Rate My Professor Martha Arteberry

Martha E. Arterberry, Clara C. Piper Professor of Psychology, Emerita, at Colby College, is a developmental psychologist specializing in infant and child perception, cognition, and development. She earned a B.A. in psychology from Pomona College in 1983 and a Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 1989. Arterberry began her teaching career at Gettysburg College, serving 17 years, rising to full professor, and holding administrative roles as assistant provost and interim vice-provost. In 2007, she arrived at Colby College as a full professor tasked with refocusing the Psychology Department. She redesigned the psychology curriculum, hired numerous faculty members, mentored colleagues, chaired the department for three terms, coordinated the Colloquium Series for more than 10 years, advised the Psi Chi honor society since 2008, and managed the department's move to the Davis Science Center in 2013. Additional service included directing the Presidential Scholars Program for four years, organizing the Colby Undergraduate Summer Research Retreat for two years, and serving six years on the Tenure Committee.

Through her Cognitive Development Lab, Arterberry obtained grants from Colby's Social Science Division and established partnerships with Waterville early education programs, enabling student volunteering with 3- to 5-year-olds. She was a collaborative investigator at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development from 1998 to 2019. Her scholarship encompasses co-authored books including Development in Infancy (Routledge, 2024, with Marc H. Bornstein), Infancy: The Basics (Routledge, 2023), and Development of Perception in Infancy: The Cradle of Knowledge Revisited (Oxford University Press, 2016), plus dozens of peer-reviewed articles on infant object categorization, depth perception, eyewitness memory, and maternal depression effects. Arterberry serves as Editor-in-Chief of Infant Behavior and Development and was Lifespan Development Section Editor for Acta Psychologica for three years. She retired effective September 1, 2025, with emerita status, continuing her editorial and writing contributions.