About Us

Research Areas

Our faculty carry out high quality research in a wide variety of areas, published in high-calibre, peer-reviewed journals. Students interested in applying to our program are encouraged to consult the list of active research topics below when preparing their applicant’s statement.               

Faculty research in cognitive psychology focuses on questions of interest in both basic areas (including attention and perception, memory, learning, mathematical cognition, and decision making) and applied areas (such as goal pursuit, with application to pro-environmental and conservation behaviour; face recognition, with application to policing and security; investigative interviewing, with application to the law; risk-taking behaviour, with application to gambling and criminal behaviour).

Our faculty specialized in developmental psychology conduct research on how children learn and become skilled in academic domains such as arithmetic, the development of action perception and understanding of action goals, how social cognition develops in infancy and early childhood, and developmental differences in children’s memory.

Faculty research interests in forensic psychology include the psychology of policing, reliability of eyewitness testimony, assessment of instruments used in forensic settings, predictors of criminal behaviour with emphasis on the role of risk-taking, and factors affecting decisions made by law enforcement officials in the field.

Our research in neuroscience explores the neural correlates of the expression and interpretation of emotion; sex differences in cognitive and visuomotor skills, and the effects of differential prenatal exposure to hormones on behaviour later in life.

Faculty in social psychology carry out research that examines social determinants of risk-taking; decision-making in police investigators, judges, and jurors; perceptions of credibility; and, ethical practices such as debriefing in social psychology research.