Biographical note

John T. Cacioppo was the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor and director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. A former chair of the Psychology Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he also was a past president of several scientific societies, including the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for Social Neuroscience, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Society for Psychophysiological Research. His numerous awards include the Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health, the Scientific Impact Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions from the Society for Psychophysiological Research, and the Campbell Award and the Theoretical Innovation Prize from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Dr. Cacioppo was a member of the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science; chair of the Board of Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences at the National Research Council and a member of the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate; and a former member of both the Council for the NIH Center for Scientific Review and the Council for the National Institute on Aging. Laura A. Freberg is professor of psychology at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where she teaches Introductory Psychology and Biological Psychology courses, both online and face-to-face. She also enjoys experimenting with technology and social media in the classroom. Dr. Freberg's teaching career began when she taught her first college course at Pasadena City College at the age of 23. She has received Faculty Member of the Year recognition from Cal Poly Disabilities Resource Center three times (1991, 1994 and 2009) for her work with students with disabilities. A past president of the Western Psychological Association (WPA), Dr. Freberg is the current psychology consultant for The New York Times InEducation program. She has authored four editions of DISCOVERING BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE: AN INTRODUCTION TO BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY (Cengage), and with John Cacioppo, she co-authored three editions of DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY: THE SCIENCE OF MIND (Cengage). In addition, she is lead author of RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE (TopHat Monocle). She received her Ph.D. from UCLA.