Steven Stern
My research generally focuses on the impact of technology and social interaction. Under this umbrella, I have examined a number of issues including how automation of tasks affects our perceptions of our performance, concerns regarding sexuality on the Internet and Internet addiction, and how people react to persuasive appeals delivered by individuals using computer synthesized speech. I have also replicated Milgram's lost letter technique using email.
Most recently, my research has moved in a couple of directions as I am now examining how perceptions of the speech disabled are affected by the use of synthetic speech and how memory for the pitch and speed of speech are distorted in memory.
I am presently a consulting editor for Behavior Research Methods and have reviewed articles for a number of other journals.
Primary Interests:
- Applied Social Psychology
- Communication, Language
- Intergroup Relations
- Internet and Virtual Psychology
- Prejudice and Stereotyping
Journal Articles:
- Mullennix, J. W., Stern, S. E., Wilson, S. J., & Dyson, C. (2003). Social perception of male and female computer synthesized speech. Computers in Human Behavior, 19, 407-424.
- Stern, S. E. (1999). Addiction to technologies: A social psychological perspective of Internet addiction. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 2, 419-424.
- Stern, S. E. (1999). Effects of technology on attributions of performance and employee evaluation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 786-794.
- Stern, S. E., Dumont, M., Mullennix, J. W., & Winters, M. L. (in press). Positive prejudice towards disabled persons using synthesized speech: Does the effect persist across contexts? Journal of Language and Social Psychology.
- Stern, S. E., & Faber, J. E. (1997). The Internet as a psychological data gathering tool: Lost letters, web page experiments, and more. Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly, 17, 30-33.
- Stern, S. E. & Handel, A. D. (2001). Sexuality and mass media: The historical context of psychology's reaction to sexuality on the Internet. Journal of Sex Research, 38, 283-291.
- Stern, S. E., & Kipnis, D. (1993). Technology in everyday life and perceptions of competence. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23, 1892-1902.
- Stern, S. E., Mullennix, J. W., Corneille, O., & Huart, J. (in press). Distortions in the memory of the pitch of speech. Experimental Psychology.
- Stern, S. E., Mullennix, J. W., Dyson, C., & Wilson, S. J. (1999). The persuasiveness of synthetic speech versus human speech. Human Factors, 41, 588-595.
- Stern, S. E., Mullennix, J. W., & Wilson, S. J. (2002). Effects of perceived disability on persuasiveness of computer synthesized speech. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 411-417.
- Stern, S. E., Mullennix, J. W., & Yaroslavsky, I. (2006). Persuasion and social perception of human vs. synthetic voice across person as source and computer as source conditions. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 64, 43-52.
Other Publications:
- Stern, S. E. (2001). Technological automation and the opinions we hold of ourselves and others. In F. Columbus (Ed.), Advances in psychology research, Volume 2. Huntington, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
Courses Taught:
- Introduction to Psychology
- Organizational Psychology
- Research Methods in Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Theories of Personality
Steven Stern
Department of Psychology
University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
450 Schoolhouse Road
Johnstown, Pennsylvania 15904
United States of America
- Phone: (814) 269-2901
- Fax: (814) 269-2022