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Psychology is a huge, fascinating field of study. In a nutshell, psychological sciences seek to understand how living organisms, including people, think and act, both as individuals and in groups. Our faculty study a broad range of topics, with research programs designed to ask questions such as:
What causes mental disorders such as ADHD, schizophrenia, and dementia? How can these be treated?
How is our behavior influenced and shaped by our social networks? How does this vary across different cultures?
How does the brain learn and remember, and how do these abilities change across the lifespan?
Why do we sleep and, as important, what are the consequences of not getting enough sleep?
Using cutting edge tools, the members of our department address these and many other basic science and applied problems. The Department has an exceptional history of training students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. We strive to provide a comprehensive education in psychological sciences and, more generally, to foster the critical thinking skills that are essential for all facets of life. -Richard Ivry
NEWS
Art Shimamura and Steve Palmer speak on "The Psychology of Aesthetics" at the Department's Inaugural Public Lecture. See the lecture here.
Tania Lombrozo is a recipient of the Association for Psychological Science's 2012 Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions. Read about Tania's work and her thoughts on human curiosity and its consequences here.
Robert Knight is the recipient of a Distinguished Service Award from the Division of Social Sciences.
Alison Gopnik discusses the work of Ron Dahl on the adolescent mind in Edge and The Wall Street Journal.
Charlan Nemeth's research is featured in an article about "Groupthink" in a recent issue of the New Yorker.
Silvia Bunge and Tania Lombrozo are recipients of 21st Century Science Initiative Grants from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. Dr. Bunge's work will investigate "Relational reasoning: Neural mechanisms, development, and plasticity." Dr. Lombrozo's work will investigate "Knowledge from nowhere: How thinking leads to learning."
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News
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Faculty Research
Can children make computers smarter? Alison Gopnik, Tom Griffiths, Tania Lombrozo, and Fei Xu are pursuing research that indicates that the answer is "yes." [Read more]
New research by Paul Piff, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Dacher Keltner on social class and unethical behavior published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and American Public Media's Marketplace. [Read more]
Robert Knight is part of a team of scientists that succeeded in decoding the electrical activity in the brain that occurs as a person listens to normal conversation. [Read more]
A study led by Matthew Walker indicates that time spent in dream sleep can help overcome painful emotional experiences. [Read more]
Findings Offer New Clues into the Addicted Brain.
In their investigations of choice behavior, Jonathan Wallis and colleagues have determined the precise calculations performed by two areas of the brain important for decision-making. An inability to perform these calculations could underlie neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by poor choices, such as addiction. [Read more]
Double Dating with Your Brain at the Movies.
Jack Gallant and his group report a new method in which measurements of brain activity are used to reconstruct previously viewed video clips. [Read more] This work has been selected by Time Magazine as one of the 50 best inventions of 2011 [read article] and featured in a report that aired on the PBS NewsHour [view here].
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