Members

My research interest is the visual regulation of coordinated movements and to apply from the perception-action perspective fundamental concepts (e.g. anticipation) in the rehabilitation and sport context, especially for talent identification and development.

My research in the last years can be grouped around 3 themes: interception, prehension and illusions in perception and action. It is performed in close collaboration with Eli Brenner.

My main interest is to acquire knowledge on a wide range of topics in evolutionary social, and organizational psychology. I am particularly interested in how insights from evolutionary psychology can explain leadership, status, social decision-making, intergroup relations and sustainability. In my work I use a range of methods from social and organizational neuroscience such as behavioral measures (economic games, reaction times), cognitive methods (face perception), virtual reality, hormonal measures, psychophysiological recordings, and functional fMRI.  In my work I am trying to build connections  between the fields of evolutionary psychology and social/organizational neuroscience.

My research focuses on visual perception, attention, and multisensory processing, as well as their interactions with working memory, long term memory and cognitive control mechanisms. I use a variety of experimental paradigms and measures, from visual search to rapid serial presentation, and from eye movements to EEG. One of the most important features of human vision is that it is selective. It flexibly samples the environment on the basis of what is relevant to our current tasks – tasks such as driving, finding a product in the supermarket, or collecting a child from school. This means that the brain maintains some representation of what we are currently looking for, be it a traffic sign, a coffee brand, or a kid’s face. This “picture in your head”, or “template” as it is often referred to, remains a mystery. Current models of visual exploration assume it to be there, but without making explicit what its properties and mechanisms are. I want to understand this central concept of perceptual theory, by systematically investigating what distinguishes the template from other types of memory, how many templates can be active at a time, how we set up, change, and abandon the template with changing task demands, and how training changes the nature, dynamics and capacity of the template.

My main research interests are in the areas of personality, communication styles, and leadership. Recent work has focused on situation, trait, and outcome activation (STOA) processes relevant for the expression of personality and the contextualization of personality in communication, leadership, and sport contexts. Recent contextualized personality instruments have included a six-dimensional Communication Styles Inventory (CSI) and a five-dimensional Sport Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Furthermore, I’m interested in constructing novel instruments to measure personality in a selection context. I’m currently investigating the effects of Three Nightmare Traits (TNT), i.e., Dishonesty, Disagreeableness, and Carelessness, in work contexts, the relations between leadership and followership styles, and the accuracy of personality assessment based on spoken text.

I aim to better understand the adaptations that underlie human pathogen avoidance. In doing so, my research investigates how people detect pathogens (e.g., through visual, olfactory, and audio cues), how they learn what in their environment is pathogenic (based on both individual and social learning), and how and why people vary in their pathogen-avoidance tendencies (e.g., disgust sensitivity). I use a variety of methods to investigate these questions, including those used by cognitive psychologists, social psychologists, personality psychologists, and behavioral geneticists. This work is currently funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant.

People can stand upright, walk, run, jump, cycle, and throw objects, to name but a few of the motor tasks that are performed seemingly without effort. In all cases, the CNS activates muscles, muscles produce forces, muscle forces together with external forces produce accelerations of body segments, and these accelerations, integrated over time, lead to the motion required to perform the task. In generating the muscle stimulation patterns, the central nervous system deals with the task constraints, the mechanical and physiological properties of the musculoskeletal system, the properties of the power supply systems, and the sensory information available in the task, with the relative importance of these factors varying with the task. The general objective of my work is to understand, for various motor tasks, why they are performed the way they are performed, and how they are controlled. This understanding is ultimately sought for humans, but some studies are also directed at animal locomotion. Although my primary objective is to gain fundamental insights, whenever possible I try to translate the results into recommendations for rehabilitation programs used in health care, and training programs and equipment used in sports. In my studies, the emphasis lies on biophysical methods of analysis, and experiments on subjects are intertwined with computer simulations using mathematical models of the control system, the action system and the power supply systems.

My general research interest evolves around the control, mechanics and energetics of human movement. My approach is to combine experimental data with predictions and analyses using (neuro-)musculoskeletal models. These models are capable mimicking the important properties of the actual musculoskeletalsystem and are based on in vitro / in vivo experiments and cadaver studies on mammalian musculoskeletal systems. In order to obtain model-based predictions I use optimal control techniques (e.g. Direct Collocation and Sparse Non-linear Optimizer). Currently I am focusing on the question what underlies the control of fast goal-directed arm movements and on the relationship between mechanics and energetics of muscle fibres in the context of human locomotion (particularly in walking and cycling).

I am trained as a developmental psychologist, with a focus on experimental (neuro-)psychology. The main focus of my research is on the development of executive functions, between childhood and young-adulthood. Executive functions are brain processes allowing someone to show goal-directed behavior, by flexibly adjusting to the changing circumstances in the environment. In doing so, we are, for example, able to show up on time, suppress outbursts for little reason, plan homework, or come up with alternative solutions. Together with Dr. Diana Smidts, I developed the Dutch adaptation of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) for children between ages 5 and 18. In addition, we co-authored a book on the development of executive function for the general audience: 'Gedrag in uitvoering'. My research interestes include self- and emotion regulation, peer influence, working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibition, complex task performance, strategy application, risk-taking behavior, social development - in relation to school performance

My research is focused on temporal cognition. Human beings and other animals have widespread, though largely implicit, knowledge of relevant temporal contingencies in the world (e.g., when a traffic light will turn green after we stopped our car in front of it). How do we learn these temporal contingencies and what is the nature of the memory system where these contingencies are stored? And how does our knowledge of these contingencies find expression in behavior? These are  examples of questions I have examined over the past years in collaboration with Erik van der Burg, Martijn Meeter, and  Wouter Kruijne. Our approach is to account for robust patterns of behavioral data (usually reaction times) by means of (formal) cognitive modeling.

