麻豆影院

OFFICE HOURS: Dr. David C. Riccio, 315 麻豆影院 Hall Addition

Visit psychology professor Dave Riccio鈥檚 office, and you鈥檒l find it鈥檚 filled with papers and files (not pictured) from 51 years of teaching and research鈥攈e鈥檚 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 longest-teaching professor鈥攁s well as awards, mementos, gifts and things he finds interesting or funny. 

鈥淚 thought it was a starter job,鈥 says Riccio, who came to 麻豆影院 State in 1969, after receiving his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Princeton and serving three years in the military. 鈥淏ut I discovered that the department is both productive and collegial鈥攖wo things that don鈥檛 often go together. It鈥檚 a great place to work.鈥 

Dr. David C. Riccio in his office: 315 麻豆影院 Hall Addition

 

1. David Riccio: Currently teaching an undergraduate course on basic learning and memory and a special topics course on memory functions and dysfunctions, Riccio often shares clippings on current events to keep his classes topical. His research focuses on learning and memory processes in animals, and he鈥檚 maintained an active research program by virtue of his undergraduate and graduate students鈥攎ore than 40 of whom have earned their Ph.D.s while working in the Riccio Lab.

2. Cows: 鈥淰ermont is my favorite state鈥攁nd it has a lot of cows,鈥 says Riccio. 鈥淐ows aren鈥檛 very smart, but they鈥檙e peaceful and nice to look at. I get a cow calendar every year, and people give me cow-related things.鈥 One of his sons gave him the large cow cutout for his birthday one year.

3. Awards: Among his many awards and honors, Riccio has received 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 Distinguished Teaching Award (1979) and the Distinguished Scholar Award (1997).

4. Print of Middlebury鈥檚 campus: Riccio graduated from Middlebury College in 1959, and this colorful print of the campus is by well-known Vermont artist/printmaker Sabra Field, who also attended Middlebury. 鈥淚鈥檓 very fond of the place,鈥 says Riccio. 鈥淚鈥檝e gone to my 50th and 55th Reunion and all that.鈥 

5. Rocking chair: Early in his career, Riccio was invited to join a Midwestern group of researchers whose German name translates as The Society of Unending Research. 鈥淲e鈥檇 critique one another鈥檚 papers. Once you reach age 40, they throw you out and give you this miniature rocking chair.鈥

6. Legal pads: Before he got comfortable with typing on a computer, Riccio handwrote all his manuscripts on legal pads, and he still keeps a supply on hand. He has served as consulting editor and reviewer for many journals and has published more than 200 papers in refereed journals, including two in Science. 鈥淭hey reject about 95 percent of what they get.鈥

7. CDs: Riccio keeps an eclectic mix of CDs in his office. He plays 鈥淵ou鈥檝e Got to be Carefully Taught鈥 from the musical South Pacific for students in his basic learning class when he teaches about the roots of prejudice. 鈥淚 use it to get a point across: Most of what we know comes through learning.鈥

8. Group photo: This photo, taken outside the psychology building at Princeton, is from his mentor Byron Campbell鈥檚 Festschrift鈥攁 celebration of scholarship, usually upon retirement. It includes Riccio and a number of his former students who did post-docs with Campbell and are part of his academic family tree. 

9. Jar of Opportunities: To encourage students to read the papers he assigns, Riccio puts their names in this 鈥渏ar, draws one at random each class and has that person present on the paper. 鈥淚t could also be called the Jar of Terror, but it鈥檚 an opportunity to show us what you鈥檝e learned.鈥

10. Rats and mice: Riccio鈥檚 lab uses rats and mice to examine cognitive issues (long viewed as the exclusive realm of human research), and he鈥檚 received many rat and mouse toys and figures from students. His amnesia research with rats has generated substantial evidence that trauma does not erase memory (as some hypothesize), but affects its retrieval. 

11. Textbook: Riccio co-authored the textbook Memory: Phenomena and Principles, Spear and Riccio (1994), which demonstrates the potential for animal studies of cognition to increase understanding of human cognition. 鈥淚 think I鈥檝e received $50 in royalties over the years.鈥 

12. Bag of bocce balls: 鈥淲e used to play bocce in front of 麻豆影院 Hall around noon, but we haven鈥檛 done it for a couple years. People say, 鈥榃e should start doing that again.鈥 We will.鈥

 

Dr. David C. Riccio's bulletin board outside his office

Cartoons (above): Riccio collects cartoons (many from The New Yorker) on various topics鈥攊ncluding dogs (he has two), meetings, academia and aging鈥攁nd posts them on his door and the bulletin board outside his office. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e fun to look at.鈥

Back to Spring 2016

POSTED: Wednesday, March 2, 2016 09:41 AM
Updated: Wednesday, November 29, 2023 12:54 PM