Psychology Research Labs

Sue Wenze and twin girls write at a whiteboard.
Nadia Manasfi ’23 works at a brightly lit computer screen in a dark room
Luis Schettino works with a student in a lab
A young child points at a screen during a video chat.

Faculty in the Department of Psychology direct active labs that offer students opportunities to gain research experience. Students and faculty produce a large number of scientific publications and presentations each year. The directory of faculty research labs can be found below.

Community Health Psychology Lab

Director: Abbey Mann
Website: https://sites.lafayette.edu/mannak/research/community-health-psychology-lab/
The Community Health Psychology Lab is engaged in community-based research on healthcare access, primarily with sexual and gender minority groups. Current projects include the collection of survey data for a study about the healthcare experiences and needs of nonbinary adults (HENNA).

Recent presentations and publications:

Williams, S., Van Leuven, E. G., Wilkins, B. T., & Mann, A. K. (In press). A moderated
mediation model of minority stress in Appalachian transgender and nonbinary individuals. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (TBD) https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000756

Mann, A., Fredrick E. G., & Wilkins B. (2023). Growing up in a rural area social support, and internalized transphobia: Understanding Appalachian transgender mental and physical health. Stigma & Health, TBD https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000425

Mann, A. (June, 2023) Quantitative analysis of timeline interviews about transgender
healthcare experiences. Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Denver, CO.

Guilty Pleasures & Ambivalence (GPA) Lab 

Director: LaCount “JJ” Togans
Website: https://sites.lafayette.edu/togansl/gpa-lab/

Research in the GPA lab examines how people think, feel, and behave when experiencing ambivalence (e.g., feeling simultaneous positive and negative emotions, seeing “both sides” of a topic). Current projects involve investigating the psychology of indulging in guilty pleasures, as well as exploring how self-conscious emotions (e.g., nostalgia, embarrassment, pride) influence the strength of people’s opinions. We are also interested in exploring how the experience of ambivalence varies cross-culturally.

Recent representative publications:

Togans, L. J., & McConnell, A. R. (2025). How should I feel about this? Investigating the emotions and processes involved in indulging in guilty pleasures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Advanced online publication. DOI: 10.1177/01461672251327440

Togans, L. J., & McConnell, A. R. (2024). Blinded by wistfulness: On how nostalgia strengthens attitudes. Cognition and Emotion, 38, 913-927. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2336196

Available to supervise honors thesis mentorship in the areas of social psychology of attitudes and persuasion, emotion and cognition, nostalgia, culture and cognition, the self

Human Factors, Perception, & Cognition Lab

Director: Michael Nees
Website: http://sites.lafayette.edu/neesm
Research in the HFPC lab examines theoretical and applied aspects of human interactions with technology. Current research topics and interests include auditory displays, human interactions with automation (especially for driving), driving safety, and effects of interruptions on multitasking performance.

Recent publications: 

Nees, M.A., Liu, C.**, & Bogan, K.**. (2024) Speech, Nonspeech Audio, and Visual Interruptions of a Tracking Task: A Replication and Extension of Nees & Sampsell (2021). Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 72(5), 309-316. https://aes2.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22604 https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/64dbm

Nees, M.A. (2024). Auditory versus visual Interruptions: A skeptical perspective on auditory preemption and suggestions for advancing theory.  Auditory Perception & Cognition, 7(2), 140-162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/25742442.2024.2311054

 

Intergroup Bias & Social Cognition Lab 

Director: Deja Simon-Jennings

The Intergroup Bias & Social Cognition Lab studies how intergroup biases (e.g., pertaining to race or skin tone) influence person memory and perception. We investigate 1) why people pay attention to, thus better recognize, some individuals more than others, 2) ways that face recognition can be improved, and 3) how people’s outward characteristics influence others’ perceptions and judgments.

Recent representative publications:

Simon, D., Chen, J. M., Sherman, J. W., & Calanchini, J. (2023). A recognition advantage for members of higher-status racial groups. British Journal of Psychology, 114, 188–211.

Stelter, M., Simon, D., Calanchini, J., Christ, O., & Degner, J. (2023). Real-life outgroup exposure, self-reported outgroup contact and the other-race effect. British Journal of Psychology, 114, 150-171.

Available to supervise honors thesis mentorship in the areas of intergroup bias, person perception, stereotyping and prejudice.

 

Lafayette Kids Lab

Director: Lauren J. Myers
Website: https://sites.lafayette.edu/kidslab

The Lafayette Kids Lab conducts research about developmentally appropriate use of digital media by infants and children under the age of 5 years. We also collaborate with investigators and students at the University of South Dakota, Georgetown University, Vanderbilt University and Penn State-Brandywine. Students in the lab have the opportunity to co-author presentations and publications and recent students have presented at the Digital Media and Developing Minds International Scientific Congress (Lucy Neely ‘22); Society for Research in Child Development (Abigail Milhaven ‘24, Caroline Hugo ‘25, Lauren Daniels ‘25, Hayley Katz ‘25, Samantha Montague ‘26, Gabriela Pedulla ‘26); and National Conference for Undergraduate Research (past thesis students Lauren Daniels ‘25, Abigail Milhaven ‘24, Lucy Neely ‘22, Taylor Stone ‘22).

