David W. Evans
Psychology Department
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Contact Information |
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Chair, Program in Neuroscience (on sabbatical 2008-2009)
For information about the Neuroscience program and major, please visit our website: http://www.bucknell.edu/neuroscience
Degrees
Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University, 1993-1995
Ph.D., Boston University, 1994
Research Interests
I am a developmental psychopathologist who examines the continuities and discontinuities between normative and atypical development. Specifically, my work explores the development and psychopathology of rituals, habits, compulsions and other repetitive behaviors. I draw from models of normative development (such as those of Jean Piaget, Heinz Werner and emerging models from cognitive neuroscience) in order to help understand the nature of a broad range of compulsive-spectrum behaviors in disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism. My research also examines the development of cognitive and neuropsychological functions (executive functions such as set-shifting, response inhibition) that may relate to maturation of certain brain regions -- especially the prefrontal cortices. In our lab, which includes a great team of undergraduate and graduate students in psychology, biology, and our new program in neuroscience, we are currently working to understand whether the same cognitive and neurobiological functions and structures that underlie compulsive-spectrum disorders also play a role in the development of normative rituals and habits. In this work we examine Event-Related Potential (ERP) as a correlate of compulsive behaviors in children.
Classes Taught
Introduction to Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Developmental Psychopathology, and lab courses in Abnormal and Developmental Psychology.
Selected Publications
Evans, D.W. & Maliken, A. (2011). Cortical activity and children's rituals, habits and other repetitive behavior. Behavioural Brain Research 224, 174- 179. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2011.05.025
Judge, P.G., Evans, D.W. Schroepfer, K.K. & Gross, A.C. (2011). Reversal-learning perseveration correlates to repetitive behavior in nonhuman primates. Behavioural Brain Research, 222, 54-61.
Evans, D.W., Hersperger, C., & Capaldi, P. (2011). Thought-action fusion in children: Measurement, development and association with anxiety, rituals and other compulsive-like behaviors. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 42 12-23.
Pietrefesa, A., & Evans, D.W. (2007). Affective and neuropsychological correlates of children’s compulsive-like behaviors: continuities and discontinuities with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Brain & Cognition, 65, 36-46.
Evans, D.W., & Leckman, J.F. (2006). Origins of obsessive-compulsive disorder: Developmental and evolutionary perspectives. In D.Cicchetti & D.Cohen (Eds) The Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology.(2nd edition) NY: Wiley.
Greaves, N., Prince, E., Evans, D.W. & Charman, T. (2006). Repetitive and ritualistic behavior in children with Prader-Willi syndrome and children with autism. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities Reserarch.
Evans, D.W., Canavera, K., Klinepeter, F.L., Taga, K., & Maccubbin, E. (2005). The fears, phobias and anxieties of children with autism spectrum disorders and Down syndrome: Comparisons with developmentally and chronologically age matched children. Child Psychiatry and Human Development.
Evans, D.W., Lewis, M., & Iobst, E. (2004). The role of the Orbitofrontal cortex in normally developing compulsive behaviors and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Brain and Cognition, 55, 220-234.
Evans, D.W., Milanak, M, Medeiros, B., Ross, J. (2002). Magical beliefs and rituals in young children. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 33, 43-58.
Evans, D.W., Elliott, J.M., & Packard, M.G. (2001). Visual organization and perceptual closure are related to compulsive-like behavior in typically developing children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 47, 323-335.
Evans, D.W., Noam, G.G., & Brody, L. (2001). Ego development and self-complexity in a sample of female psychiatric inpatients. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 71, 79-86.
Burack, J.A., Evans, D.W., Klaiman, C., & Iarocci, G. (2001). The mysterious myth of attention deficits in mental retardation and other defect stories: Contemporary issues in the developmental approach to mental retardation. International Review of Mental Retardation Research, 24, 299-320.
Evans, D.W. (2000) (Guest Editor). Heinz Werner and his relevance for research and theory in the 21st century. Special Issue, Journal of Adult Development, 7(1), 5-6.
Leckman, J.F., Mayes, L.C., Feldman, R., Evans, D.W., King, R.A., & Cohen, D.J. (1999). Early parental preoccupations and behaviors and their possible relationship to the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 100, (Supplementum 396) 1-26.
Evans, D.W. & Gray, F.L. (2000). Compulsive-like behavior in individuals with Down syndrome: Its relation to MA level, adaptive and maladaptive behavior. Child Development, 71, 288-300.
Evans, D.W. (2000). Rituals and other syncretic tools: Insights from Werner's comparative psychology, Journal of Adult Development, 7, 49-61.
Evans, D.W., Gray, F.L. & Leckman, J.F. (1999). Rituals, fears and phobias in young children: Insights from development, psychopathology and neurobiology. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 29, 261-276.
Schultz, R.T., Evans, D.W., & Wolff, M. (1999). Neuropsychological models of childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder. The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 8, 513-531.
Evans, D.W., Leckman, J.F., Reznick, J.S., Carter, A., Henshaw, D., King, R., & Pauls, D. (1997). Ritual, habit and perfectionism: The prevalence and development of compulsive-like behavior in normal young children. Child Development, 68, 58-68.
Reprinted in M. Hertzig & E. Farber (Eds.) (1998). Annual Progress in Child Psychiatry and Child Development: Selection of the year's outstanding contributions to the understanding and treatment of the normal and disturbed child, Philadelphia: Bruner/Mazel.
Evans, D.W., King, R., & Leckman, J.F. (1996). Tic disorders. In E. Mash & R.Barkley (Eds), Childhood psychopathology. NY: Guilford Press.
