Biography
Amy Camodeca, Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychology at Penn State Beaver and a clinical neuropsychologist at the Watson Institute. She teaches research methods, statistics, biological bases of behavior, psychology of learning (behaviorism), cognitive psychology, and neuropsychology.
Dr. Camodeca is a neuropsychologist and researcher whose work focuses on social cognition, executive function, and psychometric properties of tests in autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities. She has cultivated a dynamic research program and an engaging learning environment for undergraduates.
Her classes use research and statistics in enjoyable ways to reinforce the importance of critical thinking and logic. She uses games like Plinko and Connect Four to illustrate statistics and cognition concepts, helping students understand the mental processes involved in perception, attention, memory, and reasoning. Students learn how their day to day lives are affected by cognitive psychology such as why you can successfully cram for a test and forget everything two days later, why experts see details the rest of us don’t, and why “slay” is the new “groovy.”
Within Penn State Beaver’s Neuropsychology Lab, Dr. Camodeca leads research on executive functioning, memory, language, and social cognition. Her projects serve dual purposes: advancing scientific understanding and offering valuable experiential training for her students.
Research Interests
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Executive function and social cognition
- Psychological assessment and diagnostic validity
- Emotional language and cognitive development in children
Publications
Initial evidence for intact emotion fluency in autism vs. ADHD and community groups, Research in Autism (Formerly Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders) - May, 2025
Factor analysis of the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales parent report 6-18 in a complex community sample, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - March, 2025
Creating a short form of the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-3rd edition (GARS-3), Journal of Pediatric Neuropsychology - August, 2024
Criterion validity of the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales teacher report, Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment - February, 2024
Autism traits and real-world executive functioning in parents of children with disabilities and undergraduates, Current Psychology - 2023
Diagnostic utility of the Gilliam Autism Rating Scales-3rd edition parent report in clinically referred children, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - March, 2023
Real-world executive functioning and subclinical autism traits in autism parents, other disability parents, and non-clinical undergraduates, Current Psychology - January 4, 2023
Criterion validity of the autism spectrum rating scales 2-5 parent report , Research in Autism (formerly Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders) - August, 2021
Collaborator: Katy Walcott, Student Author
Preliminary evidence for the Emotion Word Fluency Test as a unique semantic fluency measure, Psychological Assessment - 2020
Collaborators: Katy Walcott, Student Author; Alexandra Hosack, Student Author; Kylie Todd, Student Author
Utility of the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale in the assessment of autism spectrum disorders, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - February, 2020
Collaborators: Kylie Todd, Co-Author; Jennifer Croyle, Co-Author
Theory of mind performance in broad autism phenotype groups: Between-group differences and predictor variables, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - July 2, 2019
Description of criterion validity of the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales 6-18 parent report: Initial exploration in a large community sample, Child Psychiatry and Human Development - May 31, 2019
Intact verbal fluency abilities in the broad autism phenotype, Psychiatry Research - December, 2018
Collaborators: Kylie Todd, Student Author; Alexandra Hosak, Student Author
Utility of three n-item scales of the Child Behavior Checklist in autism diagnosis, Research in Autism (Formerly Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders) - July, 2018
Investigation of broad autism phenotype traits as measured by the 26-item Autism Quotient, Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment - April 13, 2018
Collaborators: Alexandra Hosack, Student Author; Kylie Todd, Student Author
Automatic and controlled processing in the broad autism phenotype, Psychiatry Research - January, 2016
Collaborator: Sylvia Voelker, Author
Emotion-Related Parenting Styles (ERPS): A short form for measuring parental meta-emotion philosophy, Early Education and Development - June, 2012
Collaborators: Ashley Paterson, Co-Author; Kimberley Babb, Co-Author; Jacqueline Goodwin, Co-Author; Julie Hakim-Larson, Co-Author; Sylvia Voelker, Co-Author; Marcia Gragg, Co-Author
Education
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Pediatric Neuropsychology, Allegheny General Hospital
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Autism Assessment, The Watson Institute
Ph D, Child Clinical Psychology, University of Windsor
MA, Counseling Psychology, University of Denver
BS, Psychology, Baldwin Wallace College
Papers and Presentations
March, 2025
Presentations
"Neurodivergence", social media, and self-diagnosis: The importance of comprehensive autism assessment
Social Emotional Wellness Symposium
Monaca, PA
In the last 5 years, social media has had an increasingly stronger influence on the mental health field. While social media can help combat the negative stigma associated with mental health diagnoses, misinformation about these diagnoses can be damaging. One recent trend has been towards the use of the term Neurodiverse, which is used to account for various diagnoses, as well as those choosing to self-diagnose mental health conditions. In addition, social media influencers lacking a background in mental health, have been known to provide inaccurate information about mental health diagnoses and encourage self-diagnosis. This leads to confusion about these disorders and hesitancy regarding comprehensive psychological assessments. One area of particular focus is the self-diagnosis and misdiagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Questionnaires have little demonstrated utility for autism assessment, and influencers are critical of the assessment process. There is a need to evaluate and address this trend, beginning with understanding why comprehensive assessment is essential.
