
Dr. Anthony P. Pawlak
Research Analyst & Statistician
Office: SMH 138
Email: tonypete@rutgers.edu
Phone: 848-445-9387
- Bio
- Current Research
- Grants
- Selected Publications
- Education
- Other Information
Bio
Anthony Pawlak is a research analyst and statistician for the behavioral and psychophysiology laboratory of Dr. Marsha E. Bates at the Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies (CAS) at Rutgers University. He graduated cum laude from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA with a BA in psychology. Dr. Pawlak received a MS in Psychology (Biopsychology & Behavioral Neuroscience Program) at Rutgers University with a project that involved the electrophysiological recording of single neuronal units in the basal ganglia in a rodent behavioral pharmacology paradigm that investigated the psychomotoric effects of cocaine on behavior. For this study, he developed an innovative application of multilevel statistical modeling to disentangle the effects of the average firing rates of neurons observed across the study versus the firing rates present during individual movement trials. Dr. Pawlak received his PhD in Education (Concentration in Applied Statistics & Psychometrics) with a dissertation project that focused on utilizing item response theory (IRT) to assess the individual criteria of the DSM-IV diagnostic category for a major depressive episode.
As part of his current position, Dr. Pawlak performs statistical and psychometric analyses, data management, and research design consulting at the CAS. He also assists in the reporting of the methodology and results of statistical analyses for peer-reviewed publications. His statistical and methodological interests include structural equation modeling, latent class analysis, multivariate analyses, and linear mixed models.
Current Research
Dr. Pawlak is currently involved in several research projects centered on the study and interaction of alcohol use, physiology of the cardiovascular system, heart rate variability (HRV), cognition and brain functioning as measured by fMRI. He is also conducting research investigating the properties of structural equation models, latent class analysis, and linear mixed models utilizing Monte Carlo simulation techniques.
Grants
2018-2023 | Changes in Cardiovascular Control Mechanisms Related to Binge Drinking During College. Role: Statistician & Research Analyst. 5R01AA027017-02. |
2018-2020 | Neural and Autonomic Markers of Alcohol Use Behavior Change in Emerging Adulthood: A Prospective Study. Role: Consultant. F31 AA027147. |
Selected Publications
Stamos, J.P., Ma, S., Pawlak, A.P., Engelhard, N., Horvitz, J.C., & West, M.O. (2022). Reward versus motoric activations in nucleus accumbens core of rats during Pavlovian conditioning. European Journal of Neuroscience, 56(1), 3570-3590. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15680
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Lesnewich, L.M., Pawlak, A.P., Gohel, S., & Bates, M.E., (2022). Functional connectivity in the central executive network predicts changes in binge drinking behavior during emerging adulthood: an observational prospective study. Addiction, 117, 1899–1907. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15828
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Im, S., Fitzpatrick, S., Hien, D.A., Lopez-Castro, T., Pawlak, A., & Melara, R.D. (2022). Frontal Alpha Asymmetry in Children with Trauma Exposure. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience, 53(5), 418-425. https://doi.org/10.1177/15500594221076346
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Price, J. L., Bastes, M. E., Morgano, J., Todaro, S., Uhouse, S. G., Vaschillo, E., Vaschillo, B., Pawlak, A., & Buckman, J. (2022). Effects of arousal modulation via resonance breathing on craving and affect in women with substance use disorder. Addictive Behaviors, 127, 107207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.107207
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Leganes-Fonteneau, Bates, M.E., Muzumdar, N., Pawlak, A., Islam, S, Vaschillo, E., & Buckman, J.F. (2021). Cardiovascular mechanisms of interoceptive awareness: Effects of resonance breathing. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 169, 71-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2021.09.003
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Leganes-Fonteneau, M., Bates, M.E., Pawlak, A., & Buckman, J.F. (2021). Does alcohol affect emotional face processing via interoceptive pathways? Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 226, 108845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108845
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Leganes-Fonteneau, M., Buckman, J.F., Suzuki, K., Pawlak, A., & Bates, M.E. (2021). More than meets the heart: systolic amplification of different emotional faces is task dependent. Cognition & Emotion, 35(2), 400–408. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1832050
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Leganes-Fonteneau, M., Buckman, J., Pawlak, A., Vaschillo, B., Vaschillo, E., & Bates, M. (2021). Interoceptive signaling in alcohol cognitive biases: Role of family history and alliesthetic components. Addiction Biology, 26(3), e12952. https://doi.org/10.1111/adb.12952
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Norton, S.A., Gifford, J.J., Pawlak, A.P., Derbaly, A., Sherman, S.L., Zhang, H., Wagner, G.C., & Kusnecov, A.W. (2020). Long-lasting behavioral and neuroanatomical effects of postnatal valproic acid treatment. Neuroscience, 434, 8–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.02.029
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Klein, S.D., Beacher, N.J., Kulik, J.M., Estrin, D.J., Pawlak, A.P., & West, M.O. (2020). Emergence of negative affect as motivation for drug taking in rats chronically self-administering cocaine. Psychopharmacology, 237(5), 1407–1420. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-020-05468-1
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Education
2010 | PhD, Rutgers University, Education (Concentration in Applied Statistics & Psychometrics) |
2004 | MS, Rutgers University, Psychology (Biopsychology & Behavioral Neuroscience Program) |
1996 | BA, Franklin & Marshall College, Psychology |
Other Information
Statistical & Research Analysis Skills:
Statistical/Methodological: Experimental design, Longitudinal research design, ANOVA/MANOVA, Multiple regression, Multivariate statistics, Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM), Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), Growth curve modeling, Principal component analysis/Factor analysis, Structural equation modeling (SEM), Mixture modeling, Latent class analysis (LCA), Cluster analysis, Multidimensional scaling
Psychometrics: Classical test theory, Item response theory (IRT), Nonparametric item response theory, Test equating, Differential item functioning
Software: SAS, R, Stata, Mplus, HLM, SPSS, Bilog, Data Desk, Origin, Sigma Plot, MySQL
Qualitative Research: Grounded theory
Student Mentoring in Statistics & Research Methodology:
- Rutgers University, Dept. of Psychology, Laboratory of Mark O. West, Ph.D.:
- Joshua Stamos, PhD, graduate student, 2012 – 2018, NIH F31 grant
- Nicholas Beacher, PhD (ABD), graduate student, 2016 – 2018, applied for NIH F31 grant
- Rutgers University, Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies, Laboratory of Marsha E. Bates, Ph.D.:
- Laura Lesnewich, MS, graduate student, 2018 – present, NIH F31 grant
- Sarah Grace Helton, MS, graduate student, 2018 – present
Courses Taught: Quantitative Methods in Psychology Recitation; Neuropsychopharmacology Lab; Cognition Psychology Lab