Explore the work that is done in research laboratories affiliated with the department. For faculty members who need to update or add to the lab listings below, please fill out this form.
Faculty labs
- Adaptive Behavior and Cognition Lab–West (Todd)
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About
The Adaptive Behavior and Cognition Lab–West (ABC-West) is dedicated to exploring the cognitive mechanisms that people (and other animals) use to behave adaptively in their environments. We study the interactions between behavior and environment at multiple scales–including how cognitive mechanisms have evolved in response to particular environmental structures, how behaviors are learned through interactions with the environment, and how behaving and acting in the world can change the environmental structures that agents face in the future. We look at particular adaptively important domains such as mate choice and food choice, and we use tools including agent-based modeling and simulation and laboratory experiments. ABC-West was formed in 2005 through budding from the original ABC Research Group in Berlin, Germany.
- Addiction and Neuroplasticity Lab (Katona)
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About
One of the most influential recent breakthroughs in neuroscience is the recognition that drugs of abuse simply hijack normal brain plasticity processes and turn them into abnormal molecular, structural and functional alterations manifesting as maladaptive behavioral patterns and addiction. Our laboratory aspires to elucidate novel physiological and pathophysiological forms of brain plasticity mechanisms with a specific focus on signaling pathways, cell types and brain circuits involved in addiction. To achieve this goal, we exploit a unique multi-disciplinary approach by combining state-of-the-art nanoscale molecular, anatomical and electrophysiological technologies with mesoscale functional brain imaging and behavioral models of addiction. Ultimately, this activity is envisaged to help gain a better understanding of the neurobiology of addiction and to contribute to the identification of novel treatment approaches.
- Animal Behavior Lab (Alberts)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A404
About
Dr. Albert's research program is dedicated to describing and elucidating functional and mechanistic aspects of the development of species-typical behavior in rodents. Currently, he is studying sensory and motor capabilities in fetal rats as a means of understanding adaptation to prenatal life as well as anticipation of the postnatal environment. Dr. Alberts is analyzing the ultrasonic vocalizations of infant rodents, not just as a form of acoustic communication with the parent, but also as an aspect of early thermal and oxygen homeostasis. Both of these lines of research reflect the combined behavioral and physiological approach often used in his laboratory. Studies of weaning in rodents are another part of the program, for the transition from suckling to independent feeding is a universal developmental process in mammalian ontogenesis. Because parents are a part of a mammal's typical environment, Dr. Albert's lab also is devoted to novel analyses of parental behavior, including biparental care, and parent-offspring interactions.
- Bradshaw Lab of Lipid Neuroscience
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Lab Space
Multidisciplinary Science Building II 177 & 179
About
Two fields that I have a passion for are neuroscience and the biochemistry of lipid signaling. My group combines these fields to understand how lipid signaling drives changes in all aspects of neurophysiology through a systems neuroscience approach. One lipid signaling system currently being investigated centers on endogenous cannabinoids. Cannabinoids are lipids from the plant Cannabis, also known as marijuana.
One of the primary techniques we use in order to study these endogenous lipids is through mass spectrometry. Combining an expertise in lipid mass spectrometry, neuroscience, and a variety of disease models is a powerful combination that allows us to work with collaborators from around the world and to ultimately come to new and exciting discoveries about the field of lipid neuroscience.
- Brain Networks and Behavior Lab (Betzel)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A316
About
Nervous systems are comprised of structurally and functionally connected neural elements. These elements form vast networks that help shape brain function and cognitive processes. In our lab we use methods from network science to study the organization and behavior of biological neural networks so that we can better understand their role in health and disease.
Our work involves analysis of network data at different spatial, temporal, and topological scales. Our goal is to understand the underlying principles that shape the organization and function of biological neural networks.
