The SCALE Lab

Social and Cognitive Applications to Law and Education.

About Us

The research we do in the SCALE Lab broadly falls within two areas: Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Higher Education Contexts and Psychology and Law. In both areas, we focus on applying social or cognitive psychological theories to topics of interest.

Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Higher Education

Our research in this area focuses on the impact of inclusive and equity-based pedagogy on student perceptions and outcomes such as motivation, engagement, and sense of belonging. The overarching goal is to provide empirical support for these practices and demonstrate how they benefit students.

Examples of Recent Projects

• Improving gender and racial equity and representation in the undergraduate psychology curriculum
• Investigating how open pedagogical practices—where students are positioned as co-creators of knowledge—affect learning, motivation, and belonging
• Examining the effectiveness of identity safety cues for LGBTQ+ students

Psychology and Law

Our research in this area focuses on factors impacting eyewitness memory accuracy and decision-making in cases involving gender and sexual minority victims and defendants.

Examples of recent projects:

• The impact of perpetrator gender on the weapon focus effect for eyewitness memory
• The effects of defendant gender identity and type of crime on juror judgments
• Identifying predictors of support for the LGBTQ+ panic defense among mock jurors

People

Lab Director

Current Graduate Students

• Haley Duncan, BS (Forensic MS Student)
• Adelyn Emter, MS (Experimental PhD Student)
• Mary Hamilton, MS (Experimental PhD Student)

Current Undergraduate Research Assistants

• Tori Torgerson
• Amariana Weigel

Our Work

Select Publications

Kelly, A. E., *Emter, A. K., **Duncan, H., & Laurin, J. N. (2025). Who gets remembered? Disparities in recognition of early eminent psychologists and implications for belonging in psychology. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. 

Dzikon, C., Kelly, A. E., **Hazel, K. J., & Kroke, A. M. (2024). “I felt more mentally present”: Examining student metacognitive skills, perceived stress, and academic resilience before and after a classroom mindfulness intervention. College Teaching, 1–12. 

Clinton-Lisell, V. & Kelly, A. E. (2024). The cost of doing homework: Online homework systems with access codes from a social justice perspective. International Journal of Technology in Education and Science (IJTES), 8(2), 296-310.

Kelly, A. E., & Laurin, J. N. (2024). Dr. Harriette Pipes McAdoo: A Champion of Black Children and Families. Edited Book Chapter in Early Psychological Research Contributions from Women of Color, Volume 2 (R. Mason, J. Grahe, & M. Ceynar, Eds.), Taylor & Francis.

Kelly, A. E., Clinton-Lisell, V., & *Klein, K. A. (2022). Enhancing online groupwork perceptions and skills using a utility-value intervention. Online Learning, 26(3)

Kelly, A. E., *Laurin, J. N., & Clinton-Lisell, V. (2022). Making psychology’s Hidden Figures visible using open educational resources: A replication and extension study. Teaching of Psychology

Select Presentations

*Emter, A. K., & Kelly, A. E. (April 2025). Great expectations: How gender AAB shapes viewpoint-based perceptual disparities in gender diverse people. Poster presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference, Chicago, IL.

**Weigel, A., Kelly, A., & *Emter, A. (April 2025). Identity safety cues in the classroom. Poster presented at the Gabriel E. Gallardo Research, Student Leadership, and Advocacy Symposium, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

**Hoffmann, E., *Aasen, F., *Hamilton, M., **Duncan, H., *Emter, A., & Kelly, A. E. (October 2024). Exploring mock juror perceptions of support for the trans panic defense. Poster presented at the Northern Lights Psychology Conference, Grand Forks, ND.

*Hamilton, M., **Hazel, K. J., *Emter, A. K., **Connors, M., & Kelly, A. E. (October 2023). The effects of instructor gender and warmth on student demands and special favor requests: A partial replication of El-Alayli et al. (2018). Poster presented at the Northern Lights Psychology Conference, Grand Forks, ND.

*Klein, K. A., & Kelly, A. E. (October 2021). Examining juror perceptions of transgender defendants. Poster presented at the Northern Lights Psychology Conference, Grand Forks, ND.

 *Lab member or graduate student collaborator

**Lab member or undergraduate student collaborator

Prospective Students

The SCALE Lab includes both graduate students (Experimental PhD and Forensic MS) and undergraduate research assistants. Prospective graduate students are encouraged to reach out to Dr. Kelly about potential mentorship before applying to our graduate programs, and importantly, should be interested in conducting research in any of the areas of expertise within our lab. Prospective undergraduate research assistants should reach out to Dr. Kelly about any openings in the lab. Undergraduate RAs who are motivated, reliable, hard-working students with plans for graduate study tend to do best in our lab.

Lab Alumni/Former Graduate Students

• Kira Krupa (Forensic MS)
• Susan Pfitzinger (Forensic MS) - Victim Witness Coordinator (Saukville, WI)
• Kendall Klein (Forensic MS) - Grand Forks Public Safety Answering Point (Grand Forks, ND)
• Kaitlin Hazel (Psychology BS) - Clinical/Counseling Psychology Graduate Program (University of Minnesota-Duluth)
• Isabella Coppa (Forensic MS)
• Faith Aasen (Forensic MS)  - Criminal Intelligence Analyst, Fargo Police Department
• Emily Hoffmann (Psychology BS) - Counseling Graduate Program (North Dakota State University)