The Psychology Department concentrates in the following areas of academic specialization:
- Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience
- Social-Personality Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
Visitors can also get a sense of the work of our department by investigating our:
Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience
Faculty and students in the Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience (CABN) Concentration study the neural and cognitive processes that underlie motivation, learning and memory, emotion, language, and perception. Investigators in this area ask questions such as: What are the neurobiological substrates of motivation (Numan), learning (Horvitz), affect and emotion (Barrett)? How does activity in multiple brain regions give rise to a unified visual memory (Slotnick)? How does the emotional content of information affect memory (Kensinger)? How does injury to particular brain regions affect cognitive and linguistic ability (Brownell)? What fundamental processes underlie spatial representation, imagery, and navigation (Easton/Sholl)? What are the relations among different sensory/perceptual systems (Easton)?
Lisa Feldman Barrett’s research investigates the psychological processes that construct the experience of emotion. In particular, she is interested in the roles that affective processing and conceptual knowledge about emotion play in the experience of emotion. She is also interested in how emotion experiences are created and represented in the brain.
Hiram Brownell’s research interests center on language and communication in adults. Most of his work examines the effects of brain injury on people's ability to produce and understand differ forms of language. Analysis of brain lesions and associated deficits can be used to build and test theories of normal cognition and can also be used to address real problems affecting patients and their families. Specific areas of interest include nonliteral language such as metaphor and sarcasm, treatment programs, discourse, humor, Theory of Mind, prosody, and lexical semantics.
Randy Easton’s research specializes in the relationship between different perceptual systems. One major program of research focuses on the extent to which perceptual systems can share information, especially at the pre-semantic level where modularity of the systems is thought to be the primary architecture. Another major program of research explores sensory substitution in visually impaired people, in particular the ability of the auditory and somatosensory systems to convey information typically garnered by the visual system.
Jon Horvitz and his colleagues examine the neurochemistry of learning and motivation, and, in particular, the role of brain dopamine activity in these functions.
Elizabeth Kensinger’s research combines behavioral and brain imaging techniques to understand the processes used to remember information with emotional importance. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding how emotion affects the subjective vividness and accuracy of memory. She also is interested in identifying how emotion's influence on memory changes across the adult lifespan.
Michael Numan investigates the neurobiology of an important mammalian social behavior: maternal behavior. He examines the neural circuits, and their neurochemical makeup, which regulate this behavior in postpartum animals. He also investigates how pregnancy hormones act on these circuits to promote the onset of maternal behavior at birth, and the mechanisms through which previous maternal experience can substitute for hormonal stimulation in the regulation of maternal responsiveness.
Gorica Petrovich studies neurobiology of motivation and feeding behavior; functional organization of the brain systems mediating environmental control of food intake, specifically interactions between the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and hypothalamus; modulation of hunger and satiety mechanisms by learning and stress.
Jeanne Sholl’s research specializes in spatial cognition with a special interest in the cognitive substrates of human navigation. She studies how spatial knowledge of large-scale environments is acquired, organized, and retrieved. She also studies individual differences in navigation ability with a particular interest in the cognitive substrate underlying sense of direction. Other research interests include sex-related differences in working memory for large-scale spaces, the role of dead reckoning in human navigation, and the properties of landmark-based navigation.
Scott Slotnick’s research program aims to understand the nature of visual memory (i.e. memory for visual items or events). Drawing on the foundation of research in visual perception, he employs cognitive modeling (based on behavioral measures), event-related potentials (ERPs), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). His research indicates that memory retrieval is a continuous process that is constructive in nature, where features or components from disparate cortical regions bind together to form a unified memory.
In addition to the above Cogntive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience faculty in psychology, Neuroscience Faculty in the Biology Department conduct research on amyloids and myelin sheaths, epilepsy and brain cancers, and developmental genetics of the nervous system.
Social-Personality Psychology
Faculty and students in the Social-Personality Psychology concentration explore human psychological processes and behavior at different levels of analysis, ranging from the intra- and interpersonal to the group, intergroup, and societal levels. Areas of investigation include the study of emotion; how nonverbal behavior and discourse reflect and influence human social relations; the study of social-cognitive mechanisms in emotion regulation; the study of individual differences in affect, motivation, and performance; social-cognitive processes at the individual level and as shared “cultural models;” ways in which such social categories as gender, class, and ethnicity frame and constrain social behavior; cultural construction of the self and social identities. Inquiry into these areas of study require different methodological approaches, and students have an opportunity to develop competence in a variety of research methods, including experimentation, surveys, and psychphysiological recordings.
Affiliated Faculty: Lisa Feldman Barrett, Donnah Canavan, Ramsay Liem, James A. Russell, and Maya Tamir.
Developmental Psychology
Faculty and students in the Developmental Psychology concentration are studying social, emotional, and cognitive development across the life span. Areas of study include attachment relationships; sibling and peer relationships; children's understanding of emotions; cultural aspects of young children's development; ethnic identity development; the role policies and programs play in the lives of children, adolescents, older adults, and families; the development of artistic abilities in normal and gifted populations; the acquisition of a theory of mind; the relationship between theory of mind and communication skills; adolescent sexual behavior; mental health in later life. Children from both western and non-western communities are studied.
In addition to the resources in the department, students can also take advantage of the courses and faculty in the Lynch School of Education.
Affiliated Faculty: Michael Moore, Gilda Morelli, Karen Rosen (contact person for this area), James Russell, Michael Smyer, and Ellen Winner.