- Cannabinoid Physiology Lab (Straiker)
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About
The central goal of our research has been to characterize cannabinoid signaling in the brain. Exogenous cannabinoids are important drugs of abuse and have a role in human history dating back thousands of years. Only recently have we begun to learn how cannabinoids actually work in the body. Cannabinoid CB1 receptors are nearly ubiquitous in the CNS, by some counts the most numerous G protein-coupled receptors in the brain. They are involved in many important brain functions including (un-)learning and memory, epilepsy, motor control, vision, and probably much more. Much has been learned recently about the mechanisms by which cannabinoids act at the cellular level, but despite the detail, the picture is far from complete. By all accounts, CB1 receptors are part of a complex web of transporters, enzymes for production and breakdown of endocannabinoids, and signaling molecules, each subject to modulation. The precise workings of endocannabinoid signaling, and even the identity of the endocannabinoid at a given synapse, generally remain an open question. Our primary approach is to use electrophysiology in combination with molecular biology, anatomy, endocannabinoid measurement, and microarray analysis to investigate specific mechanisms of cannabinoid signaling and their roles in health and disease.
- Categorization and Memory Lab (Nosofsky)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 240 & 242
- Change Lab (Motz)
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About
In the Change Lab, we ask questions about how people learn, and how to improve it.
Our research focuses broadly on human learning, using experimental methods and the data from digital environments where contemporary learning occurs. Our primary focus is on the cognitive mechanisms involved in learning and knowing, but no person is an island. We also focus on the social and behavioral contexts that moderate cognitive learning processes, and study how change along these dimensions affects learning outcomes. Our lab’s name is short for Contextual beHavior, leArNing, and knowledGE Lab, if you're into acromanteaus.
- Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience Center (Wisner, Hetrick, + Moussa-Tooks)
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Krista Wisner, William Hetrick, + Alexandra Moussa-Tooks
Lab Space
Psychology Building A204, A208, 292, & 294
About
The CCNC embraces a clinical translational science approach towards understanding risk factors and "illness" mechanisms of schizophrenia and related psychological disorders (e.g., bipolar disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, autism spectrum disorder) using both human and animal models. Over the years, the lab has pursued research in understanding the basic neural contributions to psychosis-spectrum disorders including among other things (1) cerebellar structural and functional contributions to cognitive processes, (2) brain-behavior relationships that underlie temporal, perceptual, and attentional anomalies, (3) the role of neural synchrony and oscillations in normal and perturbed brain function, and (4) uncovering cognitive and behavioral disturbances characteristic to schizophrenia-spectrum and bipolar disorders. Moreover, the lab has been invested in the evaluation of both behavioral and pharmacological treatments of schizophrenia through clinical trials.
- Cognition and Action Neuroimaging Lab (K. James)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A104
About
Our interactions with the world rely on actions: therefore, our perceptions not only drive action, but are also driven by action. This interaction shapes and changes cognition. In the CANLab, we study how our actions with the environment, such as how we handle objects or learn words for objects and actions, affect our ideas and memory. Much of the research in the CANLab uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as a tool for investigating neural processing during learning throughout the life span. We also study the effects of action on object knowledge, categorization and word learning during the early years of cognitive development.
- Cognition and Learning Lab (Gunderson)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A124
About
The Cognition and Learning Lab investigates the development of children's cognitive skills and motivation, primarily in the domain of mathematics. We are particularly interested in the developmental processes and environmental factors that lead to individual differences in these skills and motivation. Our work has examined a variety of topics, including the development of numerical and spatial skills; the development of anxieties, stereotypes, and motivation in these domains; and the role of parents and teachers in supporting children’s skills and motivation.
**Accepting undergraduate researchers**
- Cognitive Computing Laboratory (Jones)
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About
The Cognitive Computing Lab is currently located in the Center for Computational Cognition and Perception (C3P0 or CCCP, depending on who you ask), on the top floor of the Geological Sciences Building, between the Luddy School of Informatics and Computing, and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
The lab is equipped with 20 individual subject testing booths o run behavioral experiments. We have an SR Research Eyelink 2K remote optics high-speed eye tracker for experiments in reading and visual attention tracking. The system allows both monocular and binocular tracking at up to 2000Hz (a data point every half millisecond). The lab also features a Biological Motion Capture system (Gold), and state-of-the-art conference room and breakout room facilities.The lab is well-equipped with computational clusters for simulation work, and we do most of our large-scale simulations on Indiana's supercomputers. The laboratory is very well supported with large-scale computational infrastructure to perform particularly complex and data-hungry development of computational cognitive models and artificial intelligence.
