Psychology & Neuroscience

We are a group of faculty, students, and researchers who use behavioral and neural methods to investigate human cognition. We study a variety of topics in perception, attention, memory, training and learning, emotion, reward, and decision making. We employ the main methods of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Behavioral methods include testing in the laboratory and observation in natural environments, while computational modeling evaluates specific theories. Neural methods include the measurement of a number of aspects of brain structure and function: event-related potentials (ERPs), peripheral psychophysiology (e.g., galvanic skin response), volumetric MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and functional MRI (fMRI). The effects of brain dysfunction are investigated using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), drug and neurotransmitter manipulations, and neuropsychological evaluation of individuals with cognitive deficits.

The participants in our studies include healthy children, young and older adults, brain-damaged patients (e.g., amnesics, amygdala damage), patients with cognitive deficits (e.g., Alzheimer's disease), and patients with psychiatric disorders (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder).

Our students and faculty interact in both informal and formal settings. We maintain a regular lunchbox seminar, in which faculty, students, and researchers present their findings and receive feedback from the group, as well as numerous journal clubs whose topics change based on the interests of students and faculty. Our faculty and students collaborate on many research projects and grants. For instance, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers are frequently co-supervised by several faculty in the group, and it is typical for our trainees to publish with several of our faculty.