Ph.D.
Professor
Queens Campus
(718)990 1878
powersa@stjohns.edu
Vita
Dr. Powers received her A. B. and Ph.D. degrees from Bryn Mawr
College. She did predoctoral research at the University of
Zurich, Switzerland and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Walter
Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington DC. She was a
lecturer and research associate at Bryn Mawr College before coming
to St. John’s. She has also been a visiting faculty member at
Haverford College, Ursinus College, and the University of New South
Wales in Sydney, Australia, and she maintains an ongoing research
collaboration with colleagues at the University at Stony
Brook.
Research Interests
Dr. Powers’ research interests are in comparative and physiological
psychology. She studies the brain and behavior of turtles,
with the aim of understanding the evolutionary history of the
mammalian brain. She also studies habituation and affective
modification of the blink reflex in humans. She was a member
of a consortium that recently renamed the structures in the avian
forebrain (see Reiner et al., below).
Recent Publications
Lissek, S. M., & Powers, A. S. (2003). Sensation seeking
and startle modulation by physically threatening
images. Biological Psychology, 63, 179-197.
Powers, A. S., & Day, L. B., Eds. (2003). Perspectives
on the evolution of cognition. Brain, Behavior, and
Evolution, 62, 69-140. This was a special issue of the
journal devoted to the proceedings of a conference by the same
title held November 1, 2002.
Powers, A. S. (2003). Relevance of medial and dorsal cortex
function to the dorsalization hypothesis. Behavioral and
Brain Sciences, 26, 566-567.
Reiner, A., Bruce, L., Butler, A., Csillag, A., Kuenzel, W.,
Medina, L., Paxinos, G., Perkel, D., Shimizu, T., Striedter, G.,
Wild, M., Ball, G., Durand, S., Gunturkun, O., Lee, D., Melllo, C.,
Powers, A., White, S., Hough, G., Kubikova, L., Smulders, T., Wada,
K., Dugas-Ford, J., Husband, S., Yamamoto, K., Yu, J., Siang, C.,
& Jarvis, E. D. (2004). Revised nomenclature for avian
telencephalon and some related brainstem nuclei. Journal
of Comparative Neurology, 473, 377-414.
Lissek, S., Powers, A. S., Phelps, E. A., Grillon, C.,
Woldehawariat, G., McClure, E. B., & Pine, D. S. (In
press). Classical fear-conditioning in the anxiety disorders:
A meta-analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy.