Research Laboratories
The UW Department of Psychology maintains top-rate research programs for faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students interested in a variety of topics. Learn more by perusing this section of our website!
Undergraduate students interested in participating in studies can view opportunities through the SONA system
Addictive Behaviors Lab
Principal Investigator: Dr. Alison Looby
- College student substance use (e.g., prescription stimulants, alcohol, marijuana)
- Cognitive mechanisms (e.g., expectancies, motives) underlying substance use
- Prevention and intervention
Anxiety and Trauma Research Group
Principal Investigator: Dr. Joshua Clapp
- The impact of trauma exposure on emotion regulation and interpersonal functioning
- Issues related to the conceptualization and assessment of trauma-related psychopathology
- Lay theories of trauma and its consequences
- Patterns of response to psychosocial intervention
ASPIRE Laboratory
Principal Investigator: Dr. Benjamin Wilkowski
- Goal self-regulation
- Emotion
- Personality
Attention and Learning Laboratory
Principal Investigator: Dr. Cynthia Hartung
- Evaluating treatments for ADHD in college students
- Providing school-based support for secondary student with ADHD
- Establishing developmentally sensitive criteria for ADHD in emerging adults
- Understanding bystanders' behaviors in response to bullying
Cognitive Aging & Memory Perceptions Lab
Principal investigator: Dr. Erin Harrington
- Prospective memory
- Cognitive aging
- Predictors of everyday memory & cognition (e.g., age, gender, psychosocial experiences)
Eating Behaviors Lab
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kyle De Young
- Eating behaviors, particularly as they are relevant to eating disorders
- Weight management, and physical activity
Health and Aging Lab
Principal Investigator: Dr. Christine McKibbin
- Oral health among adults with serious mental illness (SMI)
- Delivery of mental health services to rural adults with SMI
- Physical and mental health treatment knowledge and preferences among older adults
- Knowledge and confidence of Certified Nursing Assistants for the management of behavioral disturbances in nursing home settings
Motivation and Cognition Lab
Principal Investigator: Dr. Sean McCrea
- Anticipatory thought processes in self-handicapping
- Constructual level effects on procrastination
- Effectiveness of planning in the reduction of self-protective behavior
- The role of expertise in probability judgements
- Motivational benefits and costs of counterfactual thinking
Legal Judgments Lab
Principal Investigator: Dr. Hannah Phalen
- Race and Gender in the Legal System
- Visual Evidence
- Emotion and Legal Decision-Making
Social Cognition and Law Lab
Principal Investigators: Dr. Kayla Burd
- Juror perceptions of forensic science evidence
- The impact of verdict procedures and reasoning on jury decision-making
- Racial biases in police shooting decisions and investigations
- Writing interventions aimed at improving shooting decisions and investigations
- Racial biases in juvenile probation officer decisions
Spatial Cognition Lab
Principal Investigator: Dr. Meredith Minear
- Spatial Cognition
- Virtual & Augmented Reality
- Neural Correlates of Cognition using EEG
Stress and Mood Laboratory
Principal Investigator: Dr. Carolyn Pepper
- Interpersonal Theory of Suicide
- Suicide in the Mountain West
- Functions of non-suicidal Self-injury (NSSI)
- Perfectionism, rumination and depressed mood
Trauma and Sexual Assault Prevention Laboratory
Principle Investigator: Dr. Matt J. Gray
- Sexual assault prevention development and evaluation
- Correlates and consequences of rape myths and rape supportive beliefs
- Partner violence etiology and intervention
- Emotional consequences of trauma exposure and perpetration
