Visiting Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of Connecticut
Fields: Cognitive Science, Psycholinguistics, Reading, Virtual Reality, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Email: arimzhim@holycross.edu
Office: Beaven 331 PO Box: Phone: 508-793-3933
Zoom Office Hours for Fall 2021:
Monday & Friday: 1:00 PM – 1:50 PM
Wednesday: 3:00 PM – 5:20 PM, and by appointment
Affiliated Scientist, Haskins Laboratories, CT (www.haskins.yale.edu)
Biography
My psycholinguistics research investigates the relationship between the structure of spoken languages and the design of written languages, and how this relationship constraints the cognitive processes involved in skilled reading and reading acquisition. Within this line of research, I am especially interested in the psycholinguistics of South and Southeast Asian languages, for example, Hindi. The broad research goal is to understand the universal and language-specific features of reading and language processing; that is, how reading (and language processing) is similar or different across writing systems (and languages). Readers of different writing systems can read similarly because reading employs similar cognitive processes, such as those involved in eye-movements, perception, memory, and learning. However, they may read differently because the mapping between written and spoken languages varies across different languages (to have a feel for it, compare the writing systems of English, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi), and this variation may involve different underlying cognitive processes, such as those involved in orthographic, phonological, morphological, semantic, and syntactic processing.
My virtual reality (VR) research involves studying how the mapping between the virtual and real worlds affects cognitive processes and human performance. Specifically, I examine how spatial memory and perception are affected by the display or rendering modes of a VR set-up, and which such mode is more optimal for human use.
I study the relationship between classroom instruction and students’ learning for my scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) research. I have designed and implemented evidence-based, comprehensive curricular assessment projects to objectively measure a course’s and departmental learning outcomes.
Courses
- Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 100)
- Cognition & Memory (PSYC 236)
- Psychology of Language (PSYC 237)
- History & Theory (PSYC 305)
Publications
Rimzhim, A., *Johri, A., Kelty-Stephen, D., & Fowler, C. A. (2020). Simple transposition effect in an aksharic writing system: The case of Hindi. Language and Speech. 1–35. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830920971315
*Salafia, C., & Rimzhim, A. (2020). Motivation for selfie-posting mediates the relationship between narcissism and empathy. Journal of Social Media in Society, 92, 353–380. https://www.thejsms.org/index.php/TSMRI/article/view/795
Rimzhim, A., Heinly, M. T., Bragg, C., Boncoddo, R. A., Fallon, M., & Fallahi, C. (2020). One psychology department’s home-grown programmatic assessment of their curriculum. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. 1–26. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1037/stl0000179
Srivastava§, P., Rimzhim§, A., *Vijay, P., *Singh, S., & Chandra, S. (2019). Desktop VR is better than non-ambulatory HMD VR for spatial learning. Frontiers in Robotics and AI. 6 (50). DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2019.00050 (§ equally contributing authors)
Heinly, M.T., Rimzhim, A., Boncoddo, R.A., & Fallahi, C.R. (2018). From Curriculum Mapping to Assessment: One psychology department’s adventure. International Research in Higher Education. 3(4), 1–15. DOI: 10.5430/irhe.v3n4p12
Rimzhim, A., Katz, L., & Fowler, C. A. (2014). Brāhmī-derived orthographies are typologically Āksharik but functionally predominantly alphabetic. Writing Systems Research. 6 (1-2), 41 – 53. DOI: 10.1080/17586801.2013.855618
Rueckl, J. G., & Rimzhim, A. (2011). On the interaction of letter transpositions and morphemic boundaries. Language and Cognitive Processes, 26, 482–508.
DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2010.500020
Anastas, J., Gindin, L., Kelty, E., Rimzhim, A., Zhao, J., Andrade, B., Finkel, D., Palatinus, K., Schmidtke, J., Tobin, S. J., & Naigles, L. (2010). Book Review: Edith L. Bavin (ed.), The Cambridge handbook of child language. Journal of Child Language, 37, 1133-1145.