We welcome students and scientists to the AHEAD lab who are interested in studying effective ways of reducing disparities in adolescent mental and physical health problems through a systemic lens. Much of our work focuses using innovative approaches like ecological momentary assessment and physiological measurements of stress to understand the benefits of mindfulness-based intervention and yoga for adolescents exposed to trauma and significant adversities.
Lab Faculty Member: Reagan Miller-Chagnon
Our team aims to bring together university faculty, community stakeholders, developers, and students at various levels of training interested in better understanding the science of addiction and recovery. We believe our team-based approach gives us a unique vantage point from which to develop new solutions and move the field forward. We disseminate our work through research publications, conference presentations, podcast episodes (https://anchor.fm/addiction-psychologist), and other training opportunities. We are also dedicated to social justice, health equity, and the recruitment, retention, and career development of trainees from historically underrepresented backgrounds (e.g., ethno-racial minorities, individuals in recovery). If you are interested in getting involved, please reach out!
Lab Faculty Member: Noah Emery
Dr. Canetto studies cultural norms, beliefs, and narratives of femininity and masculinity in four domains. A domain is cultural scripts of gender and suicidal behaviors--including suicidal thoughts, nonfatal suicidal behavior, suicide, and physician-assisted suicide--across intersectionalities of age, sexual orientation, social class, and disability. A second research stream is cultural norms, stereotypes, and narratives of women's and men's interest, persistence, and success in science and engineering. A third research area is on cultural and gender issues in human rights. A fourth domain is stereotypes of gender, aging, and sexual orientation.
Research Team
Lab Faculty Member: Silvia Sara Canetto
This laboratory engages in the scientific study of human memory. There are many ways to study human memory. In our laboratory, we conduct experiments aimed at investigating and teasing apart various human memory processes. We examine many aspects of memory, such as how people recognize that something was experienced recently, or what sorts of activities lead memory to be better or worse. In recent years we have focused a lot on residual memory during retrieval failure. A classic example of is when a person recognizes another person's face as familiar, but cannot recollect the details of when or where the face was seen before. Much of our research attempts to address what features of an event or situation can give rise to a sense of memory during retrieval failure, and what types of mental processes underlie the sense that something is familiar or the sense that something is in memory during retrieval failure. We also investigate subjective states that relate to the sense that something is in memory when we fail to retrieve it, such as tip-of-the-tongue experiences. Along these same lines, we also investigate subjective states that relate to the sense of familiarity, such as deja vu. Recently, we have been investigating how these types of subjective states during retrieval failure affect decision-making.
Behavioral Sciences Building
Lab Faculty Member: Anne Cleary
In our lab, we investigate temporal processing, aspects of cognitive aging, and cognitive processes in clinical populations. One line of research focuses on understanding the development of time processing abilities over the life span. Of particular interest is the relationship between one's ability to process time accurately and higher cognitive skills such as planning, sequencing, and executive functioning. We also study time processing in clinical populations. Our research involves behavioral testing, EEG, and neuropsychological testing and we maintain active collaborations with the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the Center for Neurorehabilitiation Services.
Behavioral Sciences Building
Lab Faculty Member: Deana Davalos
This facility houses one EEG systems, with a control area and a separate subject-running room. The system is a 32-channel Neuroscan system.
Clark Building C wing Basement
This laboratory operates on the premise that what we eat and how much we move relates directly to our short-term and long-term well-being. We are interested in promoting physical activity and healthy eating, and in understanding how to make these behaviors the defaults in situations where they are currently impeded by various environmental and psychological obstacles. We use experimental and observational methods to identify barriers to healthy behaviors and we design interventions to reduce/remove/circumvent these impediments. Some of our current projects are described below.
