Tara E. Wright, Ph.D.

Tara E. Wright

Assistant Professor

Division of Neurobehavioral Research,

Department of Psychiatry,

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Biographical Sketch

Tara Karns-Wright is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in the Neurobehavioral Research Laboratory and Clinic (NRLC). She completed her graduate training in Life-Span Developmental Psychology at West Virginia University and her T32 postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio. At the NRLC, Tara is expanding her research and will be involved with studies that examine binge drinking in adults. Specifically, she will be investigating behavioral and biological processes contributing to binge drinking and biomarkers associated with the use of alcohol.

Prior to joining the NRLC, Tara’s research focused on decision-making biases and heuristics in adult populations. Specifically, she has examined factors that may influence the decision-making process such as emotion, impulsivity, and age-related factors. In addition, Tara also has a strong background in statistics and methodology.

In addition to her research and training at the NRLC, Tara is an avid runner and sports enthusiast, faithfully rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

ResearchGate Profile

Research Interests

Statistics and Methodology
Decision-Making: Impulsivity and Bias
Contributions of Behavioral and Biological Processes to Binge Drinking
Biomarkers Associated with Alcohol Use

Education

Year	Degree	Major	Institution
2016	Post-Doc	Behavioral Psychopharmacology	The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio
2013	Ph.D.	Life-Span Developmental Psychology	West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
2012	M.S.	Life-Span Developmental Psychology	West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
2009	B.S.	Psychology/Sociology	Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, PA

Citation Record

249 Times Cited
13 Citations per Publication
9 h-index

Citations per Year

Presentations/Publications with the NRLC

The role of social support in motivating reductions in alcohol use: Tests of three models of social support in alcohol impaired drivers
Moon, T. J., Mathias, C. W., Mullen, J., Karns-Wright, T. E., Hill-Kapturczak, N., Roache, J. D., and Dougherty, D. M.

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 43, 123-134.
Time Delays in Transdermal Alcohol Concentrations Relative to Breath Alcohol Concentrations
Karns-Wright, T. E., Roache, J. D., Hill-Kapturczak, N., Liang, Y., Mullen, J., and Dougherty, D. M. (2017)

Alcohol and Alcoholism, 52, 35-41.
The correspondence between transdermal alcohol monitoring and daily self-reported alcohol consumption
Karns-Wright, T. E., Dougherty, D. M., Hill-Kapturczak, N., Mathias, C. W., and Roache, J. D. (2018).

Addictive Behaviors, 85, 147-152.
The potential clinical utility of transdermal alcohol monitoring data to estimate the number of alcoholic drinks consumed
Dougherty, D. M., Hill-Kapturczak, N., Liang, Y., Karns, T. E., Lake, S. L., Cates, S. E., and Roache, J. D. (2015)

Addictive Disorders & Their Treatment, 14, 124-130.
Using contingency management procedures to reduce at-risk drinking in heavy drinkers
Dougherty, D. M., Lake, S. L., Hill-Kapturczak, N., Liang, Y., Karns, T. E., Mullen, J., and Roache, J. D. (2015).

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 39, 109-121.
Characterization of the pharmacokinetics of Phosphatidylethanol 16:0/18:1 and 16:0/18:2 in human whole blood after alcohol consumption in a clinical laboratory study.
Javors, M. A., Hill-Kapturczak, N., Roache, J. D., Karns-Wright, T. E., and Dougherty, D. M. (2016).

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 40, 1228-1234.
Transdermal alcohol concentration data collected during a contingency management program to reduce at-risk drinking
Dougherty, D. M., Karns, T. E., Mullen, J., Liang, Y., Lake, S. L., Roache, J. D., and Hill-Kapturczak, N. (2015).

Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 148, 77-84.
Assessing the validity of participant-derived compared to staff-derived values to compute a binge score
Lake, S. L., Hill-Kapturczak, N., Liang, Y., Roache, J. D., Mullen, J., Karns, T. E., and Dougherty, D. M. (2015).

Alcoholl and Alcoholism, 50, 413-419.
Using transdermal alcohol monitoring to detect low-level drinking
Roache, J. D., Karns, T. E., Hill-Kapturczak, N., Mullen, J., Liang, Y., Lamb, R. J., and Dougherty, D. M. (2015).

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 39, 1120-1127.
Use of continuous transdermal alcohol monitoring during a contingency management procedure to reduce excessive alcohol use.
Dougherty, D. M., Hill-Kapturczak, N., Liang, Y., Karns, T. E., Cates, S. E., Lake, S. L., Mullen, J., and Roache, J. D. (2014).

Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 142, 301-306.
Accounting for sex-related differences in the estimation of breath alcohol concentrations using transdermal alcohol monitoring
Hill-Kapturczak, N., Roache, J. D., Liang, Y., Karns, T. E., Cates, S. E., and Dougherty, D. M. (2014).

Psychopharmacology, 232, 115-123.