I have always been interested in understanding how visual attention works. I am intrigued by different forces that control the flow of information in the brain and eventually determine the contents of our consciousness and direct our actions. Why do we sometimes miss the obvious things, like the famous “invisible” gorilla? How can radiologist find a tumour on a scan within 200 ms? And what is particularly intriguing: do we possess the “free will” in directing our attention or are we just passive observers? In the last years I realized that visual attention cannot be studied in isolation from other cognitive functions. My research focused on linking visual attention to memory systems (Veni grant), emotional systems (threat and reward) and motor systems (eye movements and visual stability, ORA grant).The accumulated knowledge led to a reformulation of prominent theories of attentional control, visual memory and accounts of stability of visual world during eye movements.

My research focuses on close relationships. Specifically, I study how automatic vs. deliberative processes affect relationship dynamics, how people help each other in accomplishing goals and when partners decide to sacrifice their own interest for the relationship. In my work I use different methodologies, such as experience sampling procedures, diary studies, reaction time measures (e.g., implicit evaluation measures) and manipulations of key constructs in a laboratory setting.

My primary research interest lies in understanding how our psychology, and the biological mechanisms that underlie this psychology, have evolved to determine how we respond “in the heat of the moment” to social triggers. I explore how these evolved mechanisms shape the balance between people’s cooperative versus competitive motivations. To explore these topics, I draw from various disciplines – psychology, biology, sociology, economics – and employ a range of methodologies – hormonal analyses, fMRI, heart rate, SCR, behavioral games, field and laboratory studies.

I am interested in exploring the relationship between cortical processing and conscious vision and to what degree the experience of seeing depends on attention. Particularly, I am interested in tying functional aspects of vision, as for example feature binding and predictive coding, to experiential aspects of vision, such as surface and shape perception in order to determine the relationship between function and experience. Contiguously, I am interested in determining to what degree conscious vision exists without selective attention as modulatory or causal force. Recently, I am expanding these questions into the domain of visual working memory.

Our behavior and performance at work is strongly influenced by the social situations we find ourselves in, and by our perceptions of these situations. I am interested in understanding what leaders and followers actually do when interacting in concrete situations, how their behavior relates to outcomes as well as to perceptions of leadership and followership, and why objective and perceived characteristics of situations are not necessarily the same. In my work I  draw from a broad range of methods, including verbal and nonverbal interaction coding, experimental studies, eye-tracking, and survey methodology, and I collaborate with scholars from several disciplines.

I study how cognition, emotion, personality, and psychopathology impact the organization of movement, with an emphasis on regulating postural balance. My main theoretical interest involves the reciprocity between mental states and bodily states, as outlined by the embodied cognition thesis.

Memories shape our lives more than we can ever imagine. They make us who we are. This is why the memory system in our brains is so fascinating to me. My research is strongly influenced by my honest belief that understanding more about how memories get stored in our brains can help us to better remember information that is important to us.  I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the VU University Amsterdam's department of Educational Neuroscience. My research aims to help students to learn well, people to remember what is valuable to them, and elderly to keep their precious memories for as long as possible!

I’m investigating how long-term meditation practice affects the most basic processes of the brain, and thereby shedding light on just how malleable and plastic the brain is. There is hardly a more unique population than those who sit still, in silence, for tens of thousands of hours. We already know this impacts the brain in a potent way, but we don’t yet know how deep the effects go. Using the burgeoning theories known broadly under the banner of predictive processing, I’m testing whether the brains fundamental tendency to interpret the world according to our beliefs can be influenced. Is it possible that meditation genuinely allows practitioners to perceive the world in a more direct way, beyond conceptions? During my PhD, I conducted research on insight moments and epiphanies. For more information, see https://rubenlaukkonen.com. 

Since the start of my PhD I have been intrigued by findings that elegantly demonstrate the limited processing capacity of our visual system. Despite the subjective feeling that we have a complete representation of everything and everyone in our immediate surroundings we can easily miss what’s right in front of us. During my PhD I have largely focused on how what we are currently thinking about (i.e. what we hold in memory) shapes the perception of our visual surroundings. In my postdoc period in the lab of Heleen Slagter I have expanded this research line by also investigating how the brain learns to deal with visual distractions. I mostly use psychophysics (incl. RT measurements) and electroencephalography to study these topics, but I also use eye-tracking and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

My research in recent years has mainly focussed on how we hit moving targets and how we grasp objects. These questions have led me to investigate various issues regarding strategic decisions (e.g. choosing a movement path), spatial and temporal resolution, the role of expectations and eye movements. Beside related work on visual localisation and motion perception, I also have a continued interest in colour vision and in how various sources of information are combined.