- Cognitive Control Lab (Brown)
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Lab Space
Geology Building 6030K
About
The mission of the Cognitive Control Lab is to identify and characterize the neural mechanisms of goal directed behavior. To this end, we focus on the frontal lobes, and especially the medial prefrontal cortex. Our research involves a tight integration of computational neural modeling, functional MRI, and cognitive psychology.
- Cognitive Development Lab (Smith)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A140
About
At every moment, when children are eating breakfast, chasing the dog, playing with toys, infants and young children are learning. Our goal is to understand how that works. We study how they create, for themselves and with others, opportunities to learn about the world.
**Accepting Undergraduate Researchers**
If you are interested in joining the Cognitive Development Lab, please fill out our application here.
Applications are reviewed in October for the spring semester and in March for the summer and fall semesters. We will reach out around the middle of those months to schedule a time to meet and see if our lab is the right fit for you.
- Cognitive Neurobiology Lab (E. Newman)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 481 & 485
About
How do neural circuits give rise to cognition? Our lab examines this question by focusing on the cognitive processes underlying navigation and memory. We take an interdisciplinary approach, combining empirical methods from systems and behavioral neuroscience and theoretical methods from computational neuroscience. Individual projects often seek to uncover the mapping from brain dynamics to behavioral ability. We collect high-density electrophysiological recordings of brain activity in rats and humans and then analyze how that activity relates to performance in behavioral tasks. These analyses are often guided by the predictions of computational models so that our results have direct relevance for formal theories of how neural circuits enable cognition.
**ACCEPTING undergraduate researchers**
I ask all applicants to email me a two-page personal statement addressing the following questions:
Why have you chosen to conduct research, as opposed to the myriad other extra-curricular activities you could do?
What specific academic / career goals will this experience help you to achieve?
What tangible outcomes will allow us to know if you are achieving your goals?
Why this lab in particular?
What relevant experience and skills, if any, do you have?
This can be sent to ehnewman@iu.edu
Once I've received your statement, we can set up a time to meet and discuss your goals and possible fit to the lab directly!
- Comparative Cognition Laboratory (Crystal)
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Lab Space
Multidisciplinary Science Building II 255, 257, 259, 261, 272, & 274
About
The lab is focused on developing new animal models of cognition. One benefit of studying cognition in animals is that it may provide insight into impairments in cognition observed in people. Cognitive impairments in people are debilitating, and developing insight into the origins of such impairments offers a tool to improve the effectiveness of treatments. Significant obstacles nonetheless impede the development of animal models of disordered cognition with both construct and predictive validity. Although there is a long history of studying learning and memory in animals, these types of cognitive processes may not match those observed clinically (e.g., Alzheimer's disease features severe impairments in episodic memory). Thus, it is possible that drug-development programs may identify agents effective at the pre-clinical level that subsequently fail when translated to a clinical trial in people. Ultimately, the expansion of the suite of cognitive processes that may be modeled in animals may translate to improved therapies for debilitating memory impairments observed in humans. The long-range goal is to understand how animals process and remember events in time and provide a neuroanatomically guided theoretical framework for understanding memory disorders.
- Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab (Sporns)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A308
About
Our main goal is to understand integrative aspects of brain structure and function, with an emphasis on how the connections and interactions among neural elements (neurons, populations, brain regions) give rise to brain dynamics, cognition and behavior. Our approach is to view the brain as a complex network that is embedded in a behaving organism and supports the processing and integration of information. To make sense of the brain as a complex system we employ a broad range of analysis and modeling techniques, particularly methods coming from computational neuroscience, graph theory, time series analysis, complexity and information theory. The lab is at the forefront of network models of neural systems, all modalities of brain connectivity, and the emerging field of connectomics. Many of our ongoing projects involve collaborations in brain mapping (with an emphasis on human brain data, but also inclusing non-human primate, rodent and insect brains), brain dynamics (as recorded with EEG, MEG or fMRI), development of new methods for network analysis (especially centrality and modularity), and individual differences in brain networks across healthy populations as well as disturbances in brain injury and disease (ADHD, schizophrenia).
