What's New
What's New
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September 7, 2025
Meet Madison!
We welcome Madison to the MAT-lab as a new Research Assistant. Madison is a fourth year Psychology student who is interested in how individuals regulate their emotions in daily life and when facing challenges.
September 7, 2025
Meet Emjai!
Emjai is a fourth year Psychology student who we are excited is joining MAT-lab as a Research Assistant. Emjai is interested in how people's attributions for negative events influence their motives to regulate emotions.
June 25, 2025
Interview at CFBX radio with Mark Zhang!
Dr. Parker had so much fun chatting about her career path, research, and various experiences in academia. Thanks for the opportunity, CFBX radio.
June 6-8, 2025
NASPSPA in Lake Tahoe!
MAT-lab had a busy conference with 4 presentations and a symposium on identity in sport. Thanks to all the students for their work and to Nya Derkach & Trina Janzen for representing the lab! And a special thanks to our wonderful colleagues who presented in the symposium.
April 25, 2025
AERA re-connecting and energizing
A great time was had in Denver catching up with colleagues, collaborators, and friends to generate new ideas and cultivate ongoing projects.
April 6, 2025
2025 Making Waves Undergraduate Research Conference
Honour students, Nya and Trina, presented their thesis projects at the local conference at the University of Victoria. They had a blast and enjoyed learning from fellow students.
April 5, 2025
Exciting news for MAT-Lab!
We are excited to celebrate Trina, who was officially accepted into the graduate program in Clinical Psychology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Way to go, Trina!
March 28, 2025
2025 TRU Undergraduate Research & Innovation Conference
Students from MAT-lab presented some of their research findings at the local undergraduate conference! Thanks to the team at TRU Library for putting on the event.
March 27, 2025
Dr. Daniels joined us at TRU on March 27th!
Dr. Lia Daniels joined us last week to meet with students and learn about the research happening in Psychology! She ended the day giving an inspirational talk on student wellbeing and assessment in the second annual Psychology Lecture Series. Thank you for visiting, Lia!
March 19, 2025
Little Lectures, Big Ideas 2025
Well, this was fun! At the Little Lectures Big Ideas event, Dr. Parker discussed her recent research examining how high-performance athletes handle barriers to goals. The event was hosted by TRU Faculty of Arts and Alumni at the Kamloops Paramount Theatre and featured wonderful talks by Drs. Woodford and Shaw.
March 2025
Dr. Daniels is our Guest Speaker in Psychology on March 27th!
We are thrilled to share Dr. Lia Daniels--motivation expert in education (!) --will be speaking on her current research at the Psychology Lecture Series II. The event will take place March 27th at 4pm in IB 1015. Come learn and enjoy some snacks!
March 6, 2025
New funding received
MAT-Lab received new funding to investigate the attributional processes and individual differences that influence sport setback adaptability (TRU Internal Research Fund; Principal Investigator: Dr. Parker).
February 19, 2025
MAT-Lab is going to NASPSPA!
We were notified all our submitted proposals have been officially accepted at
NASPSPA (Lake Tahoe)! We are excited to share our latest study findings in June.
Posing for a photo with Drs. Mosewich & Ferguson
January 23, 2025
Research & Learning at the Sport for Life Summit (Gatineau, Quebec)
Some meaningful connections were made at the Sport for Life Summit! Dr. Parker presented research on supporting athlete emotions in sport and enjoyed inspirational sessions on joyful, safe, and inclusive sport provided at the summit.
January 18, 2025
Research Participation opportunity for TRU PSYC 1110, 1210, and 2110 students
Any PSYC 1110, 1210, and 2110 students interested in participating in research this semester (for receive course credit!) can check out the TRU SONA participant pool Academic Setbacks Study but act quick as the opportunity ends January 30th!
Please email pparker@tru.ca if you have questions!
January 9, 2025
Some new reading material
Drs. Parker, Daniels, and Mosewich recently published a two-study Intervention project in Current Psychology that focuses on promoting healthy cognitive beliefs for effective setback management in sport. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-07200-0
December 11, 2024
Research Brief: Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions In Sport Settings
This report highlights a study assessing competitive athletes' achievement emotions experienced in sport practice and competitions. Link: Research Brief
September 29, 2024
Meet Monty!
Monty is a fourth year Psychology student joining MAT-lab. Monty is interested in learning about how individuals cope with negative emotions when managing setbacks.
September 29, 2024
Meet Matthew!
Matthew joins the lab as a third year Psychology student. Matthew is interested in studying social anxiety and fear of failure in young athletes in team and individual sport settings.
September 29, 2024
Meet Connor!
Connor is a third year Psychology student and one of our newest lab members. Connor is interested in studying students' resilience in university when managing academic setbacks.
September 28, 2024
New research assistants join the MAT-Lab team
Three new students have been hired on as research assistants this year. We are excited to welcome them to the team. Stay tuned for introductions!
August 2024
Paris Olympics
Dr. Parker travelled to Paris to cheer on Canadian teams and conduct research on goal progression in Olympic athletes. It was an unforgettable experience!
