Marvin Krank

Professor Emeritus

Psychology

Email: marvin.krank@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Development of substance abuse in adolescence; vulnerabilities related to social learning; cognitive models that differentiate implicit (unconscious) from explicit memories; relative role of automatic associations versus executive control; social experiences, dispositions, memories, and thoughts that predict transitions to substance use and to substance abuse.

Courses & Teaching

Learning; psychometrics and test evaluation; addiction; questionnaire development.

Biography

Dr. Marvin Krank joined UBC’s Okanagan campus as Dean of Graduate Studies and professor of psychology in July, 2005. He served as Dean of Graduate Studies until July, 2011. For the previous twelve years, Dr. Krank was Vice-President (Academic), Associate Vice-President (Academic) and Dean of Arts and Education at Okanagan University College. Dr. Krank moved to Kelowna from his position as Head of Psychology at Mount Alison University where he taught for ten years. He also taught at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Toronto. He has been an Adjunct Professor at the Oregon Health Sciences University, the University of British Columbia and the University of Washington.

Websites

Cognition and Substance Use Lab
ResearchGate
Google Scholar

Degrees

PhD McMaster University

Research Interests & Projects

HABIT Curriculum Development
Healthy automatic behaviours, intentions, and thoughts (HABIT) is an approach to health education that focuses on how the brain and the mind work. The goal is to encourage healthy behaviours. The program provides accurate information and exercises designed to promote healthy thinking. The program is unique in addressing automatic thinking and behaviours in support of deliberate and purposeful choices to achieve life goals.

We are currently developing the curriculum for Grade 5/6, teacher supports for the program, a workbook with exercises, and on-line activities. We will test the program in several classrooms this spring. Following the pilot, we will revise the materials in response to student and teacher feedback. A full-scale pilot with initial evaluation will begin next fall.

This project focus on the development of curriculum to support heathy choices in the early teens (12-16). It is designed as universal prevention during a vulnerable developmental time where life changing choices can occur. In addition to explicit content encouraging healthy behaviours, this curriculum will include training exercises that are designed to support healthy automatic thinking and choices. This training targets the cognitive biases that can arise in the early teen years and contribute to early substance use. These include unrealistic positive expectancies about the effects of using (outcome expectancies), overestimation of how many, how much, and how often peers use (social norms), and drug culture associations.  Specific procedures include attentional bias modification training, cognitive methods to reduce biases, and developing protective associations.

Selected Publications & Presentations

Nealis, L. J., Thompson, K. D., Krank, M. D., & Stewart, S. H. (2016). Shifting patterns of variance in adolescent alcohol use: Testing consumption as a developing trait-state. Addictive Behaviors, 55, 25-31. 2.44 Impact Factor

Edalati, H. & Krank, M. D. (2015)  Adverse Childhood Experiences and Development of Substance Use Disorders: A review and a Model of Cognitive Pathways. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 05/2015; DOI:10.1177/1524838015584370. 3.27 Impact Factor

Goldstein, A. L., Wall, A-M., Wekerle, C., & Krank, M. D. (2013). The impact of perceived reinforcement from alcohol and involvement in leisure activities on adolescent alcohol use. Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse, 22(4), 340-363.  0.62 Impact Factor

van der Vorst, H., Krank, M. D., Engels, R. C. M. E., Pieters, S., Burk, W. J., & Mares, S. H. W. (2013) The mediating role of memory associations about alcohol on the relation between parental drinking and the onset of adolescents’ alcohol use. Addiction, 108(3), 526–533, doi:10.1111/add.12042. 4.60 Impact Factor

Ames, S. L., Krank, M., Grenard, J. L., Sussman, S., & Stacy, A. W. (2012). Prevention education effects on fundamental memory processes. Evaluation & the Health Professions, 35(4), 416-439.  1.67 Impact Factor

Heung, C.M., Rempel, B., & Krank, M. D. (2012) Strengthening the Canadian Alcohol Advertising Regulatory System. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 103(4):e263-e266.  1.02 Impact Factor

Fulton, H. G., Krank, M. D., & Stewart, S. H. (2012). Outcome expectancy liking: A self-generated, self-coded measure predicts adolescent substance use trajectories. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 26(4), 870-879. 2.09 Impact Factor

Krank, M. D., Stewart, S. H., O’Connor, R. M., Woicik, P. B., Wall, A., & Conrod, P. J. (2011). Structural, concurrent, and predictive validity of the substance use risk profile scale in early adolescence. Addictive Behaviors, 36, 37-46.  2.44 Impact Factor

Krank, M. D., Ames, S. L., Grenard, J. L., Schoenfeld, T., & Stacy, A. W. (2010). Paradoxical effects of alcohol information on alcohol outcome expectancies Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 34(7), 1193-1200. 3.31 Impact Factor

Krank, M. D., Schoenfeld, T., & Frigon, A. P. (2010). Self-coded indirect memory associations for alcohol and marijuana use in college students. Behavior Research Methods, 42(3), 733-8.   2.12 Impact Factor

Wiers, R. W., Ames, S. L., Hofmann, W., Krank, M. D., & Stacy, A. W. (2010). Impulsivity, impulsive and reflective processes and the development of alcohol use and misuse in adolescents and young adults. Frontiers of Psychopathology, DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00144.  2.80 Impact Factor

Frigon, A. P., & Krank, M. D. (2009). Self-coded indirect memory associations in a brief school-based intervention for substance use suspensions. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 23(4), 736-742. 2.09 Impact Factor

Krank, M. D., O’Neill, S., Squarey, K., & Jacob, J. (2008). Goal- and signal-directed incentive: Conditioned approach, seeking, and consumption established with unsweetened alcohol in rats. Psychopharmacology, 196(3), 397-405. 3.99 Impact Factor

Professional Services/Affiliations/Committees

Member, Psychonomics Society
Member, Research Society on Alcoholism