Research

Action Control

Human behavior is intentional, driven by internal needs and goals, and adaptively tailored to environmental circumstances. These facts are poorly reflected in the classical view of behavior as the end product of a stimulus-triggered chain of increasingly elaborate information-processing stages.

As an alternative, this research program focuses on motivated cognition emerging from sensorimotor experience. Cognitive processes are conceptualized with respect to their ultimate function: the control of voluntary action. Therefore, the program focuses on how behaviors (both lingual and motor) are shaped by cognitive and affective processes; and how the planning and performance of actions in turn influence cognition and affect.

The two broad research lines of the cognitive psychology unit are:

1. Cognitive Neuroscience

The cognitive psychology unit investigates the neural implementation of mental functions using functional imaging (MRI) and psychophysiological (EEG) techniques, behavioral genetics, computational modeling, pharmacology, neurofeedback and behavioral testing. We study people across the entire age range, and participants with normal and abnormal neurocognitive processes. Main themes of of this research line are the control of attention and action, and the impact of neurotransmitters on cognition and action.

2. Cognitive Ergonomics and Enhancement

Human performance is often limited by the capacity of attentional, memory and control processes. When task demands exceed the human potential, behavior becomes disorganized, habitual, and erratic. Our research aims at optimizing performance by minimizing risks and situational demands (the ergonomics approach) and maximizing individual cognitive capacities (the enhancement approach). Interventions can vary from designing clearer traffic signs to facilitating neural communication. Outcome measures can vary from assessing oil-platform incidents to recording functional connectivity in the brain using fMRI.