Research
More than a dozen active laboratories in the department focus on topics such as the physiology of taste and preference formation, children's acquisition of spatial knowledge, transactive knowledge in organizations, implicit learning in cognitive disorders, visual functions in Down syndrome, creativity and cognition in the arts, cognition without a spine (i.e., in octopus), hippocampal atrophy in early Alzheimer's disease, implicit impression formation, Darwinian models of mate selection, biomemetic robotics, neurodegeneration in the aged and implicit social cognition.
All labs are well equipped, and many have attracted funding from NSF, NIH, NASA, DARPA, and other organizations. Several faculty members have appointments and working collaborations with research labs in city hospitals and medical schools with access to frontier technologies such as fMRI.
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Undergraduate students who are currently taking the Introduction to Psychology course may sign up for research participation.
Faculty Research Specializations
Israel Abramov
Visual psychophysics, color vision, spatial vision, visual neuroscience
We study vision – all aspects of vision, in any accessible creature. We have used techniques ranging from anatomy, to electrophysiology, to behavioral methods. We have studied topics from recording responses of single neurons to spectral lights, to impact of environmental light on aesthetics of museum-going, to sex-linked differences in basic visual functions, to categorization of objects seen under degraded viewing conditions. Always, our approach is ultimately based on the biology of the visual system. These studies derive from a program we undertook some three decades ago: creation of a battery of tests to measure many aspects of vision: spatial and temporal resolution, and acuity; color vision, from discrimination to magnitude estimation of color appearance; binocular vision, stereopsis, and stereo-acuity; motion detection; pigmentation of iris and skin. At present we are concentrating on behavioral (a.k.a. psychophysical) studies of sex-linked variations in vision, and detectability of objects when viewing is less than optimal.
Website: Isreal Abramov, Ph.D.
Elisabeth Brauner
organizational psychology, transactive memory, organizational communication
The Organizational Psychology Lab studies the relations among cognition, communication, and social structures within organizations. We have focused on transactive memory, communicative processes of knowledge acquisition, and how this can be applied to knowledge management and organizational learning. We have developed methods for investigating transactive knowledge and knowledge transfer using both questionnaires and interaction coding systems. We also conduct applied research that helps organizations with problem analysis and problem solving. Currently, we are working on organizational diagnosis for information transfer processes.
Website: Elisabeth Brauner, Dr. rer. nat.
Hanah Chapman
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Emotions play a pervasive and vital role in our lives, coloring our everyday experience and influencing decisions large and small. Our research examines the evolutionary origins of emotions, their current structure, and how they affect psychological processes ranging from food selection to moral decision-making. Much of our work focuses on disgust, an emotion that is both deeply rooted in biology and profoundly influenced by personal experience and culture. By better understanding disgust, we hope to shed new light on some of the most important issues in affective psychology, including how emotions are organized in the mind and brain, how they affect our attention and memory, and their role in our moral judgments.
Website: Hanah Chapman, Ph.D.
Cheryl Carmichael
close relationships, emotion regulation, health, perceived responsiveness, romantic attachment
The Health, Emotions, and Relationships Team (HEaRT) Lab conducts research aimed at discovering why people with stronger social connections live longer, happier, healthier lives. We examine how personal characteristics (e.g., attachment security) and responsive relationship behaviors (e.g., support provision, physical contact) promote relationship quality, health, and well-being. Our research participants include college students, community couples, and online workers. We collect self-report, behavioral, and psychophysiological measures using a combination of experimental and experience sampling approaches to study relationships processes in the laboratory and in the ebb and flow of day to day life.
Website: http://bcheartlab.com/
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Elizabeth Chua
metamemory, memory, metacognition, neuroimaging, eye tracking, brain stimulation
Our research focuses on memory and metacognition. We are interested in, not just how information is encoded and retrieved, but also our knowledge and awareness of our memory, and how this impacts our behavior. Much of our work focuses on how we monitor our memory and the basis of confidence in memory. We are also beginning to examine how our confidence guides the strategic choices we make for improving memory performance. We use a variety of behavioral and cognitive neuroscience techniques, including functional and structural MRI, TMS, tDCS, eye tracking, and psychophysiology to understand our memory, our confidence in our memory, and when our confidence and accuracy go together and when they do not.
