory
PSYCH 473: Behavior Modification
HDFS 229: Child Development
HDFS 239: Adolescence
HDFS 429: Advanced Child Development
PSU 1 First-Year Seminar