Labs

The Attention, Perception, & EXperience Lab, or APEX Lab for short, is directed by Dr. Howard C. Nusbaum. We aim to develop our scientific understanding of how our experiences direct and shape our attention and, ultimately, determine how we perceive and understand the world. Language is one main area of focus, but we also study the processes by which we make decisions and the role of experience and attention in such processes. 

The Awh/Vogel Lab studies the interactions between visual working memory and selective attention using a combination of psychophysical and electrophysiological methods. 

The Bakkour Lab focuses on understanding how we use memory of the past to make decisions for the future. We use the tools of cognitive neuroscience, namely fMRI, eye tracking, and computational modeling to elucidate the computations that the brain performs when humans draw on their experience to make everyday decisions. 

The Child Neurosuite studies the development of morality, sensitivity to fairness, distributive justice, empathy, and prosocial behavior in infants and children, by combining social neuroscience, psychology, genetics and behavioral economics games. 

The Chronobiology and Neuroimmunology Lab studies bidirectional interactions between biological clocks and the immune system, neural mechanisms of sickness behavior, motivational changes, and depression, chronic disease and brain function, and neuroendocrine, molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of biological timing. 

The CAB Lab explores how we pay attention and asks how and why attention differs between people, changes over time scales from moments to years, and interacts with other mental processes including learning and memory. We ask these questions with a variety of behavioral, neuroimaging, and machine learning techniques. 

The Cognitive Development Lab studies language and cognitive development in typically developing children and children with pre- or perinatal brain injury. We are particularly interested in how the early experiences of children relate to their developmental trajectories.

Research in the Computational Affective and Social Neuroscience Laboratory aims to uncover the neural and computational mechanisms underlying how goals, beliefs, and emotions influence human cognition. We probe this question across multiple levels of cognitive processing, from perception and attention, to memory and decision-making, to affective and social reasoning. In our research, we use a combination of convergent tools, including functional brain imaging (e.g., fMRI, fNIRS), naturalistic task paradigms, computational cognitive models, natural language processing tools, and machine learning methods.

The CEDAR (Couples’ Experiences with Diversity and Adversity in Relationships) Lab studies close relationships, with a particular focus on romantic relationships. We investigate how social class contexts influence the strengths and challenges that people experience in their relationships, and how people’s self-concepts shape and are shaped by their relationships.

At the Development of Social Cognition Laboratory, our research is broadly concerned with the development of social cognition. We place particular emphasis on the emergence of social group preferences and attitudes, often investigating children’s attention to language or accent as a marker of group membership. 

Research in the DIBS Lab is focused on children’s developing understanding of social cognition. More specifically, we are interested in how children track other people’s reputations and how children modify their own behavior to improve their own reputation. We have three main lines of work investigating three related topics: fairness, friendships, and reputation management.

The EArly Social Thinkers (EAST) Lab is led by Dr. Lin Bian, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. Our research focuses on how children reason about the social world. Specifically, we study how children form stereotypes about social categories and how these stereotypes influence their aspirations. We are also interested in understanding how children make sense of intergroup interactions. 

The Environmental Neuroscience Lab (ENL) is interested in how the physical environment affects the brain and behavior. We hope that our research will influence the designing of physical environments in ways that will optimize human mental health, physical health, and overall well-being. 

The Goldin-Meadow Laboratory is a research lab at the University of Chicago in the Department of Psychology headed by Susan Goldin-Meadow. The lab is composed of graduate students and researchers pursuing independent topics related to cognition, development, education, linguistics, and various other fields, but interrelated by the lab's main focus - the study of non-verbal communication, specifically gestures. 

The Human Nature and Potentials Lab studies what human being’s social and moral nature is, and what psychological factors (e.g., cognitive, motivational, experiential) help us transcend our natural tendencies. We explore these broad questions in terms of how individuals perceive and pursue the fundamental questions in life, such as moral transcendence, happiness and meaning. 

Human social life requires understanding the intentions, perceptions and emotions that organize and motivate others’ actions. At the Infant Learning and Development Laboratory we investigate infants’ and young children’s understanding of these aspects of the social world. 

How does an animal perceive a sensory stimulus? To address this question, our research focuses on the neural basis of olfactory perception and how context and experience influence it. Experiments involve both psychophysics and electrophysiology and concentrate on the olfactory and limbic systems.  Visit the Kay Lab for more information.

Why does the same experience have different effects on brain and behavior depending on how old the animal is? This is the fundamental question we attempt to answer. We study how and why young animals can learn complex behavior during a restricted period, a sensitive period, in development. Visit the London Lab for more information.

Neuroethology investigates nervous system function by relating it to innate and learned natural behaviors. It is distinguished from much of traditional neurobiology and psychology by being fundamentally centered in evolutionary biology, and by examining behavioral specialization across the breadth of the animal kingdom. Visit the Margoliash Lab for more information.

We study the interaction of perception and memory in both behavior and the brain (functional MRI). Key topics include: 1) Why do we remember certain images over others (and what happens in the brain)? and 2) What are the mental representations of visual memories? 

Visit the Memory and Perceptual Cognition Lab for more information.

Our research is aimed at the scientific understanding of human memory and its relationship to other psychological processes.  Memory is a critical ingredient for mental functions, including our understanding of the personal past, our current goals and actions, and our plans for the future.  It is the foundation for our body of knowledge about the world and ourselves. Visit the Memory Research Lab for more information.

The Multilingualism and Decision-Making Lab is dedicated to understanding the relationship between thinking, decision making, negotiation, and communication. Predominantly, our most recent research has focused on how bilingualism affects how we think and make decisions.   

How does the brain capture experiences, create memories and distill knowledge? We investigate these processes at the level of activity patterns in neural circuits. Our approach combines electrophysiology recording across multiple brain regions, ethologically inspired behavior tasks, genetic tools, and computational modeling. Visit the Neurophysiology of Memory and Knowledge Lab for more information.

We study culture, social ecology, and well-being. Our research is guided by big questions such as “What is a good life?” and “What is a good society?”  We analyze all kinds of data, ranging from nationally representative surveys, mortality, GIS, and dictionaries to baseball game attendance. We like to run lab experiments. But, we also run daily diary studies. We collect all kinds of data all over the campus, cities, and the world. As my former advisor, Ed Diener said, our motto is “The globe is our lab!” Visit the Oishi Lab for more information. 

The University of Chicago Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab is headed by Dr. Jean Decety. We study the neurobiological and psychological mechanisms underlying affective and social interpersonal processes and their expressions in behavior.

The Social Psychophysiology & Neuroendocrinology Lab examines the reciprocal interactions between social, psychological, neural, and physiological processes using methodologies ranging from molecular biology to experimental psychology. 

We investigate processes of the eye and brain that serve vision. Most of the research focuses on visual pathways that mediate color and brightness perception. Visit the Visual Sciences Lab for more information.