Ben Seipel, PhD
Assistant Professor
Tehama 417
530-898-6854
bseipel@csuchico.edu
Ben completed his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. Here at California State University- Chico, he teaches courses on Educational Psychology, Fundamental Practices of Teaching, Assessment in Special Education, and Introduction to Research Methods in Education. His research focuses on the cognitive and neurological process of reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition while reading, and implicit learning systems. Specifically, through the use of eye-tracking, EEG, and fMRI he has examined how people create coherent mental representations of narratives when they encounter inconsistencies in text. He also has written a reading comprehension test that diagnoses different cognitive processing issues for struggling readers in 3rd-5th grades. He is currently developing this test into a computer-adaptive assessment. He has plans to develop similar diagnostic assessments for older students as well. In the classroom Ben enjoys discussing classic and current research topics and how those topics can better inform teaching practices of educators. Prior to his career in research and high education, Ben worked as a Spanish teacher in various K-12 settings and is also licensed to teach K-12 vocal/general music.
Curriculum Vitae
- View Complete CV (pdf)
Recent Publications
- Clinton, V., Seipel, B., van den Broek, P., McMaster, K. L., Kendeou, P., Carlson, S. E. & Rapp, D. N. (2012), Gender differences in inference generation by fourth-grade students. Journal of Research in Reading. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9817.2012.01531.x
- Fehr, C. N., Davison, M. L., Graves, M. G., Sales, G. C., & Seipel, B. (2012). The effect of individualized, online vocabulary instruction on picture vocabulary scores: An efficacy study. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 25(1), 87-102.
Recent Presentations
- Seipel, B., Clinton, V. E., & Carlson, S. E. (2012, May). Gender Differences in Episodic Memory Reflected in Text-Connecting Inferences. Poster presentation given at the 2012 annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science , Chicago, IL, May, 2012.
- Seipel, B., & van den Broek, P.W. (2012, April). The Role of Implicit Learning in Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition while Reading. Poster presentation given at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, BC, April, 2012.
- Seipel, B. (March 2012). Helping Teachers to Understand Comprehension Processes in Reading using MOCCA. Presentation given at the 2012 biannual meeting of the California Council of Teacher Education, San Jose, CA, March, 2012.
- Carlson, S., Seipel, B., & McMaster, K. (2011, September).Using a New Reading Comprehension Assessment to Measure Discourse Representations and Identify Types of Comprehenders. Poster presentation at the Fall 2011 biannual meeting of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, Washington, D.C., September 2011.
- Davison, M. L., Fehr, C. N., & Seipel, B. E. (2011, September). From the Lab to the Classroom: Expanding and Scaling Up the Curriculum Domain in the Symposium: Scaling-Up: From the Laboratory to the Field Site to Multiple Sites. Paper presentation at the Fall 2011 biannual meeting of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, Washington, D.C., September 2011.
- Carlson, S., Seipel, B., & Mc Master, K. (2011, July). Does the Test Matter? Measuring Discourse Representations to Identify Subtypes of Struggling. Paper presentation at the 2011 annual meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Poitiers, Fracne, July, 2011.
- Seipel, B., & van den Broek, P. W., (2011, July). The role of implcit learning in incidental vocabulary acquisition while reading. Poster presentation at the 2011 annual meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Poitiers, France, July, 2011.
- Seipel, B., Carlson, S., & Mc Master, K. (2011, July). Assessing discourse comprehension during reading using MOCCA. Paper presentation at the 2011 annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, St. Pete Beach, FL, July, 2011.
- Carlson, S., Seipel, B., & Mc Master, K. (2011, April). Identifying Readers with Different Comprehension Skills. Paper presentation given at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA, April, 2011.