March, 2025
Presentations
The good, the bad, and the ugly: Examining the criterion validity of popular autism questionnaires
American Counseling Association
Orlando, FL, USA
Autism questionnaires are frequently utilized for diagnosis, but have poor criterion validity outside of standardization samples and are contributing to the rise in autism diagnosis. In this presentation we discussed the criterion validity of many published ASD measures and the overlap of symptoms of ASD with ADHD, anxiety, depression, and other disorders.
October, 2022
Presentations
Neurodiversity and autism in the classroom
Faculty Lunch Bag Event
February, 2021
Posters
Intact emotion fluency abilities in children with autism spectrum disorders
The International Neuropsychological Society
Virtual
Children with ASD did not demonstrate comparative weaknesses regarding their EWFT performance compared to other clinical groups and controls. They also did not demonstrate worse performance on the EWFT vs the AFT in ipsative comparisons.These findings suggest intact emotion lexicon access within a time limit for those with ASD.
January, 2021
Presentations
Diagnostic utility of parent report questionnaires in children 2-18
Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD)
Virtual
While parent report questionnaires are used frequently in child assessment for autism, there is limited evidence for their criterion validity.
February, 2020
Posters
Executive function in children with autism vs. other psychiatric disorders
The International Neuropsychological Society
Denver, CO, USA
The study included 96 children (39 ASD, 57 Non-ASD). There were no differences on either task-based executive function assessment (Tower of London or Wisconsin Card Sort). Regarding questionnaires, differences emerged on Conners-3 Peer Relations and BRIEF-2 Shift. Possibly the co-morbidity of ADHD in the sample decreased between group differences. Additionally, it is possible that the task-based assessments are not sensitive to shifting problems encountered in real-world situations.
January, 2019
Presentations
Interpretation of parent/teacher questionnaires in autism diagnostic assessment
Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD)
Orlando, FL
November, 2018
Presentations
Will Students Work for Beans?
Original Lilly Conference on College Teaching
Oxford, OH
A goal of many professors is to increase class preparedness and active engagement in the classroom. This presentation will discuss the implementation of a conditioned reinforcer-earning program (beans) and how it impacted desired classroom behaviors and course grades.
August, 2018
Posters
Factor structure of the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale
American Psychological Association
San Francisco, CA
The current study investigated the purported 5-factor structure of the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale (ASDS). in a sample of 143 clinically referred children (72% males) aged 4-20 years (Mage= 10.11 years, SDage= 3.49). Sixty-four participants (44.8%) met criteria for ASD. A Principal Components Analysis with a Varimax rotation indicated a 3-factor solution (Social, Intense Interests, and Unusual Behaviors) comprised of 24 items corresponding to ASD characteristics. This short form accounted for more variance (40.67%) than the original 50-item questionnaire (38.49%), with good internal consistency reliability for the ASDS-SF Total (α= .849) and the 3 factors (α = .736-.773).T-tests indicated significant differences between autism and non-autism groups for Intense Interests, Unusual Behaviors, and Total score, but not Social. Future research would include replication of findings in a larger sample, evaluation of factor structure consistency across autism versus non-autism samples, and examination of ROC functions.
April, 2017
Posters
Viewing cute pictures increases careful behavior
Rocky Mountain Psychological Association
Salt Lake City, UT
Replicated previous studies demonstrating that viewing "cute" pictures (vs. "less cute" pictures) was associated with improved performance on a task requiring fine motor skills.
June, 2016
Posters
Construct validity of the Unexpected Outcomes Test
Pennsylvania Psychological Association
Harrisburg, PA
February, 2015
Posters
Executive functioning profiles in a clinical sample of youth with and without autism
The International Neuropsychological Society
Denver, CO
Children with autism demonstrated significantly weaker performance on a parent report measure of executive functioning compared to children with other disorders.
August, 2014
Posters
Factor structure of the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale in a non-autism and autism Sample
American Psychological Association
Washington, DC
The ASDS-50 item was shortened to a 13-item questionnaire which accounted for more variance than the original 50 items, suggesting a high degree of error in the original. This factor structure replicated well in an autism sample.