- Computational Decision Making Lab (Trueblood)
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About
The CDM Lab takes a joint experimental and computational modeling approach to study human judgment, decision-making, and reasoning. We study how people make decisions when faced with multiple, complex alternatives and options involving different risks and rewards.
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab (Bertenthal)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A124
About
Children are our most precious resource, and we, like you, want to know how to nurture their growth and development. We are especially interested in how infants and young children learn about themselves as well as their social and physical worlds. What do young infants already know? How do they learn from their own actions and the feedback they receive from their parents and others? Our studies are designed to investigate these questions in young children as well as in adults, and include observational, eye tracking, physiological, and EEG/ERP approaches as well as computational modeling.
- Developmental Psychopathology Lab (D'Onofrio)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 239
About
Our research explores the causes, assessment, and treatments of psychological, substance use, and related public health problems across the lifespan. In particular, our research leverages translational epidemiologic methods to (a) better understand the processes that account for the associations between putative causal risk factors and health problems, (b) evaluate real-world interventions, and (c) guide intervention developmental and dissemination. We have a particular interest in studying health disparities, focusing on individuals and groups who are especially vulnerable or who have been marginalized. Our research combines advances in several fields, including clinical science, developmental science, epidemiology/biostatistics, behavior genetics, and dissemination and implementation science.
**ACCEPTING undergraduate researchers**
More information about how to apply for undergraduate research positions can be found here.
- interACT Lab (Chaku)
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About
The adolescent transition is characterized by dramatic biological, cognitive, and social changes that are detrimental for some, but not all, youth. Thus, the aim of our research is to understand “what works when and for whom,” by developing and using increasingly personalized methods to study adolescent behavior. Primarily, students in the interACT lab study how the experience of and progression of puberty can set youth on different cognitive and health paths, but on-going questions also include positive experiences during adolescence, civic engagement, and mental health outcomes. To investigate these questions, we use intensive longitudinal assessments (e.g., daily diary), physiological data collection (e.g., saliva), and behavioral assessments (e.g., neurocognitive testing) alongside secondary data analyses and community-orientated data collection (e.g., youth participatory action research) to better understand youth’s lived experiences.
**ACCEPTING undergraduate researchers**
The interACT lab welcomes 1-2 undergraduate research assistants every fall, spring, and summer semester. If you're interested in joining the interACT lab, please fill out the google form here.
Applications are reviewed in April for the summer semester, in August for the fall semester, and in December for the spring semester. We highly encourage our RAs to make at least a year-long commitment to the lab.
- Judgment and Decision Research Laboratory (Busemeyer)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A300
About
- Language Production and Executive Control Lab (Nozari)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 181
About
We study how people turn their thoughts into language. This research includes how children and adults learn to speak, write, and type, how bilingual or multilingual speakers produce langauge, and how people are able to detect and correct their own errors.
**ACCEPTING undergraduate researchers**
Please email PI Nozari (bnozari@iu.edu) with a brief description of your background and your research interests. If you have a CV, please include your CV (mandatory for junior and senior students; optional otherwise).
- Learning, Education, and Development Lab (Fyfe)
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Lab Space
Geology Building 6050 D, E, F & Psychology Building 187
About
The lab’s primary goal is to conduct studies in cognitive development with a focus on the development of mathematics knowledge and problem solving.
Children’s knowledge is continuously changing as they observe and interact with people and the world. In the LEAD Lab, our research focuses on the construction and organization of that knowledge with an emphasis on how children learn and solve problems in mathematics. We are motivated by a question facing scientists, psychologists, educators, and parents: How can we support children’s learning so that it leads to the creation of robust and meaningful knowledge?
Our research:
(1) Helps identify basic cognitive processes that support the development of mathematics knowledge
(2) Examines how to use that information to design effective learning techniques and materials
- Lu Laboratory
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About
In the Lu laboratory, we aim to elucidate the signaling cascades that establish neural circuit connections during brain development, to understand how sensory experiences and environmental factors affect neural circuit wiring and cognitive behaviors, and to identify novel factors required to maintain the health of neural circuits during aging.
