Ralph Hale, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychological Science
Office locationStrickland Academic, 104,
Area(s) of Expertise: Cognitive psychology
Overview
Ralph G. Hale is Associate Professor of Psychological Science at the University of North Georgia. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Georgia in 2018, specializing in visual perception. He also earned two certifications in interdisciplinary university teaching, one from the University of Georgia in 2018 and another from the Association of College and University Educators in 2024. He is dedicated to undergraduate education and teaches a wide variety of psychology courses including cognitive psychology, memory, biopsychology, psychology of visual art, research methods, behavioral statistics, and senior psychology seminar. He has been recognized by his university for his commitment to quality education, winning the Teaching Excellence Award for Tenured Faculty in 2020 and the Ann Matthews Purdy Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in 2023.
He is also dedicated to scholarship, with an emphasis on undergraduate research. His areas of expertise are visual perception and memory with interests in visual aesthetics, errors in visual memory, and visual illusions. As principal investigator of the Hale Vision Lab, he mentors students through projects leading to conference presentations and publications. Recently he has published papers related to color spreading illusions, social gaze, and various cognitive effects. In 2023, he won his university’s Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award in recognition of his scholarly mentorship. He asserts that undergraduate mentorship is the focal point of his academic career, from which all other aspects radiate. Ralph is also a co-author of the best-selling cognitive psychology textbook titled "Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience" (Goldstein & Hale, 6th edition). His venture into book writing is an extension of this commitment to mentorship, as quality textbooks and resources are fundamental to educational success.
Courses Taught
- Introduction to Psychology
- Skills and Careers in Psychology
- Research Methods
- Cognitive Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology Lab
- Biopsychology
- Senior Psychology Seminar
- History and Systems of Psychology
- Sensation and Perception
- Human Memory
Education
- Ph.D., Psychology, The University of Georgia, 2018
- M.S., Psychology, The University of Georgia, 2015
- B.S., Psychology, The University of Georgia, 2011
- A.A., Psychology, Gainesville State College, 2009
Research/Special Interests
Ralph’s research interests focus broadly on the areas of visual perception, memory, and empirical aesthetics. In particular, interests include color vision, figure-ground organization, surface completion, object and scene recognition, visual illusions, visual search, luminance and illumination cues, social gaze, attention, visual short-term memory, long-term memory including encoding and retrieval, memory errors and false memories, universality of visual art, visual art as an evolutionary fitness indicator, and perception of visual art.
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