Erica Kleinknecht

Professor

503-352-1542

A165

Carnegie Hall 303 (Forest Grove)

Areas I Teach

Professor Erica Kleinknecht is a cognitive-developmental psychologist who has worked at ��Ƶ for over 20 years. She teaches a wide array of classes in cognitive and developmental psychology and in the psychology of serious games. In the early days of her career, she pursued answers to basic questions about declarative memory and its development, like "What are the conditions that lead to memory accuracy, bias, and the creation of false memories?" and "What factors come together in early childhood to enable the emergence of episodic /autobiographical remembering?"

In recent years, Kleinknecht has shifted her energies to applied projects and public scholarship. She has collaborated with local schools to help improve their social-emotional learning curricula and with an after-school program that focuses on video game design. She writes about the positive effects of game-play and game design on cognitive development and advocates for more work in this area. With an interest in sharing psychology content with the public, she and her students create content for dissemination on various social media platforms and is currently examining in her lab how media presentation formats influence the effectiveness of informal learning.

Kleinknecht is also interested in raising awareness on the pressing need for high-quality K-12 digital and AI-literacy programming.

Education

Post-doctoral research fellowship, Institute of Child Development from 2000-2002

PhD in experimental psychology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark. in 2000

Master of science in general psychology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Wash., in 1997

Bachelor of arts in psychology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Wash., in 1995

Current Research Interests

Through natural meaning making processes like engagements with books, games, and social media, we create our own realities. Social media amplifies the meaning-making process by providing scrollers with bottomless content scrolls. Young people are spending an unprecedented amount of time on social media scrolling, reading, and sharing content. Indeed, media content, given it’s specific design features, can be particularly memorable. Much of the “psychology content” young people discover in their scrolling sessions is inaccurate though, thus young people are building naïve and inaccurate theories of psychology that can impact their well-being and emerging identities for better or for worse. In the Media Matters lab, we are applying principles from cognitive science, learning science, and media design to the creation of media content. By varying design features and testing comprehension and belief, we aim to create accurate, memorable, and sharable psychology content to disseminate for scrollers to discover. We are additionally applying similar principles to the design of serious games: games that are both fun, and that serve a greater purpose of change as a result of play.

Courses Taught

Introductory Psychology

Introduction to Cognition

Memory & Mind

Cognitive Development

Social and Personality Development

Trends in Developmental Science

Science Storytelling and Public Scholarship

Advanced Topics in Cognition / Psychology of Games

Senior Capstone and Research Experience

Grants and Awards

2000 | Institute of Child Development, Training Grant Fellowship Recipient, University of Minnesota

2005 | ��Ƶ Junior Faculty Award

2013 | President’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in recognition of outstanding, innovative teaching and dedicated student mentorship

2013 | Invited speaker for Fall convocation

2016 | PRISM summer research grant recipient: "Change in the making: Helping youth grow through game education"

2023 | Western Psychological Association Outstanding Teacher Award

Selected Manuscripts & Publications

Kleinknecht, E. (2026). Teaching introductory psychology: The charge is change. In C. Sanderson and R. Totton (Eds): Teaching Introduction to Psychology. Elgar Publishing.

Kleinknecht, E. Blumberg, F.C., & Flynn, R. M (2024). Making a case for artificial intelligence literacy skills for school-age children. S. Papadakis & M. Kalogiannakis (Eds): Education, Development and Intervention, Springer.

Flynn, R. M., Kleinknecht, E., Ricker, A. & Blumberg, F.C. (2021). A narrative review of methods used to examine digital gaming impacts on learning and cognition during middle childhood. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.

Blumberg, F., Flynn, R., Kleinknecht, E., & Ricker, A. (2019). Cognitive development and gaming in the digital age. Ubiquitous Learning: An International Journal, 12, 39 – 50. Doi: 10.18848/1835-9795/CGP/v12i02/39-50.

Kleinknecht, E. (2013). Design and Assessment of a Maker-Based Game Camp for Youth. Assessment report submitted to Pixel Arts Personnel. (Note: professional report. Available for download from common knowledge: )

Güler, E. O., Larkina, M., Kleinknecht, E., & Bauer, P.J. (2010). Memory strategies and picture recall in preschool children: Relations to maternal behavior over time. Journal of Cognition and Development.

Larkina, M., Guler, O.E., Kleinknecht, E., & Bauer, P.J. (2008). Maternal provision of structure in a deliberate memory task in relation to their preschool children’s recall. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 100, 235 – 251.

Kleinknecht, E., & Beike, D.R. (2004). How knowing and doing inform an autobiography: Relations among preschooler's theory of mind, narrative, and event memory skills. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 745-764.

Beike, D. R., Kleinknecht, E., & Wirth-Beaumont, E. T. (2004). Open versus closed event memories. In D.R. Beike, J.M. Lampinen, & D.A. Behrend (Eds.), The Self and Memory. Psychology Press.

Bauer, P.J., Burch, M., & Kleinknecht, E.E. (2002). Developments in early recall memory: The mean the variability behind it. H.W. Reese and R. Kail, (Eds.) Advances in Child Development and Behavior. Academic Press. (Note: invited, edited book chapter)

Bauer, P. J. & Kleinknecht, E.E. (2002). To “ape” or to emulate? Young children's use of both strategies in a single study (Invited commentary to Want & Harris). Developmental Science, 5, 18-20.