- Mackie Laboratory
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Lab Space
Multidisciplinary Science Building II 142
About
The Mackie lab examines the role and function of the endocannabinoid system by using a combination of electrophysiological, imaging, biochemical and immunological approaches. The endocannabinoid system is comprised of cannabinoid receptors, endogenous cannabinoids (endocannabinoids), and the enzymes that regulate the production and degradation of endocannabinoids. ?9THC, the principal psychoactive component of cannabis, interacts with this system to produce the classic effects of cannabis intoxication. In addition, this system is widely involved in multiple physiologically important processes including memory, motivation, movement, analgesia, and emesis. Through our studies, we hope to better understand the implications of social and therapeutic use of drugs that influence this fascinating system.
- Mathematical Psychology Lab (Townsend)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 289
About
Professor James T. Townsend has worked for many years within the broad information processing approach. He has been particularly involved in the development of theory-driven methodologies which are capable of solving deep issues of elementary cognition, perception and action, by testing very large classes of models against one another in a non-parametric and distribution free manner.
One train of that research is known as Systems Factorial Technology and another is General Recognition Theory.
- Memory and Perception Lab (Shiffrin)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A320
About
I am interested in mathematical and computer simulation models of memory, learning, retrieval, attention, limited capacity, automatism, and perception, and empirical research to test and develop these models.
In recent years I have paid particular interest to memory retrieval, and have contrasted traditional models with parallel, distributed, composite models, and a new model based on Bayesian optimal retrieval. The new model is aimed to explain storage and retrieval not only of recent events, but of general knowledge and the relation between the two. The empirical research explores different ways in which memory is accessed, such as recall, recognition, or implicit tests.
- Mind and Identity in Context Lab (Murphy)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 293, 383, 385, 387, & 389
About
Broadly speaking, our lab focuses on developing and testing theories about how people’s social identities and group memberships interact with the contexts they encounter to affect their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, physiology, and motivation.
- Motoneuron Plasticity, Therapeutics, and Development (Sengelaub)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A408, & A417
About
Research in this lab focuses on the processes that regulate the structure and organization of both the developing and adult nervous system, with particular emphasis on sex differences and hormonal regulation. Using a variety of species, neural systems, anatomical, and electrophysiological techniques, we address the factors which regulate neuron number, distribution, morphology, and connectivity in the brain and spinal cord. Processes such as dendritic growth and retraction, and the maintenance of adult neuron morphology after nerve injury or spinal damage are of primary interest.
- Navigating Intergroup Contexts and Emotions (Green)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 290
About
The Navigating Intergroup Contexts and Emotions (N.I.C.E.) Lab examines the ways in which people’s social group memberships influence their experiences in diverse social contexts. We also study how the manner in which people manage their emotions in intergroup contexts impacts their behavioral, psychological, and physiological outcomes. We take a multi-level, multi-method (e.g., experimental, physiological, longitudinal, experience sampling) approach to enrich our understanding of these processes with the aim of developing tools and interventions that help people thrive in diverse social contexts.
**ACCEPTING undergraduate researchers**
We are accepting undergraduate research assistants for Fall 2024. If you are interested in working with us, please fill out the application below.
- Neuroscience of Mind and Behavior Lab (Krendl)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A216
About
Our research uses social neuroscience and behavioral approaches to understand social cognition and how it changes over the lifespan. Our current projects examine how being stigmatized (e.g., for mental illness or addiction) affects individuals in everyday life (e.g., decisions to seek treatment), and how healthy aging affects social cognition.
- Pain and Addiction Lab (Hohmann)
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Lab Space
Multidisciplinary Science Building II 254
About
My lab has identified functional roles of the endocannabinoid system in the nervous system and mapped its distribution in sensory pathways. My research has identified enzymes implicated in endocannabinoid deactivation as novel therapeutic targets for pain and stress-related disorders. My laboratory strives to maximize the therapeutic potential of endocannabinoid signaling systems while minimizing unwanted central nervous system side effects (e.g., psychoactivity and addiction). My lab has also disrupted protein-protein interactions downstream of NMDA receptors to suppress pronociceptive signaling cascades without the adverse effects of NMDAR antagonists (i.e., by targeting interactions between neuronal nitric oxide synthase and its upstream [PSD95] or downstream [NOS1AP] protein partners). My laboratory combines approaches from behavioral pharmacology, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, biochemistry, and molecular biology.
