Individual differences in emotion and cognition

Individuals differ in how they respond to emotions. While the majority of existing research has focused on the deleterious effects that a lack of control over emotional experiences can have on cognition and well-being, much less is known about consequences of high degrees of emotional control. The overarching goal of our research is to characterize behavioural and neural costs and benefits associated with high dispositional emotion control.

Repressive coping style and memory

A prominent example of high dispositional control is the so-called repressive coping style, part of the normal range of human stress coping styles. We understand the repressive coping style as an analogue for psychogenic memory disorders within the healthy range and study memory alterations in repressors. In all our studies, we compare repressive individuals to their non-repressing counterparts, based on Weinberger et al.'s classification scheme (1979; see Figure above). Publications see here ...

Neuropsychology of decision making

Ongoing patient studies investigate the relationship between decision making abilities, assessed with a newly developed decision making tool by collaborator Matthias Brand, and executive functions. Graduate students Ashley Radomski and Sara Tomlinson are working on projects related to this theme.

This lab is part of the Alberta Cognitive Neuroscience Group and the Centre for Neuroscience.

We are funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council SSHRC and the University Hospital Foundation.