Website: http://userhome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/echua/
Matthew Crump
computational modeling, skill-learning, memory, attention, natural-language processing, pattern-recognition and production
How do people learn new skills like playing a musical instrument or typing on a computer keyboard? How does memory work? How do people pay attention to their surroundings? How do people become sensitive to patterns and regularities in their environment? We investigate these kinds of questions with experiments that test theoretical and computational models of human cognition. Students with a strong interest in computer programming and data-analysis are encouraged to contact Dr. Crump.
Website: https://crumplab.github.io/
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Andrew Delamater
associative learning, reward processing, interval timing, Pavlovian extinction learning, cortico-striato-limbic pathways in associative learning, relational learning processes, prediction error mechanisms, connectionist network models
The Delamater lab explores the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms involved in simple forms of associative learning mostly in rodent models. We use a variety of behavioral and behavioral neuroscience techniques including (a) targeted brain structure lesions, (b) pharmacological inactivation, (c) chemogenetic manipulations using DREADDs, (d) immunohistochemistry labeling (e.g., cFos), and (e) sophisticated behavioral tests. One project investigates the nature of reward processing where we focus on the question of how the brain learns to anticipate “what” reward is likely to occur in the near future as well as precisely “when” it will occur. We ask whether these two aspects of learning engage separate underlying neural systems, and we also ask to what extent “prediction errors” along these different “what” and “when” dimensions might be critical for brain plasticity. Another project explores the nature of the associative network that could give rise to the ability to time future rewards. To explore this we have devised a neural net model that is capable of showing temporally organized behavior as well as various phenomena related to interval timing. A third project examines the nature of extinction learning in Pavlovian conditioning. In particular, we ask what conditions might be especially helpful in promoting response loss after learning has taken place. Here, as well, we attempt to dissect learning into its separate components (sensory, temporal, emotional) and ask whether extinction processes might differentially impact these different forms of learning. Additional projects address other aspects of associative learning including (a) learning about higher order conditional relationships among stimuli, and (b) assessing striatal contributions to goal-directed and habitual control of associatively learned instrumental behaviors.
Website: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/psych/delam/
Jennifer Drake
emotion regulation benefits of drawing; drawing giftedness; visual thinking; aesthetic judgment
My research program focuses on the psychology of the visual arts. In one line of research, I examine the emotion regulation benefits of engaging in drawing for children and adults. I have shown that drawing improves mood by allowing for distraction rather than expression. My current work delves deeper and more systematically into the question of how drawing to distract elevates mood. In a second line of research, I examine variation in drawing ability, asking what underlying abilities are seen in children who show exceptional graphic realism skill at a very young age. I have found that drawing prodigies and precocious realists have superior perceptual skills. Finally, I study children’s and adult’s responses to and understanding of works of visual art.
Website: www.jenniferdrake.com
William Esber
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Our lab investigates the neural substrates of associative learning at the systems neuroscience level. We focus on associative learning processes because they form the building blocks of cognition, and provide us with an analytically tractable tool to study all sorts of interesting topics, from craving to categorization. Our overarching questions are how neuronal circuits encode information during learning and how this information later influences decision-making.
Website: William Esber, Ph.D.
Ana Gantman
morality, moralization, consent, intentionality, visual perception, attention, audition
The Gantman Lab investigate the process of moralization (when preferences become values) and its consequences for behavior, cognition, and perception. Our research investigates how context, rather than content, determines moral relevance and so we emphasize and explore the context-dependence of moral relevance, and we investigate both the processes that underlie moralization, and its applications to social issues. We use a number of different methods ranging from techniques from vision sciences and cognitive psychology, to surveys, classic social psychology lab experiments and field work. We are committed to research that is theoretically rich and pragmatically useful. We bear in mind, Lewin’s idea that “There is nothing so practical as a good theory” and James’ notion that we study the “rich thicket of reality.”
Website: www.anagantman.com
Yu Gao
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Our research focuses on the neurobiological and psychosocial bases of antisocial behavior, psychopathic, and autistic traits in youth and adults. We are particularly interested in identifying early risk factors that may predispose youth to antisocial behavior, and the protective factors that can buffer young people from the risks of becoming antisocial. One line of research focuses on conditioning deficits in individuals with aggressive and antisocial behavior. We also examine emotion dysregulation and reward processing abnormalities in youths with behavioral problems. We use multi-modal methods from longitudinal and cross-sectional perspectives. The psychophysiological methods we use include electrodermal activity (EDA), cardiovascular activity such as heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV)/respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and pre-ejection period (PEP). We also use structural and functional brain imaging (sMRI and fMRI).
