2019-12-20 - Dr Sean Laurent reframes a well-known phenomenon in moral reasoning called the "side-effect effect" to show that people are answering different questions when asked about the intentionality of side-effect harming or helping. Side-effects are unintended secondary outcomes resulting from goal-driven behavior. Previous work observed that when side effects are negative, such as a...

2019-12-07 - Professor Diane Beck, along with a team of researchers from around the world, received a grant from the NSF to fund the activities of the Females of Vision et al. (FoVea). FoVea's mission is to promote the visibility, impact, and success of women in vision science. The NSF award will help them fund workshops and travel awards to the Vision Science Society, as well as maintain the group's...

2019-11-04 - Researchers in the Cognition and Brain Lab, led by Kara Federmeier, have recently published a paper in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience that investigates how predicting during sentence comprehension affects memory. This study demonstrates that what you predict can affect what you later remember. The study can have potential applications in learning outcomes. Read more about their work...

2021-08-10 - We are proud to announce the following grants have been recently awarded to faculty in the Psychology Department.

2019-09-20 - Psychology Professors Sepideh Sadaghiani and Wendy Heller receive NIH funding to investigate how inherent brain oscillations relate to cognition.

2019-05-19 - This project will develop, implement, and evaluate a transformative virtual initiative, high-impact initiative for protecting rural drug-using populations at risk from HIV/HCV outbreaks in the midst of the opioid epidemic in the United States. Most counties at high risk for HIV/HCV outbreaks are clustered in Appalachia and the Midwest. Although the origins of the opioid crisis are complex, social...

2019-05-06 - Predictions were recently proposed to be the core mechanism organizing brain functioning at all levels and in all domains. However, in contrast, within language comprehension, evidence for predictions has not been ubiquitous across participants, tasks, and materials. Earlier research by Jakub showed that this discrepancy can be reconciled by positing the existence of at least two different...

2019-03-07 - The title of the project is "Phthalates and Maternal Infections: Implications for Schizophrenia". Congratulations Dr Juraska!

2019-01-28 - Student characteristics play a crucial role in the attention and enthusiasm directed toward learning. If a student sees no value in learning or does not expect to do well in an academic setting, then the student is unlikely to be motivated. Unraveling the antecedents of effort put toward learning (i.e., conscientiousness), ease of learning (i.e., cognitive abilities), and motivation (i.e.,...

2019-04-19 - Janice Juraska is Co-Investigator on a grant from the US Department of Agriculture (National Institute of Food and Agriculture) titled "Role of naturally-occurring vs. synthetic vitamin E in brain using a vitamin E deficient mouse model" (PI: J. Erdman).

2018-08-01 -   We are delighted to announce that Prof. Monica Fabiani has received grant R01 AG059878 from the National Institute of Aging. The project title is "Optical Measures of Cerebral Arterial Function as Predictors of Brain and Cognitive Aging". Inactivity and low cardiorespiratory fitness are among the most important risk factors for cerebral arteriosclerosis (stiffening of the...

2019-03-20 - Up-and-coming faculty in LAS expand how we think about science and humanity

2019-04-17 - Wendy Heller was selected as this year’s winner of the Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Award. This is a reflection of the exemplary work Wendy does for our department and for the university. Please congratulate Wendy on this outstanding achievement.  

2018-12-10 - In the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, 16-year-old students in middle-track schools decide whether to stay in school to pursue an academic career or enroll in a vocational training program. A new study offers evidence that the path they choose influences their personality years later.

2019-02-27 - In many societies, teenagers are repeatedly told – by adults, peers and popular media – that teens are more likely than younger children to take risks, ignore their parents, skip schoolwork and succumb to bad influences. But stereotypes are not destiny, a new study of Chinese middle school students suggests.