Nicholas Calvin. E-mail: ncalvin@psych.umd.edu

Background Information 

Since starting as a full time senior research assistant at the CAPER lab in October 2008, Nick has been involved in a number of studies. Most recently Nick has been acting as the coordinator for a study testing the effectiveness of a new negative reinforcement-based behavioral task for examining basic processes underlying alcohol and drug use among college students. Beyond running of the study, Nick was heavily involved in the development of the task . The other main study Nick is involved with is a 400 participant supplement to a longitudinal study looking at HIV risk taking behavior in adolescents.Nick has also received some clinical experience with diagnosing mental illness among adolescents using the KSADS since starting in the lab. Nick also acts as the primary programmer in the lab and during his time in the lab has written a number of programs for use both within and outside the CAPER lab. The latest program to be finished is the Negative Reinforcement Balloon Analogue Risk Task which is currently being tested in the above mentioned study. This task is a modification of the BART which has been used to assess risk taking behavior within the context of positive reinforcement.Other programs which Nick has helped develop examine selfless courage, negative reinforcement delay discounting, and a titrating distress tolerance task.Before starting at the CAPER lab, Nick graduated from Pennsylvania State University in the Spring of 2008 with a B.S. in Biobehavioral Health and a minor in Neuroscience. There he worked as a research assistant for Dr. Laura Klein and Dr. David Almeida on a number of projects involved with nicotine addiction and the effects of daily stressors on salivary measures of stress. Prior to earning his degree at Penn State, Nick joined the United States Army Reserve and spent a tour in Iraq. During his tour in Iraq, Nick earned the Army Commendation Medal and Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal among other honors. Shortly after returning from his tour in Iraq, Nick was promoted to the rank of Sergeant which he still currently holds.

Research Interests 

Personal Interests

Nick primarily spends his time outside of the lab reading, running, and writing. Nick's favored books are on philosophy, morality, science fiction, and utopia/dystopia.