Website: The Psychophysiology Lab
Stefano Ghirlanda
learning, animal behavior, cultural evolution
I study how animals and people learn, including learning and evolution of traditions and culture. I conduct experiments on human learning and I build computational models of learning and cultural evolution. I accept undergraduate and graduate students, especially if interested in computational modeling.
Website: Stefano Ghirlanda, Ph.D.
Frank Grasso
Website: Frank Grasso, Ph.D.
Glen Hass
Website: Glen Hass, Ph.D.
Louise Hainline
Website: Louise Hainline, Ph.D.
Aaron Kozbelt
creativity, psychology of the arts, humor
My research focuses on creativity and the psychology of the arts. I use laboratory, survey, and archival methods to study questions like perceptual differences between artists and non-artists, how creativity unfolds over the lifespan in classical composers, how artists dynamically evaluate emerging creative products, the psychology of humor production, and possible evolutionary constraints on human psychological aesthetics.
Website: Aaron Kozbelt, Ph.D.
Anjali Krishnan
Website: Anjali Krishnan, Ph.D.
Yana Kuchirko
Developmental psychology, cross-cultural development, language development, socio-economic differences in development, naturalistic research methods
My research focuses on the role of culture and context in child development. Specifically, I examine how socioeconomic context shapes young children’s cognitive development, how children’s everyday interactions vary by cultural context, and how settings (e.g., childcare, school, neighborhoods) shape children’s learning trajectories. To answer these questions, my students and I use a combination of survey, interview, and observational methods to capture daily experiences of children and their families from different ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Website: https://www.culturelabbc.com/
Greg Kuhlman
Website: Greg Kuhlman, Ph.D.
Daniel Kurylo
Cognitive Neuroscience; perceptual impairment in clinical populations; visual system; visual perception
My research focuses on how information is integrated across areas of the brain. This topic is addressed by studying characteristics of perceptual organization in healthy individuals, clinical populations (including individuals with brain injury or schizophrenia), and in an animal model. Members of the lab gain experience with techniques used to measure perceptual abilities, developing neuropsychological assessment for clinical groups, and applying these techniques to assess perception in animal models.
Website: Daniel Kurylo, Ph.D.
Laura Rabin
Cognitive, Neuroscience, Testing, Methods and Measurements, Philosophical Psychology
My research investigates the objective and subjective cognitive changes that precede the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, with implications for the diagnosis and treatment of individuals in the earliest stages of neurodegenerative decline. Older adults who present with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), despite intact neuropsychological functioning, may represent the first symptomatic manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease. Research on this topic, however, lacks a standardized definition and approach to assessment. I work with collaborators to develop and refine a conceptual framework and research criteria for SCD. I also address measurement issues in neuropsychology through the development and validation of instruments able to capture subtle cognitive changes. A particular interest relates to the assessment of practical judgment in older adults at risk for exploitation. Although my research focuses on cognitive aging, work with students has spurred my interest in innovative teaching approaches and psychological, academic, and behavioral predictors of educational success. I investigate these topics to improve undergraduate course outcomes and, more broadly, the mental health of diverse students.
Website: Laura Rabin, Ph.D.
Jacob Shane
Lifespan development; motivation, goal selection and pursuit; perceived opportunities and constraints.
My research examines how motivation and opportunity direct and reflect individuals' development across the life span. I am particularly interested in the dynamic relationships between individuals' broader beliefs about society, their beliefs about themselves, and their motivational commitment to central life goals.
Website: Jacob Shane, Ph.D.
Deborah Walder
neurodevelopment, neurocognition, stress, mental health risk, psychosis, schizotypy, depression
Our research emphasizes identification of early neurodevelopmental markers of risk for mental health disorders such as psychosis and depression, and the contributory role of other factors such as stress and sex/gender differences. We study biomarkers of risk (using neurohormone assay, neuropsychological testing, brain imaging techniques) and environmental factors (such as stress) among high-risk youth, young adults at psychometric risk, and healthy individuals from the general population. This includes use of prospective methods to better understand the early trajectory of illness, with an eye toward preventive intervention.
Website: Deborah Walder, Ph.D.
