Research

How can you build a computer out of water and fat and salt? What does that mean for the kinds of cognitive computations the brain can perform? And how would such a computer change with age, cognitive decline, or mental illness? In the NRDlab, we try to address these questions by building computational models of cognition and by running behavioral, neuroimaging and neurostimulation experiments.

How do we decide between exploration and exploitation?

When you go to a favorite restaurant do you always order the same thing or do you try something new? This simple conundrum, deciding between what you know and what you don't, is at the heart of the explore-exploit dilemma and whether it's a cow looking for greener pastures or a human looking for love, this problem is ubiquitous and important to solve. Work in the NRDlab investigates the neural computations underlying the explore-exploit decisions in humans across the lifespan.

For more information hit the "explore-exploit" button on our Publications page

Why do we make mistakes?

We all make mistakes. This work asks "Why?" Do mistakes simply reflect the difficulty of building a computer out of salt, water and fat? Or can mistakes actually be useful, and usefully regulated?

For more information hit the "behavioral variability" button on our Publications page.

Phishing email detection

Phishing emails are a major public health problem, linked to negative health outcomes due to fraud and exploitation. Because of their sheer volume, and because phishing emails are designed to deceive, purely technological solutions can only go so far, leaving human judgment as the last line of defense. In this project we are probing the cognitive and neural processes underlying how people decide whether an email is safe or not.

For more information hit the "phishing" button on our Publications page