Recent representative publications: 

PDFs available upon email request (* indicates undergraduate student author from Lafayette):

 

Myers, L.J., Strouse, G.A., McClure, E.R., Keller, K.R.*, Neely, L.I.*, Stoto, I.*, Vadakattu, N.S., Kim, E., Troseth, G.L., Barr, R.F., & Zosh, J.M. (2024). Look at Grandma! Joint visual attention interactions over video chat during the COVID-19 pandemic. Infant Behavior and Development, 75, 101934. DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2024.101934

Troseth, G., Barr, R., Zosh, J., Strouse, G. & Myers, L.J. (2024). Video chat: A tool for young children’s engagement and early social learning. In G. Frizzo (Ed.), Digital media and early childhood development (pp. 125-134), Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-69224-6_9

Available to supervise honors thesis mentorship in the areas of child development, children & media

MemLab

Director: Jennifer Talarico
Website: https://sites.lafayette.edu/talaricj

MemLab studies how individuals remember personally-experienced events (i.e., autobiographical memory). Broadly speaking, our research questions examine the relationship between event features and how those events are later remembered and how what we remember is influenced by how a memory is brought to mind.

Recent publications:

Talarico, J. M. (2022). A tetrahedral model of autobiographical memory research design. WIREs Cognitive Science. [pdf]

Talarico, J. M., Bohn, A. & Wessel, I. (2019). The role of event relevance and congruence on flashbulb memory formation. Memory, 27, 985-997.[pdf]

Mood Processing & Treatment Lab

Director: Susan Wenze
Website: https://sites.lafayette.edu/wenzes/
The Mood Processing and Treatment (MPAT) Lab conducts research on mood disorders and related conditions. Specifically, we study cognitive and emotional processes in individuals with sub-threshold and threshold-level mood and anxiety symptoms. We also conduct research on mental health treatment needs and outcomes for affective disorders, anxiety, stress, and related concerns, with a focus on perinatal mental health care.

Recent representative publication:

Wenze, S.J., Battle, C. L., Huntley, E. D., Gaugler, T. L., & Kats, D. (L ‘19) (2023). Ecological momentary assessment of postpartum outcomes in mothers of multiples: Lower maternal-infant bonding, higher stress, and more disrupted sleep. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 26, 361-378. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-023-01317-0

Recent representative presentation:

Brait Amorosino, B. (L ‘22) & Wenze, S. J. (2022). Predictors of Reactivity and Adherence in Ecological Momentary Assessment Studies. Poster presented at the 56th annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, New York City, NY.

 

Motor control and motor cognition lab

Director: Luis F. Schettino
The motor control and motor cognition lab explores the neural bases of sensorimotor behavior through kinematic and gaze analysis in humans and how spatial perception affects our cognition.

Recent publications:

Furmanek, M.P., Schettino, L.F., Yarossi, M., Kirkman, S., Adamovich, S.V., Tunik, E. (2019) Coordination of reach-to-grasp in physical and haptic-free virtual environments. Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation 16(1):78.

Steinberg, N. J., Brown, A. A., Schettino, L. F. (2019) Target capture strategy selection in a simulated marksmanship task. Scientific Reports 9:14057.

Neurodiversity Lab

Director: Jessie L. Greenlee
Research in the Neurodiversity Lab aims to understand factors associated with the socioemotional well-being of neurodiverse children and youth and their families. We use multiple methods to explore how and why some neurodiverse individuals do well (build resilience) while others are at increased risk for mental health challenges. Current research topics include using electrodermal activity as a biomarker for child dysregulation, measuring social threat in autistic children, and parenting experiences in the context of autism.

Recent publication:

Greenlee, J. L., Hickey, E., Stelter, C. R., Huynh, T., & Hartley, S. L. (2023). Profiles of the parenting experience in families of autistic children. Autism, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613221147399

 

Reactions to Traumatic Stress Lab

Director: Susan Hannan

The Reactions to Traumatic Stress Lab has historically conducted research on identifying and understanding risk and resiliency factors associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms following trauma exposure. Our current focus is shifting to a more qualitative understanding of other traumatic stress reactions aside from PTSD, such as manic and psychotic experiences. 

Recent representative publications:

Hannan, S. M., & MacDonald, G. (L ‘23). (2022). Exposure to an Anonymous Survivor Instagram Account is linked to Institutional Betrayal among Campus Sexual Misconduct Survivors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 38, 2207-2217.

Hannan, S. M. & Orcutt, H. K. (2020). Emotion regulation in undergraduate students with posttraumatic stress symptoms: A multi-method study. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12, 643-651.