Lab Faculty Member: Daniel Graham
Dr. Harman's lab focuses on interpersonal relationships and health behaviors using social psychological theory. Employing experimental and qualitative techniques, undergraduate and graduate students actively collaborate with Dr. Harman to study a range of topics that lead to publications and conference presentations. Undergraduate students work in groups or on individual projects (e.g., honor's theses) and routinely meet with all lab members to discuss research issues, ideas, and proposals. A sample of some recent research topics studied in the lab include:
Power dynamics in families separated or divorced
Program evaluations of interventions targeted severely alienated children
Examining gender differences in the use of aggression
Assessing training of mental health providers for the assessment of parental alienation
Examining suicide risk among parents who have been alienated from a child
Examining biomarkers of stress responses among children who have been alienated from a parent
Understanding the prevalence of parental alienation in the U.S. and Canada
Fort Collins, CO
Lab Faculty Member: Jennifer Jill Harman
Our team is composed of faculty, research assistants, graduate students and undergraduate students interested in the experimental study of substance use disorders from a biopsychosocial perspective. Our research involves leveraging molecular biology methods, neuroimaging techniques and the innovative Mobile Pharmacology Lab (MPL) to better understand the causes and consequences of substance use behavior. We disseminate our work through research publications, participation in scientific conferences and community engagement. Our work is both translational and highly interdisciplinary, combining psychology, neuroscience, immunology, and genetics in the service of improving our understanding of addictive processes and ultimately improving treatment options.
Lab Faculty Member: Hollis Karoly
Clark C19
Lab Faculty Member: Michael Steger
In the Linking Early Adversity, Resilience and Neurodevelopment (LEARN) Lab, we investigate how children's experiences shape their brain development. We employ neuroimaging techniques to study associations between socioeconomic factors and children's brain structure and function; the proximal factors, such as chronic stress, that explain those associations; and the implications of socioeconomic differences in brain development for cognitive and mental health outcomes. Our goal is to contribute to advances in practice and policy related to childhood socioeconomic disadvantage.
BSB269
Lab Faculty Member: Emily Merz
Our lab is generally interested in memory and complex cognition across the adult lifespan. Our research interests concern the processes that allow us to hold onto information in mind from moment-to-moment (i.e., working memory) and how we retrieve that information later on (i.e., long-term memory). We are interested in how these processes change with age, especially in the ability to engage in the mental time travel that allows us to seemingly relive events in our mind's eye (i.e., recollection). We use a variety of empirical and statistical/computational tools to investigate these issues, which we share freely with other researchers on the Open Science Framework (OSF).
Lab Faculty Member: Vanessa Loaiza
Our laboratory is concerned with interpretive and statistical challenges relevant to neuropsychological research and practice.
Lab Faculty Member: Michael Thomas
Research in the Occupational Health Psychology lab focuses on worker health and well-being, and characteristics of the work environment that impact individuals and organizations. The lab serves to build a community of those studying occupational health psychology topics.
C46, C50
Lab Faculty Member: Gwenith G. Fisher
The Prasad Lab brings together undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty interested in studying the intersection of workplace procedures, diversity, and methodology. We share our work through research publications, conference presentations, collaboration, and other training opportunities. We serve the community of industrial-organizational psychologists as well as related communities who may benefit from our work.
Virtual
Lab Faculty Member: Joshua Prasad
Our lab brings together faculty, graduate students, post-baccalaureate and undergraduate students interested in studying the nature and treatment of substance use problems, as well as the use of advanced statistical and quantitative methods. We focus on understanding factors related to intervention, prevention, and mechanisms of change. We disseminate our work through research publications, conference presentations, collaboration, and other training opportunities.
Lab Faculty Member: Mark Prince
The Rojas Lab group utilizes the following technology in its research: 1. NIRx Near Infrared Spectroscopy cap-based fNIRS system with 48 emitters and 32 detectors 2. g.Tec 128 channel HiAmp active electrode EEG system 3. SR Research Eyelink 1000 Plus eye tracker with 2 kHz camera upgrade
BSB 273
Lab Faculty Member: Don Rojas
Our lab uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), cognitive testing, and anatomical imaging to investigate a variety of topics in the cognitive neuroscience of human learning and cognition. Our core research examines how interactions between basal ganglia and cortex in corticostriatal "loops" contribute to category learning. We also collaborate on a variety of projects in areas as diverse as risk taking in adolescence, recognition memory, musical harmony and rhythm processing, and neuroeconomics.
Behavioral Sciences Building room 267
Lab Faculty Member: Carol A. Seger
A state-of-the art virtual reality system is available. This facility houses a designated computer for running virtual reality simulations along with a head-mounted display for 3D immersive interaction within virtual reality environments.
Behavioral Sciences Building