- Perception and Neuroimaging Lab (T. James)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 237
About
A pervasive idea in cognitive science is that decisions are the result of a comparison of sensory evidence that is accumulated over time. Findings from both neurophysiology and neuroimaging now suggest that the brain solves the problem of perceptual decision-making using a similar accumulator mechanism. Using accumulators as a framework, the PAN Lab seeks to understand how the brain processes sensory evidence, how that sensory evidence interacts with previous experiences, how that interaction contributes to decision making, and how those decisions lead to environmentally-appropriate actions. The research program emphasizes the understanding of fudamental sensory operations and how they may differ across typical and atypical populations. Research involves a combination of experimental methods and analysis techniques, including fuctional MRI, resting state and task-based functional connectivity, structural connectivity, psychophysics, self-report, daily diaries, TMS, and EEG.
- Perception/Action Lab (Bingham)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A326
About
The approach in the Perception/Action Lab is based on a number of principles
(1) Perception and action are synergistic and mutually constraining or determining. There is no perception without action and there is no action without perception.
(2) Perception requires information: in light for vision; in sound for audition, in movement for proprioception. Because perception and action are inexorably linked, information is found in spatial-temporal patterns. Movement is an essential part of the game.
(3) Information is based on natural law and dynamics. Physical dynamics constrain and determine the forms of motions in events including human actions. Those forms project to the forms in information carrying media (e.g. light and sound).
Research in the lab is focused on visual, proprioceptive and haptic perception and then, human actions performed with the upper limbs: reaching-to-grasp, overarm throwing, and rhythmic limb movements, as well as the coordinate looking movements. We study action, but our primary focus and commitment is to the study of perception as the foundation for all actions.
- Percepts and Concepts Laboratory (Goldstone)
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About
Our laboratory is currently exploring interactions between perceptual and conceptual learning, methods for learning concepts using computer simulations, decision making, mathematical cognition, collective behavior, and the application of cognitive science for improving learning outcomes. Our typical modus operandi is to simultaneously conduct psychological experiments on humans and develop computational models of the observed behavior. The results from the experiments help to constrain and inform our computational models, and the computational models serve to organize and explain our empirical results.
- Social Brain Lab (Kennedy)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 393
About
Our research focuses on the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying human social behavior, and how these mechanisms might be different in people with autism or acquired brain damage. We use a variety of experimental methods, including eye tracking, cognitive and behavioral assessments, and functional and structural neuroimaging.
- Social Cognition Lab (Rydell)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 236 & 238
About
My work primarily focuses on two distinct lines of research. One line of research focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying stereotype threat-based performance and learning decrements. A second line of research examines the differences between implicit and explicit attitude measures (i.e., attitude formation, attitude change, attitudinal discrepancies, and attitude-behavior correlations).
- Social Development Lab (Bates)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A304
About
My main research goal is to learn how children's behavior problems and social competencies develop. I am especially interested in family interaction processes and child temperament, but also consider child social cognitive and affective characteristics and broader socioeconomic variables. A recent interest concerns the role of children's sleep in their daily adjustment. We have studied these issues mostly through longitudinal research. We have learned, for example, that early child temperament and mother-child interaction characteristics are somewhat predictive of children's later adjustment, as measured especially by the parents' report of child behavior problems, and also by teachers and peers at school and by laboratory observers. We have been considering the effects of mother-child relationship and temperament as interacting predictors of later adjustment. We have found that in dyads where mothers are low in restrictive control, temperament is more predictive of late.
- Social Neuroscience Lab (Puce)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 185 & 189
About
This research program focuses on the neural basis of social cognition - the ability to interpret the actions, intentions and emotions of others. Implicit/explicit aspects of non-verbal communication is a main theme, as is the context in which the action occurs. We use activation tasks that attempt to mimic real-life situations. Our experiments use multimodal neuroimaging methods, including behavior, EEG, fMRI, event-related response, eye tracking and white matter tractography. Relevant techniques are determined by the particular scientific question being asked. We also are involved in MEG studies via a collaboration.
