Our research is guided by theoretical insights that have been developed over many years of research in cognition, and our experiments combine a variety of different measures of behavior and brain activity. Our research is centered on fundamental theoretical questions about cognitive function, and we attack those questions with converging evidence from multiple different experimental methods, ranging from response times and other basic behavioral measures to eyetracking, event-related potentials (ERP), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We stress the importance of rigorous data analysis. In many cases, we use computational modeling to illustrate our theories and interpret our experimental data. There is a high level of collaboration across our different laboratories, which focus on different aspects of cognition, including attention, categorization, cognitive neuroscience, decision-making, memory, multisensory perception, numerical cognition, psycholinguistics, reading, and visual cognition.
Click on the keywords above to find the faculty members engaged in each type of research. You can also search for department members using any research-related terms on the PBS People page.
Here are the laboratories in cognition and cognitive neuroscience.
- Cognitive Construction Lab, directed by Benjamin Pitt
- Cognitive & Neural Development Lab, directed by Lauren Aulet
- Cognitive & Developmental Neuroscience Lab, directed by Joonkoo Park
- Dynamic Memory Modeling Lab, directed by Jeff Starns
- Eye Tracking Lab, directed by Adrian Staub
- Language, Intersensory Perception, and Speech Lab (LIPS), directed by Alexandra Jesse
- Reasoning, Decision-Making, Computational Modeling Laboratory (RDCL), directed by Andrew Cohen
- Visual Cognition and Attention Lab (VCALab), directed by Kyle Cave
All of these labs include graduate students in the Program in Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience, and some also include graduate students in the Program in Neuroscience and Behavior. There are also many undergraduates from UMass and the Five Colleges working on research projects in our labs.
Researchers in Cognition
Graduate Programs