Research Labs
Language and Cognition Lab
We explore how language shapes thought, perception, and cognitive processes. Our research focuses on bilingualism, language acquisition, and the cognitive mechanisms underlying linguistic processing. We use experimental methods, including eye-tracking and behavioral studies, to examine how individuals process and retrieve words, navigate multiple languages, and adapt to different linguistic environments. Our work contributes to understanding of language processing and its broader implications for cognition and education (Parshina).
Human-AI Learning Lab
The lab investigates how students use AI tools and the psychological implications of those use patterns. Research focuses on the relationship between AI use and learning outcomes, academic self-efficacy, self-regulated learning, and student well-being. (Moeller)
Social/Emotional Regulation Lab
Our research explores how emotions alter individual and social responses. We investigate the impact of emotion regulation on endophenotypes of addiction such as impulsivity. We also explore how emotional carry over effects influence social dynamics and prosociality. Current projects use mindfulness interventions to improve emotion regulation and self-control abilities. Our studies assess the degree to which enhanced regulatory abilities lead to healthier responding during social-emotional challenges. Outcome measures include behavior as well as psychophysiology measures such as EEG, hormone analyses, heart rate variability, and skin conductance responses. (Cronise)
Behavioral Genetics Lab
Our research examines the genes and neurobiological pathways associated with stress, anxiety, and substance abuse using mouse models. (Parker)
Behavioral Neurophysiology Lab
Our lab investigates the effects of spontaneous brain activity on both brain function and brain physiology. By simultaneously monitoring electrical/chemical indices of brain activity along with behavior, we aim to understand the neurophysiological underpinnings and consequences of fundamental behaviors such as sleep and learning/memory. (Dash)
Child Clinical Lab
Our research focuses on interpersonal and motivational processes that help children thrive in their family, school, and other contexts. (Gurland)
Children’s Memory Lab
The lab investigates how adult behaviors (e.g., questioning style or rapport development) relate to the quality of children’s reports of an experienced event, and has applications to forensic, educational, and medical settings. (McCauley)
Clinical Psychophysiology Lab
The lab investigates the behavioral, peripheral, and central correlates of anxiety and anxiety disorders using eye tracking, event related potentials, and measures of peripheral autonomic activity.(Kimble)
Conservation Psychology Lab
The lab assesses psychology’s role in understanding and predicting pro-environmental behaviors. Current work investigates the extent to which social norms, self determination theory, and childhood experiences predict the likelihood of engaging in pro-environmental behaviors. (McCauley)
Educational Psychology & Adolescent Development Lab
One line of our research investigates the epistemological development of adolescents, or what adolescents believe about knowledge and knowing, and how that relates to learning and education. A second line of work examines communication with parents during adolescence and emerging adulthood, and the development of autonomy and self-regulation. (Hofer)
Human Memory Lab
Our lab examines the mental processes that underlie human memory. Current projects seek to understand the nature of memory errors, the influence of emotion on memory, how taking a test (as opposed to just studying) can improve long term memory, and how social processes influence memory. (Arndt)
Risk-Taking Analysis & Prevention Lab
The lab investigates risk-taking behaviors in college students, emphasizing the causes and consequences of alcohol consumption as well as sexual risk-taking, including casual sex and protective behaviors. (Velez)
Self-Regulation & Addiction Lab
This lab investigates the development of self-regulation and its neural correlates among at-risk youth, as well as their contribution to substance/behavior addictions by using neurocognitive test batteries, structural and functional MRI, and modeling. (Zhai)
Sexuality Lab
Our research primarily explores the human experience of sexuality, including the psychological, physiological, behavioral and cultural aspects of sex. We use experiments as well as self-report and implicit measures to understand sexuality in context, and seek to translate this knowledge into interventions to reduce distress about sexuality. (Seehuus)
Solitude, Identity, and Personality Lab
The SIP Lab investigates the inner lives of individuals, with a focus on personality, solitude, and identity development. We examine how factors like personality, age, gender, culture, social media usage, and mental health status influence the capacity to be alone, and we explore how solitude impacts well-being and the development of the private self. Our lab explores how individuals make meaning out of their experiences, and how those processes are shaped by both personality and culture, which in turn shape identity. Research is theory-driven with an aim toward generating tools, skills, and practices that people can use in their everyday lives to increase their self-understanding and well-being. We take a mixed-methods approach: conducting in-depth interviews and analyzing them with a variety of qualitative methods, as well as utilizing quantitative statistical analyses for survey and experimental data.Visit the SIP Lab website to learn more. If you’re interested in joining the lab, please fill out the Lab Interest Form. (Thomas)
Spatial Cognition Lab
Our research investigates factors influencing cognitive abilities, particularly spatial skills. Some issues of interest: how do people ‘pay attention’ to their environment, strategies used, the influence of stressors, the role of social influences such as stereotypes, and relationships to hormones. (Collaer)
Qualitative Inquiry Learning Lab
The Qualitative Inquiry Learning Lab (QUILL) focuses on the world of qualitative methods and analysis.
QUILL is open to any student or faculty member at Middlebury College who wants to learn about qualitative methodology and/or work with qualitative data. It is an interdisciplinary space where we share, learn, and practice qualitative methods for social science research. Our purpose is to support each other in doing qualitative research and improve our skills in interpreting narrative data. Some meetings are devoted to learning about a specific technique, while others involve working with data for an active project. To learn more visit the QUILL website, and join the mailing list to be notified of upcoming meetings.