Hyman, I. E. & Kleinknecht, E. E., (1998). False childhood memories: Research, theory and applications. In L.M. Williams & V.L. Banyard (Eds.) Trauma and Memory. Sage.

Select Conference Presentations

Kleinknecht, E. & Tsybina, D. (2025, May). Moments, Ripples, and Waves: Promoting Activism Through Authentic Teaching and Learning. Presentation in the Symposium Advocacy, Activism, and Social Justice: Exploring Perceptions, Challenges, and Pathways for Sustainable Change at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV.

Kleinknecht, E., Antick-Oslund, M., Best, A., Millier, T., & Tsybina, D. (2025, May). The Art of Content Delivery: Informal Learning as a Function of Design and Presentation Mode. Poster presented at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV.

Estep, J., Kanevsky, I., & Kleinknecht, E. (2024, April). In Conversation: Faculty Strategies for Today’s Classroom. Presentation in the Teaching Take Out Series at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Kleinknecht, E. (2024). The World has Problems and Psychology has Solutions: Authentic Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century. Invited Address at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Kleinknecht, E., Vaninetti, A., & Sato, C. (2024, April). Media Matters: Informal Learning as a Function of Presentation Mode. Poster presented at at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Kleinknecht, E. (2024, April). Representation Matters in Psychology. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Association for Science Communicators, Portland, OR.

Kleinknecht, E. (2024, April). ReCONCEPTualizing the Cumulative Final in Introductory Psychology: A Pre-Post Concept Map Assessment Strategy. Presentation in the Teaching Take Out Series at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Blumberg, F., D., De Cock, R., Besharat Mann, R., Flynn, R. & Kleinknecht, E. (2023, March). Developmental findings and considerations to inform media literacy instruction. Roundtable Discussion Hour held at the biennial meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, Salt Lake City UT.

Kleinknecht, E. & Flynn, R. (2023, March). A Primer on Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion in Developmental Science Courses: Revamping Your Course With a Social Justice Lens. Participant Roundtable Idea Exchange at the Society for Research in Child Development, Developmental Science Teaching Institute, Salt Lake City, UT.

Kleinknecht, E. (2023, April). Making Metacognition Work: The Power of a Weekly MSR Log. Presentation in the Teaching Take Out Series at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, Riverside, CA.

Kleinknecht, E. (2022, April). Operationalizing Authentic Learning: Effective Strategies for the Digital Age? Invited talk at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, Portland OR.

Kleinknecht, E. (2022, April). Real meet Virtual: Giving Psychology Away One Virtual Soundbite at a Time. Panel member for Teaching Take Out Series at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, Portland OR.

Kleinknecht, E. & Flynn, R. (2021, April). Promoting equity, diversity & inclusion in developmental science courses: A participant idea exchange on action-focused pedagogy. Presentation delivered at the Society for Research in Child Development, Developmental Science Teaching Institute.

Kleinknecht, E., Blumberg, F., Flynn, R., Ricker, A. & Calvert, S. (2019, March). The Digital Landscape as a Seldom Explored Context for Examining Cognitive Development during Middle Childhood. Roundtable Discussion Hour held at the biennial meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD.

Kleinknecht, E. (2018, April). Change in the making: Self-efficacy improvements in a game-education after school, program. Presentation delivered at the American Psychological Association Technology, Mind, & Society conference. Washington DC.

Kleinknecht, E. (2017, October). Making Games for Change: Growth in metacognitive self-regulation via game education. Poster presented at the Digital Media and Cognitive Development Pre-Conference for the biennial meetings of the Cognitive Development Society, Portland, OR.

Kleinknecht, E., Boulanger, T., & Norradin, M. (2017, April). Here comes the sun: Autobiographical Memory Frame as a Function of Ambient Temperature. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Sacramento, CA.

Kleinknecht, E., Chambers, C., & Kochendorfer, J. (2017, April). Let it Go, or Here Comes the Sun? Autobiographical Memory Frame as a Function of Metaphorical Temperature. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Sacramento, CA.

Kleinknecht, E., Koch, J., & Noochan, J. (2016, April). Warm Hearts and Cold Shoulders: Body Temperature Shapes Autobiographical Remembering. Poster to be presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Long Beach, CA.

Kleinknecht, E., Gilmore, T., & VanderZanden, A. (2016, May). Change In The Making: Helping Youth Grow Through Game Education. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Long Beach, CA.

VanderZanden, A. & Kleinknecht, E. (2016, May). Making Change: Does Game Education Improve Youths' Learning Skill Sets? Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Long Beach, CA.

Kleinknecht, E & Justice, K. (2015, April). Assessment of a Program for Improving Academic and Personal Growth. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV.

Kleinknecht, E., Arbogast, S., & Carrillo, E. (2015, April). I feel you! Effects of Temperature on Social-Cognitive Judgments. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV.

Kleinknecht, E., Gilmore, T., VanderZanden, A. (2015, April). Promoting Social Change Through Game Education: A Program Evaluation. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV.

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