- Social Psychology of Motivation and Performance (Hirt)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 224
About
Research in our lab generally concentrates on issues related to motivation and performance. The primary current lines of research in our lab focus on (1) the experience of mental depletion and its consequences for subsequent performance and acts of self-control; and (2) the role of political ideology and free will beliefs on various outcome variables, including attributions of responsibility, ascriptions of punishment, and potential for growth/change; and (3) how one's beliefs about the relational self affects social relationship maintenance and satisfaction.
- Social Roles Lab (Diekman)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A220
About
Research in our lab studies how social roles – gender roles, occupational roles, family roles – influence individuals’ decisions, beliefs, and goals. A particular focus is how the perception that STEM allows opportunities to work with or help others can increase attraction to STEM pathways.
- Speech Research Lab (Pisoni)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 180 & 182
About
The Speech Research Laboratory at Indiana University has extensive hardware and software for presenting complex acoustic signals to subjects and recording their responses in real-time. Three computer-controlled laboratories are used for perceptual experiments with human observers. These labs are equipped with audio-visual capabilities for running multiple observers in real-time experiments. The labs also have several specialized state-of-the-art workstations as well as a series of microcomputers that are used for speech analysis and synthesis and computational studies of linguistic databases.
- Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Facial Expression Lab (Hugenberg)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building A212
About
Research in our lab focuses on how perceivers' stereotypes, prejudices, and prejudice-related motives influence how we categorize, perceive, and understand others. In our work, this has ranged from how stereotypes affect how we perceive faces and bodies, to how social group memberships relate to how we engage with others online, to work on how the digital divide affects access to civil justice.
- Stress, Sex Differences, Brain, and Behavior (Wellman)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 484
About
My research focuses on the neurobiology of stress, a critical variable in the development and expression of many psychological disorders. By using simple animal models that permit the manipulation and control of stress and other relevant variables, I hope to understand the neural causes and consequences of abnormal behavior. I am using such models to characterize alterations in neural plasticity resulting from stress.
- Study of Affective Disorders’ Classification and Treatment Lab (Lorenzo-Luaces)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 295
About
I am broadly interested in the treatment and phenomenology of depression and other internalizing disorders like generalized anxiety, including their classification and differentiation from negative moods that are not impairing or distressing. My research has focused on the outcomes and processes of change in depression treatments, especially cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBTs). An overarching theme informing my work is that the level of heterogeneity in the clinical presentation (e.g., symptoms) and in the prognosis of internalizing disorders needs to be considered when studying etiology and treatments.
- Vision Lab (Gold)
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About
How are we able to detect, discriminate, identify and classify the incredible number of objects that we continually encounter in our environment? Our research is directed towards understanding some of the basic processes that mediate these remarkable abilities. The approach we take is to treat the human visual system like an elaborate signal processing device. We use a combination of psychophysical techniques, mostly involving externally added noise, to characterize some of the inner workings that mediate visual pattern perception.
- Visual Development Lab (Candy)
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About
The research studies conducted by our group are designed to understand how vision develops in infants and young children. We know that abnormal visual experience early in life can result in abnormal visual development. For instance, young children can develop an eye-turn (strabismus) or poor vision (amblyopia) if they are born with a cataract and it is not treated. While the clinical management of some of these patients is clear, there are more subtle conditions that we still need to understand better. For instance, we regularly ask how much far-sight (hyperopia) in infancy is enough to disrupt normal neural development and result in clinical problems (strabismus and amblyopia)? Should we be giving glasses to infants with significant amounts of hyperopia?
- Visual Perception and Electrophysiological Lab (Busey)
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Lab Space
Psychology Building 291
About
This laboratory uses the tools of cognitive science to understand how humans make decisions in forensic contexts. We use web-based tools, eye tracking, electrophysiology, and mathematical modeling. Our overall goal is to reduce errors and improve decision-making in forensic settings.
Forensic identification tasks are complex perceptual and cognitive skills. How do you know if you have made an error? Is the erroneous identificaiton rate less than 1% or 20-30% for a decision? What are the best ways to train new examiners? Where should your thresholds be placed? These are the kinds of questions we have asked, and continue to ask.
The College of Arts