July 16, 2024
MAT-Lab welcomes two new honours students!
We are pleased to have Nya and Trina join the lab this Fall to complete their Honours projects. Fun fact: they are conducting some really neat research this summer in Wales that focuses on promoting gender equality (part of the "Towards Gender Harmony" project).
April 22, 2024
Chapter on boredom intervention
A new Routledge book on boredom is published with many great chapters on the future directions of boredom research. You can check our chapter on boredom intervention here: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003271536-25
Photo from Noun Project
March 27, 2024
Presenting findings at the TRU Undergraduate Research Conference
Loghan presented some preliminary findings showing promising results for the Setback Solutions Intervention in collegiate athletes. Well done, Loghan!
January 29, 2024
Some New Reading for 2024
In January our team had three papers come out on topics covering student-athlete assessment, piloting the second phase of a boredom intervention, and learning how cognitive beliefs are linked to coping with setbacks in sport. Click our Publications tab above to access the DOIs!
Photo from Pexels.com
September 23, 2023
Presenting at the Conference on Undergraduate Research & Psychology
Vanessa Rilkoff presented some of her Honour's project findings on boredom misbeliefs at the Western Canadian Conference on Undergraduate Research & Psychology. She rocked it!
July 13, 2023
Research Brief: Boredom Intervention Training Phases 1-3
A new research brief is featured on the Mat-Lab website. This project is run by Drs. Tze, Daniels, & Parker, and the brief highlights our testing of three phases of a boredom intervention examining students' learning about boredom, boredom biases, and behavioural strategies.
June 15, 2023
A new member to the MAT-Lab!
Dr. Parker is thrilled to welcome the littlest member to the MAT-laboratory: Violet (Baby Lettie). Violet was born on June 15th and is keeping her mom busy. Dr. Parker will return from parental leave next summer (2024).
May 1, 2023
Another Research Brief!
During a recent focus group, we interviewed two TRU athletes who watched our "Setbacks Solutions" intervention videos (pilot study). To learn more about what they had to say, please check out our new research brief!
April 30, 2023
MAT-lab is excited to hire Loghan as an RA for 2023-2024
Loghan Eskritt will be helping out with our new SoTL-funded pilot study this year where we are exploring achievement emotions in a novel setting. We are excited to have her continue with this work.
April 1, 2023
TRU SoTL grant to support a new project
Dr. Parker recently received some seed funding from the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching to examine achievement emotions experienced in sport practice settings this year.
Photo by Tim Mossholder
Photo by RF._.studio on Pexels
February 9, 2023
The MAT-Lab is growing!
We welcome Jost Hausendorf and Amira Jensen as research volunteers to the MAT-lab. Their university sport experience will be advantageous for our ongoing sport-related research this winter semester.
November 1, 2022
New Research Assistants Join the MAT-Lab!
Loghan Eskritt and Ghritaachi Mehta have joined the lab this fall to get some hands-on research experience! Loghan is assisting with our cognitive intervention study targeting athletes dealing with setbacks. Ghritaachi is working on a pilot study to help reduce student boredom in university.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels
September 1, 2022
Honours Student Joins the lab!
Vanessa Rilkoff is conducting some fascinating research on students' misbeliefs about boredom in the university classroom. We are very excited to see this thesis project take shape!
July 1, 2022
New Position!
Dr. Parker starts her new position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Thompson Rivers University!
Photo by Alex Perez on Unsplash
March 7, 2022
New Research Briefs: Learning from Athletes about Setbacks!
In the Fall of 2021, we conducted (1) focus group/interviews with local athletes and (2) collected athletes’ responses via an online platform (Prolific) to learn about athletes’ perceived control beliefs during sport setbacks. See the "Research Briefs" tab above for these projects created by Sierra Tulloch and Gaby Pelletier highlighting some of our findings.
October 12, 2021
Research at Riverview Health Centre
Along with Drs. Chipperfield, Hamm, and Perry, Dr. Parker conducted research at the Riverview Health Centre (Manitoba) examining motivation in older adults with compromised health.
Our study is highlighted here on page 15.
Photo by Jannes Glas on Unsplash
October 4, 2021
New Research Brief
The ACME team collected some data on student athletes’ conceptions of sport and course assessment. Check out the "Research Briefs" tab above to see a brief designed by Gabrielle Pelletier highlighting some findings for the participants who completed the survey in spring of 2021.
September 16, 2021
In the Media: Dealing with Boredom during the Pandemic
Drs. Virginia Tze, Daniels and Parker are examining student boredom and the challenges of this emotion for students during the pandemic. Check out this story on how we hope to help students cope with boredom.
February 19, 2025
MAT-Lab is going to NASPSPA!
We were notified all our submitted proposals have been officially accepted at
NASPSPA (Lake Tahoe)! We are excited to share our latest study findings in June.
April 24, 2025
2025 AERA adventures
Dr. Parker was involved in an exciting and timely session titled "Not So Black and White: Centering and Supporting Marginalized College Athletes' Experiences in College Athletics". There are some exciting outputs in this area in our future.
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