Education

• Ph.D., Mass Communication, Indiana University, 2008
• M.A., Journalism, Indiana University, 2004
• B. A., Journalism, 1995 (cum laude)

About

Narine Yegiyan, who began her career as a journalist, has expertise in cognitive information processing and communication, with a specific focus on emotion and memory interaction. She uses self-report, behavioral and physiological measures to understand how we can design effective media messages.

Research Focus

Professor Yegiyan's research is primarily concerned with how people prioritize the intake of information in situations of cognitive and emotional overload. Her work is grounded in neurobiological theories of motivated cognition and is devoted to understanding how memory and emotion contribute to information processing. She oversees the Dynamic Interactions in Cognition and Emotion (D.I.C.E.) Lab at UC Davis.

Publications

• Yegiyan, N. S. (2015). Explicating the Emotion Spillover Effect: At the intersection of motivational activation, resource allocation, and consolidation. Journal of Media Psychology, 27(3): 134–145.
• Yegiyan, N. S., & Bailey, R. (2015). Food as risk: How eating habits and food knowledge affect reactivity to pictures of junk and healthy foods. Health Communication. doi:10.1080/10410236.2014.987098
• Yegiyan, N. S. (2014). Conceptualizing visual detail: Message structure as a predictor of preferential processing. Communication Methods and Measures, 8(1), 34–51.
• Yegiyan, N. S. (2013). Gun focus effect revisited II: How sex modulates emotional information processing strategy. Communication Research, 1(19).
• Yegiyan, N. S. (2012). Gun focus effect revisited: Emotional tone modulates information processing strategy. Communication Research, 39(6): 724–727. doi:10.1177/0093650211400900

Teaching

Narine Yegiyan teaches graduate and undergraduate courses that focus on how people process media messages, quantitative research methods, and mass media processes and effects.

Awards

• Distinguished Article Award, Communication and Cognition Division of National Communication Association, 2012
• UC Summer Salary Research Grant, 2010
• First place, International Communication Association, Mass Communication Division Interactive Scholar to Scholar Paper-Poster Competition Award, 2008
• Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Year Fellowship, 2006–2007