Cognitive, Developmental, and Brain Sciences
The Cognitive, Developmental, and Brain Sciences cluster combines research excellence in all three areas of research.
Brain Sciences is a multidisciplinary group encompassing a diverse range of research specializations. Members are united by an interest in the biological basis of behaviour and cognitive function.
Research in the area is multidisciplinary and collaborative. Many of the faculty and students within the area of study participate in research groups composed of researchers within the area itself, and/or researchers in other departments at UWO and other institutions. These groups include:
Animal Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience Core Facilities
Brain and Mind Institute
Research Group in Integrative Avian Biology
Cognitive Psychology is the study of how people perceive, learn, and use information. It includes topics such as language processing, concepts and categorization, memory, attention, problem solving, and reasoning. In the Psychology department at UWO, the Cognition area’s major strength is language processing, boasting the largest group of researchers in Canada working in this area. Further, this group of researchers is now formally recognized as the Language and Concepts Research Group. Specific research topics of faculty and graduate students include visual word recognition, word meaning, figurative language, sentence comprehension, bilingualism, language development, concepts and categorization, and autobiographical memory. Our program emphasizes theoretically-driven research that includes both behavioral approaches and cutting-edge techniques such as computational modeling, event-related potentials (ERPs), eyetracking and neuroimaging.
Developmental Psychology is concerned with explaining growth and change in social, emotional and cognitive functioning. Full-time members of the area conduct research that spans the period from infancy through young adulthood. The area is home to state-of-the-art behavioural, cognitive, and neuropsychological research laboratories including a pediatric EEG facility, an fMRI analysis lab, a mock-MRI scanner, high-speed eye-tracking equipment, and several behavioural-observation suites. The area maintains a participant pool of over 2500 children and their families providing faculty and students with the unique opportunity to study infants and children of all ages. The area also maintains strong collaborative associations with other organizations including the Robarts Research Institute, and the Thames Valley District School Board.
Faculty in this cluster include: Dr. Daniel Ansari, Dr. Lisa Archibald, Dr. Laura Batterink, Dr. Blake Butler, Dr. Brian Corneil, Dr. Jody Culham, Dr. Stefan Everling, Dr. Paul Frewen, Dr. Jessica Grahn, Dr. Paul Gribble, Dr. Elizabeth Hayden, Dr. Riley Hinson, Dr. Debra Jared, Dr. Marc Joanisse, Dr. Ingrid Johnsrude, Dr. Stefan Köhler, Dr. Scott MacDougall-Shackleton, Dr. Ken McRae, Dr. J. Paul Minda, Dr. J. Bruce Morton, Dr. Marieke Mur, Dr. Adrian Owen, Dr. Andrew Pruszynski, Dr. Ryan Stevenson.
Links:Cognitive, Developmental and Brain Sciences Program Requirements
