Welcome to the Reading Comprehension & Cognition Lab. My name is Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour and I’m a Professor of Psychology and Assistant Academic Director in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of New England (UNE).
For the 2025/26 academic year, I am proud to be the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Ludtke Chair. This annual award honors a CAS faculty member who has distinguished themselves through scholarly research as well as in the classroom as an educator.
Since arriving on campus in 2010, I’ve been actively involved in exploring the cognitive processes behind reading comprehension, memory, and learning, and teaching a variety of courses within our school such as Cognition and Memory, Consciousness, Statistics, and Research Methods.
I believe that the ability to comprehend and recall information is essential for academic and professional success. My work on the relationship between reading skills, text characteristics, and strategies has also been recognized by the Society for Text and Discourse, which honored me as a Jason Albrecht Outstanding Young Scientist Award winner.
I earned my Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and M.S.T. in College Teaching from the University of New Hampshire in 2010. Originally from Stuttgart, Germany, I’ve lived in the United States for more than 20 years and reside in one Maine’s beautiful coastal communities with my husband and two children. Outside the UNE, I enjoy traveling, gardening, biking, yoga, and going to the beach.