Biography

Carol Mills
Department: Psychology
Title: Professor of Psychology (1986)
Degree: M.S., University of Missouri (1970); M.A., University of Maryland, College Park (1973); Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology, University of Maryland (1976)
Office: HS 155
Phone: 410-337-6315
Email: cmills@goucher.edu

Teaching Interests

I have been teaching courses related to cognition, language, neuropsychology and applied psychology at Goucher College for over 20 years. I retired from full-time teaching in Spring 2008 but plan to continue to teach part-time and continue to work with students on research.

Research Interests

One of the projects that I have worked on for over 15 years concerns synesthesia, which involves “cross talk” between the senses. Individuals with synesthesia experience a percept (e.g., color) in a sense other than the one being stimulated (e.g., hearing). I have worked on a number of experiments with individual synesthetes to try to understand the phenomena better and to learn more about cognitive processes in general. I have involved Goucher students in this research. We have had posters at the Psychonomic Society Annual meeting, as well as at the Eastern Psychological Association meeting. Several publications on this topic have Goucher students as coauthors

Another topic I have researched with students and with another faculty member, Ann McKim, is memory for 9/11/2001. This work resulted in numerous posters at the Eastern Psychological Association Meeting and at the American Psychological Association meeting.

Recent publications and presentations include:

Mills, C.B., Metzger, S.R., Foster, C.A., Valentine-Gresko, M.N., Ricketts, S. (In press). Development and cognitive influence of synesthesia in a color-grapheme synesthete. Perception.

Mills, C.B., Ghirardelli, T.G., Zilioli, M., Bailey, L., Metzger, S.R. & Kretschmar, P. (2008). Additional evidence for faster processing of synesthetic colors in speeded classification of arithmetic equations. The Eastern Psychological Association Meeting, Boston, MA.

Foster, C., Ricketts, S., Metzger, S., Valentine-Gresko, M., Mills, C.B. (2007).  A synesthete’s solution: Wrong color + wrong color = slower times.  The Eastern Psychological Association Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.

Martinkowski, K., Metzger, S., Mills, C.B. (2007).  Neuropsychological evaluation of a color-digit synesthete.  The Eastern Psychological Association Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.

Mills, C.B., Innis, J., Westendorf, T., Owsianiecki, L. & McDonald, A. (2006). Effect of a synesthete’s photisms on name recall. Cortex, 42, 155-163.

Mills, C.B., Valentine, M., Foster, C., & Metzger, S. (2006, March). Colored-digit synesthete and her experiences across languages. The Eastern Psychological Association Meeting, Baltimore, MD.

McKim, A., Mills, C.B., Gilbert, N., Oltarzewski, J., Pfarr, J., & Saltz, R. (2006, March). Some flashbulbs are bigger than others: A comprehensive look at the uniqueness of 9/11/01. The Eastern Psychological Association Meeting, Baltimore, MD.

Mills, C.B., McKim, A., Gilbert, N., Tripp, S., Wilson, R., & Langrall, C. (2006, March). Comparison of reminders and “flashbulb” memories for 9/11/01. The Eastern Psychological Association Meeting, Baltimore, MD.

McKim, A. & Mills, C.B. (2005, August). September 11, 2001: Emotional upset and safety concerns, then and later. American Psychological Association Meeting, Washington, DC.

McKim, A., Mills, C.B., Tripp, S.T., Oltarzewski, J. (2005, March). Changes in perceived consequences: The significance of 9/11/01. The Eastern Psychological Association Meeting, Boston, MA.

Mills, C.B., McKim, A., Rogers, S., Samuel, E. (2005, March) What do you remember best about 9/11/01? The Eastern Psychological Association Meeting, Boston, MA.

Note: Underlined names indicate student co-authors.

Other activities

I enjoy hiking, biking and other outdoor activities, as well as, reading, learning new things, and crafts.  I hope to have more time for these since I have retired.