Department of Psychology

Adolescent Development Lab
Director:  Dr. Teena Willoughby

Our major research interest is in adolescent development with a focus on two main questions: (a) What predicts the individual differences found among adolescents with regard to risk taking, academic underachievement, and media use (e.g., video game play), particularly in terms of different developmental trajectories, and how are these trajectories related to psychoscial adjustment?, and (b) Is adolescence a sensitive period for development, resulting in unique vulnerabilities and opportunities for both negative (e.g., risk taking, depression) as well as positive behaviors (e.g., engagement in structured activities; spirituality)?

Attention Lab
Director:  Dr. Karen Arnell

Behavioural, Developmental, and Social Neuroscience Lab
Director: Dr. Cheryl McCormick

Environmental experiences and social interactions shape the development and function of the brain, which in turn influence perception of, and behaviour in, situations in the future. Our lab investigates the role of hormones of the neuroendocrine systems in moulding the relationship between the environment and the individual in animal models, both human and nonhuman.

Well-Being Research Lab
Director: Dr. Michael Busseri

Chemosensory Perception Lab
Director: Dr. Gary Pickering

Food and beverage flavor strongly influences consumption and consequently a range of nutritional and health outcomes. Thus, differences between people in their perception of tastants and odorants help account for relative dietary intake and risk of chronic diet-related disease. For example, individuals who sense dietary sugar and fat less intensely may require them in higher concentrations to reach optimal liking, and thus habitually consume greater amounts, increasing their risk of energy over-consumption, obesity and related disease states. Our lab investigates how biological factors, including taste genetics, influence our perception of flavor, and what those individual differences in sensory perception mean for food and alcoholic beverage selection and consumption.

Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience Lab
Directors: Dr. Sid Segalowitz, Dr. Jane Dywan, Dr. Tim Murphy

We have several streams of research all focusing on cortical and cardiovascular autonomic response technologies: (1) responses of the medial prefrontal cortex as they relate to age (especially childhood, adolescence, and adult aging) and to differences in personality traits (e.g., temperament factors of reward-seeking and cautiousness, externalizing and internalizing traits, and psychopathy); (2) early perceptual responses in the cortex, comparing face stimuli to objects, or differentiating among faces and across emotional expressions; and (3) medial prefrontal cortex responses to decision making, such as in gambling contexts, as they may be altered in different states of arousal (e.g., sleepiness).  We examine cortical responses using EEG and event-related potentials (ERPs), and associated technologies in order to examine their consistency and source generators, and we examine sympathetic and parasympathetic responses using combinations of blood pressure and heart rate variability measures.  Our child and adolescent developmental projects focus especially on personality trait influences on these physiological responses.

Family Relations Lab
Director:  Dr. Tanya Martini

The family relations lab carries out research related to the social and emotional aspects of relationships, with a particular emphasis on family relationships.

Forgiveness Research Group
Directors: Dr. Kathy Belicki, Dr. Nancy DeCourville

The Forgiveness Research Group has studied several questions related to forgiveness and forgiveness seeking. We have documented that people differ in what they understand forgiveness to mean and in their reasons for forgiving when they forgive. We are currently working towards developing a measure of these different forms of forgiving. We have also done initial research on the varying ways that people seek forgiveness after they have hurt someone. In addition to documenting different forms of forgiving and forgiveness seeking we have conducted research into individual differences, examining the relations of forgiveness and forgiveness seeking to such variables as personality differences, well-being, and empathy.

Human Sexuality Lab
Director: Dr. Tony Bogaert

In our human sexuality lab, we study sexual orientation development, asexuality, sexual offending, high risk sexual behavior, pubertal development, and gender differences in sexual arousal.

Infant & Child Development Lab
Director:  Dr. Cathy Mondloch

We investigate the development of expert face perception. Adults recognize hundreds of faces at a glance and are extremely sensitive to numerous social cues (e.g., emotional expressions). We study how this expertise develops during childhood, limitations in adults' expertise (e.g., the own-race recognition advantage), and the influence of social context (e.g., in-group versus out-group) on face perception. New funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation will allow us to expand our research using cutting-edge technology.

Brock Lab of Intergroup Processes (BLIP)
Director: Dr. Gordon Hodson

In this lab we are interested in intergroup relations generally, with a particular focus on prejudice and discrimination. We consider both experimental and personality-driven research, incorporating cognitive and affective factors, across a wide range of prejudices (including anti-immigrant and anti-homosexual attitudes). Outgroup dehumanization and the marginalization of subordinate social groups are of key interest.

Neuropsychology Cognitive Lab
Director: Dr. Dawn Good

Our research focus on understanding the processing constraints involved in cognition, reasoning, and memory ability in neurologically compromised individuals (particularly those with Acquired Brain Injury, both adult and paediatric populations), how these constraints impact community reintegration and daily function, and how these abilities may be preserved, compensated, and/or improved.

Sleep Research Laboratory
Director:  Dr. Kimberly Cote

In the Sleep Research Laboratory we study "Sleep, Performance, and Cognition". My students and I have carried out diverse projects that explore this relationship between sleep and waking function, e.g., impact of total and partial sleep deprivation, benefits of napping, mechanisms of insomnia, role of sleep in learning, sleep disruption following brain injury, etc.

Social Development & Youth Engagement Lab
Director: Dr. Linda Rose-Krasnor

In our lab, we do research in the domains of both youth engagement and social development, with a special interest in shy/withdrawn youth. We also assess the impact of programs designed to increase positive youth development.

Social Justice Lab
Director:  Dr. Carolyn Hafer

In the Social Justice Lab at Brock, we investigate a wide range of topics related to justice and injustice, including how people respond when they believe they have been treated unfairly, how they respond to others' unjust outcomes, the role of deserving in conceptions of justice, etc.

Current members of the lab are as follows:
Faculty: Carolyn L. Hafer
Ph.D. student: Leanne Gosse
Post-Doctoral researcher: Becky Choma
Honours students: Joel Vrieswyk, Andy Bayer, Lauren Kollee
Volunteer researchers: Alexandra Brugman, Kayleigh Peterson
Research Assistant: Lindsay Oakes