Research Labs

Adolescent Development Lab

We study normative and atypical psychological, social, emotional, and behavioral development during adolescence and young adulthood. The ultimate goal of our research is to inform interventions to promote child, adolescent, and young adult physical and mental health and well-being.

Keywords: adolescent; developmental psychopathology; prevention science; behavioral genetics; developmental methodology

Alberta Brain and Cognitive Development Lab

We study how children develop the ability to regulate their behaviour, attention, cognition, and emotions, and neural correlates of these developments using ERP and EEG.

Keywords: Developmental, Cognitive Neuroscience, Early Childhood, Executive Function, Electroencephalography

Animal Cognition Research Group

Members of the Animal Cognition Research Group have a broad interest in animal behaviour, with a focus on how learning and cognitive abilities allow animals to solve problems they face in the wild.

Keywords: Social Learning, Cognition, Behaviour

Attention and Action Lab

Our primary goal is to use cognitive neuroscience techniques such as ERP and fMRI to examine the nature of crossmodal links in attention and action. We also study the role of emotional cues on attention and human performance.

Keywords: Cognitive, Neuroscience

A-Z Cognition Lab

We study a wide range of problems in cognition, including attention, perception, action, discourse processing, mind wandering, numerical processing, processing of literature, and problem solving.

Keywords: Cognitive, Language, Action

Biological Computation Project

The primary goal of the BCP is to conduct pure and applied research on artificial neural networks, and to relate this research to empirical and theoretical issues in Cognitive Science.

Keywords: Cognitive, Biological

Brain Rhythms Lab

Our laboratory is interested in how coordinated brain activity during sleep might function to solidify memories.

Keywords: Animal, Biological, Cognitive, Comparative, Developmental, Neuroscience

Complex Cognition Lab

Our lab examines issues related to conceptual representation, categorization, and language processing.

Keywords: Cognitive, Language

Computational Memory Lab

We study human verbal memory behaviour and its basis in cognitive and neural processes.

Keywords: Computational, Mathematical Models

Culture and Cognition Lab

Our research questions and assumptions derive from cultural psychology and our central objective is to understand the dialectical interaction between socio-cultural frameworks and psychological mechanisms.

Keywords: Cultural, Social, Cognitive

Group Processes and Leadership Lab

Drawing on social identity theory, Dr. Rast examines how leaders influence members of their group (intragroup leadership) to incite social and organizational change, and how they influence other groups (intergroup leadership) to reduce conflict and improve intergroup harmony.

Keywords: Social

Intercultural Communications Lab

We focus on the social and cultural psychology of language and communication processes, particularly as they pertain to intercultural relations and communication. I am interested in how aspects of the social context, including opportunities for intergroup contact, relative group status, and situational norms are implicated in communication processes.

Keywords: Cultural, Language, Educational, Social

Mathewson Attention Perception and Performance Lab

We investigate the brain mechanisms that give rise to human attention, perception, and performance.

Keywords: Neuroscience, Cognitive

Memory for Events (ME) Lab

The ME Lab investigates the cognitive and neural mechanisms that support memories for naturalistic events, including autobiographical experiences from our personal past. We are particularly interested in understanding the role of visual perspective during the formation and retrieval of memories.

Keywords: Memory, Neuroscience, Virtual reality

Nash Social Neuroscience (NSN) Lab

The Nash Social Neuroscience (NSN) Lab investigates the links between basic neural, motivational, and affective mechanisms with personal convictions, social decision-making, and intergroup behaviors.

Keywords: Social Neuroscience, Emotion, Self-Regulation, Decision-Making, Intergroup Processes, Belief

PEERS Lab

The PEERS lab investigates the developmental course of social and emotional competencies and problems during childhood and adolescence.

Keywords: Developmental, Educational, Social

Psycholinguistics Lab

Our works focuses on understanding the functional structure and neurological underpinnings of language processing, with an emphasis on the role of semantics (word meaning) in written language. We use mainly experimental methods and computational modelling, as well as occasionally using functional imaging and patient studies.

Keywords: Cognitive, Neuroscience, Language

Re:Cognition Lab

We study how the quality of competitive decision-making changes brain and behaviour

Keywords: Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, decision-making, competitive games, electrophysiology

Representations Lab

We study how computer models (typically backed by Neural Networks) learn to represent their input data, and how those representations are (or are not) similar to the way the brain represents the same inputs. We study language primarily, but have explored similar ideas for visual processing.

Keywords: Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Brain Imaging, Language, Semantics

Sex and Violence Lab

Our research focuses on the biological basis of individual differences in aggressive behavior and other social and personality traits related to sex differences.

Keywords: Biological , Neuroscience, Sexuality, Personality, Social

Songbird Neuroethology Lab

Research in the SNL seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of songbird communication by studying behaviour and the neural systems controlling behaviour.

Keywords: Comparative, Cognitive, Communication, Songbirds, Neuroethology

The Emotion, Neuroscience & Development Lab

In the END Lab, we study the processing of socioemotional information in children and adolescents and how these processes, via interactions with other individual and environmental factors, are implicated in both typical socioemotional development and the development of psychopathology (e.g., anxiety, depression, eating problems). We take a multi-method approach to investigating these questions, including behavioral, EEG/ERP, MRI, and eye-tracking measures.

Keywords: Socioemotional processing, socioemotional development, developmental psychopathology, developmental cognitive neuroscience, children, adolescents, EEG, MRI

The Navigation & Memory Systems Lab

We aim to understand how the brain represents the environment around us to support navigation and memory, and how we can use brain-inspired solutions to address emerging challenges in AI.

Keywords: Neuroscience, Neurophysiology, Animal Behaviour, Artificial Intelligence, Learning, Navigation, Memory

The Seasonal and Social Neuroendocrinology Lab

We use a comparative framework to study the social and seasonal regulation of behavioral plasticity in dominance hierarchies of African and Neotropical cichlid fishes. Our lab addresses these questions using a suite of genetic, molecular, endocrine, and behavioral tools, including transcriptomics, neuroanatomy, metabolomics, gene editing, and dynamic behavioral paradigms.

Keywords: Animal Behavior, Comparative, Endocrinology, Neuroscience, Seasonal Biology

Victoria Longitudinal Study

The VLS is a long-term, large-scale, epidemiological study of multiple biomedical, genetic, lifestyle, environmental and other risk factors influencing differential brain and cognitive aging (including resilience, decline, impairment, Alzheimer's disease).

Virtual Environments and Spatial Cognition Lab

The VESC lab investigates human spatial memory and navigation using behavioral methods including immersive virtual environments.

Keywords: Spatial memory, Navigation, Self-localization, Goal-localization

Visual Attention and Social Processes Lab

The VASP lab studies attention, and its relationship to (i) individual people, (ii) processes such as perception and reward/motivation, and (iii) how attention varies across different contexts and populations

Keywords: Social cognition, Attention, Neuroscience