Work in the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab is conducted by teams of undergraduate researchers under the direction of Psychology and Neuroscience faculty. Undergraduates are involved in all phases of the lab activity including identifying and planning projects, running data collection sessions, preparing and analyzing the data and writing and presenting the results.
Cognitive neuroscience students at Simpson have a variety of research tools at their disposal. The Psychology Department maintains five general purpose cognitive psychology research stations, each equipped with E-Prime laboratory software, Matlab, and the SPSS statistical analysis package.
An additional lab is equipped with advanced psychophysiology measurement equipment from Biopac Inc. The system is set up to record muscle activity (EMG), skin temperature, and skin conductance (EDA).
The lab facility is also home to a 24-channel Electroencephalogram (EEG) data acquisition system from Sensorium Inc. This equipment is used to study brain activity related to music, language, and attention.
The latest addition to the lab is an SMI Red 500 eye tracking system. The location of eye fixations is closely related to what the brain is attending to and processing at any given moment.
In addition to the stationary RED 500 system, the lab has eye tracking glasses that can be worn while shopping, driving, and many other activities that can’t be reproduced in the lab.