Professor Hannah Carlson
"I am interested in the neurobiology and neurochemistry underlying motivated behavior, particularly the behavioral correlates of substance use disorders. My research involves translational animal models; in other words, I look for ways to study human behaviors and conditions using rodents as an experimental model. Like humans, rodents will work for and consume a variety of drugs. By combining behavioral tasks (such as operant self-administration) with neurobiological or neurochemical manipulations (such as intracranial microinfusion), I hope to elucidate the ways in which certain neural circuits, neuronal populations, or neurotransmitter systems contribute to behaviors like drug-seeking, drug intake, and inhibitory control. Students interested in joining my lab can contact me at hcarlson@lakeforest.edu."
Professor Emily Dix
My research examines the cognitive processes that underlie racial bias and the interpersonal processes that promote (vs. undermine) interracial understanding. In my lab, we investigate how White people’s and Black people’s different day-to-day experiences shape their cognitive schemas about bias and their behavior when bias is discussed or confronted. We apply this knowledge to develop and test interventions with the goal of reducing racial bias and promoting effective racial allyship. Current projects in the lab are testing an intervention to increase recognition of ongoing racism, exploring effective and ineffective forms of racial allyship, and examining the interpersonal dynamics of cross-race conversations about bias. Students interested in joining the lab should email edix@lakeforest.edu.
Professor Matthew Kelley
“I am interested in discovering the general principles that govern human memory over the short- and long-term. Presently, I am exploring a variety of counterintuitive memory phenomena, such as collaborative inhibition (memory impairment when recalling with a partner), hypermnesia (memory improvement with the passage of time), part-set cuing (memory impairment with hints), and the generation effect for lyrical censorship (enhanced memory for unheard relative to heard information). Students interested in joining my lab can contact me at kelley@lakeforest.edu.”
Professor Nora McLean
Our lab studies behavioral and biological responsiveness to social stimuli and psychosocial stress, the neuroendocrine bases of human decision making and cooperation, and subjective anxiety in educational environments. We ask questions such as - how do individual differences in reactions to social stimuli moderate the way stress affects our decision making? Does this process also affect the way we learn in a stressful classroom environment? And how do we continue to study this during a time when stress and anxiety have been increasing over the last two decades at higher rates? Students who are interested in joining our lab can contact me (Dr. Nora McLean) at nmclean@lakeforest.edu.
Professor Benjamin Swerdlow
Reserach description forthcoming.
Professor Elayne Vollman
The Science of Education and Early Development (SEED) Laboratory is a research group that explores how children think and learn in the social world. We examine the basic mechanisms of children’s cognitive and social development in everyday settings like in schools and in the home. We also examine how teachers and parents support children’s developing mind. Research is directed by Dr. Elayne Vollman. Students interested in joining this collaborative group should contact: evollman@lakeforest.edu.
Professor Naomi Wentworth
“I study the development of voluntary behavioral control, mostly in infants and young children. I am particularly interested in the processes that allow us to regulate our behavior so that we can make the correct, though less automatic response, rather than the habitual, though incorrect response. In other words, students in my lab study the origins and development of self-control. In our current studies, we collect eye movement and brain wave data from infants and young children as they perform various visual-spatial tasks in which two response tendencies compete. Students interested in joining my research lab can contact me at wentwort@lakeforest.edu.”