PhD in cognitive psychology with behavioral research since 2006, including a decade as principal investigator; now a product designer leading a design team for an AI-powered SaaS platform. Published research centers on judgment under uncertainty and word recognition, two of the mechanisms underlying onboarding, defaults, labeling, and information architecture: the parts of a complex product where comprehension is the hard problem.
EXPERIENCE
SideKix HQ, Inc.
Product Designer
April 2026–present
Lead the design team (up to seven designers): run weekly stand-ups and design critiques, give feedback on progress, and clear blockers; represent design in executive planning and roadmap decisions, then carry guidance back to the team
Scope design tasks, write acceptance criteria with the leadership team, and maintain the backlog in Linear and Trello, spanning user flows, information architecture, onboarding, defaults, labeling, copy, journey mapping, and design system maintenance
Led the 0-to-1 product design for the platform; built a scalable design system spanning tokens, components, iconography, type scale, color palette, and motion
Own the design of the Entrepreneurship Development Program: 174 assessments (2,208 scored items) and 696 micro-trainings in nested 5-, 10-, and 15-minute versions, generated with two custom AI-assisted authoring tools that route every item through review
Partner daily with engineering and product on design handoffs, interaction patterns, component specs, and acceptance criteria for a platform in active development
Audited the mobile app against WCAG 2.1 AA; refined specs and remediation priorities
Produced six promotional and explainer films for the company’s website and YouTube channel, including separate explainers for members, advisors, and partners; three are featured on the homepage and audience landing pages
Product Design Intern
March 2026–April 2026
Presented research to executives; findings shaped the roadmap on membership pricing, learning modules, and onboarding
Wireframed, mapped user flows, and developed components in Figma
The Pennsylvania State University
Assistant Teaching Professor & Laboratory Director
July 2017–December 2025
Principal investigator on multiple end-to-end research streams examining how people process, interpret, and respond to information; designed and ran controlled experiments in the lab and online (Qualtrics and MTurk) with 3–5 research assistants and ~200 participants per semester
Published peer-reviewed research on cognitive bias and decision-making with direct implications for UX design patterns
Translated complex datasets into interaction design, information architecture, and usability decisions; presented and defended findings to high-level stakeholders
Directed research operations for the department’s participant pool: ~35 research assistants and ~500 participants per semester; as sole Sona Systems administrator, verified IRB approval for every live study and trained researchers on study setup and credit administration; developed and administered the IRB protocols, with data governance and confidentiality controls throughout
Proposed, justified, and managed the lab’s annual budget, covering research assistant wages, equipment, and supplies
Taught, advised, and mentored ~2,500 undergraduate and graduate students
Helped develop an interdisciplinary Behavioral Finance Certificate with business faculty (2020–2022), applying research on cognitive bias to financial decision-making
Arkansas Tech University
Assistant Professor
July 2015–May 2017
Launched the department’s Sona Systems participant pool (2016): wrote its IRB protocol, coordinated setup with Sona Systems, and served as its sole administrator; principal investigator on mixed-methods experimental studies
Taught, advised, and mentored ~1,000 undergraduate and graduate students
Additional teaching appointments
Instructor of Record
~5,000 students across five institutions, including Penn State and Arkansas Tech
University at Buffalo (SUNY; August 2009–July 2015; taught ~1,000 students including a 450-seat introductory lecture)
Niagara County Community College (May 2014–June 2015)
Daemen College (Daemen University) (August 2010–July 2013)
EDUCATION
PhD, Cognitive Psychology · MA, Psychology · BA, Psychology
2015 · 2011 · 2006
University at Buffalo (SUNY) — graduate research in psycholinguistics, 2006–2015, training research assistants throughout; laboratory manager, 2009–2015
Dissertation topic: On word recognition and lexicalization, or how people perceive, encode, and learn new words under lexical competition from existing vocabulary (mental models, vocabulary acquisition, learnability, and onboarding)
CERTIFICATIONS
Professional Certificate, Google UX Design
2026, Google on Coursera (credential ID: MBN0NAW4TZC2)
Professional Certificate, Google AI
2026, Google on Coursera (credential ID: UDWWGN5HAT9X)
Specialization, AI-Powered Design & Creative Tools
2026, SkillsBooster Academy on Coursera (credential ID: KCIOLCUMU8AX)
CITI Program Certifications
2026, human subjects research (social and behavioral, biomedical, internet, and FDA-regulated), Good Clinical Practice (ICH E6(R3)), and Responsible Conduct of Research; valid through 2029
CORE COMPETENCIES
Research: mixed-methods user research (qualitative and quantitative), user interviews, observational studies, usability testing, surveys, card sorting, A/B testing, behavioral telemetry, personas, and competitive audits
Design: wireframing, prototyping, storyboarding, UI fundamentals, information architecture, navigation design, design systems, and affinity and journey mapping
Design leadership: task scoping, acceptance criteria, backlog management, stand-ups and design critiques, and executive presentations
Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA audits and accessibility standards
TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES
Design and collaboration: Figma, Framer, Claude Design, Miro, Adobe Premiere, and Adobe Photoshop
Research and data: SPSS, R, E-Prime, Qualtrics, REDCap, Sona Systems, and Amazon Mechanical Turk
AI and creative: Claude, Figma Make, Google Gemini and Flow, and Adobe Firefly
Productivity: Microsoft 365 (Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Word), Google Workspace, Slack, Trello, Linear, and Canva
RESEARCH WITH UX IMPLICATIONS
Anchoring effects and the influence of source credibility on judgment under uncertainty
Under review at Psychological Reports (Berg, S. A., 2026)
Source credibility moderated the anchoring effect: estimates spread far more widely between low and high anchors when the source was credible than when it was not
Connects anchoring susceptibility to cognitive accessibility and choice architecture: interface quality as a credibility cue, pre-filled defaults as sludge, higher baseline cognitive load under assistive technology
Implications for trust signaling and AI-assisted decisions: endorsements, verified badges, and recommendations may amplify anchoring rather than merely inform it
Anchoring and judgment bias: Disregarding under uncertainty
Psychological Reports (Berg, S. A., & Moss, J. H., 2022) [doi.org/10.1177/00332941211016750]
Instruction to disregard an anchor narrowed the spread between anchors but did not remove the bias
Asymmetric correction: subjects discounted only the implausible anchor
A caveat weakens a reference value without removing it; direct implications for price anchoring, pre-filled defaults, and form-field priming
Novel forms in the adult mental lexicon: Listening to new neighbors
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (Berg, S. A., 2015) [Publication No. 3725897]
Newly learned word forms built to compete with familiar ones (“cathedruke” against “cathedral”) produced facilitation rather than the predicted interference; they primed shared sounds before they were learned well enough to compete lexically
Recognition was slower and less accurate for words with more similar-sounding neighbors; implications for menu labels, feature names, and onboarding terminology
