To open and close this bar, use optionalt+/

Research

Current, collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects in the Program of Psychology at NYUAD are focused on a range of areas, including person perception and knowledge; neurolinguistics and language processing; visual perception; prejudice and discrimination; gender inequality; learning and development in children; and the neurobiology of short-term memory. Researchers and students alike have access to state-of-the-art labs and equipment, including an fMRI scanner.

The Psychology faculty fall into two broad areas, namely:

  • social and developmental psychology 
  • cognition and perception

Brain Imaging

NYUAD is equipped with a 3T Siemens MAGNETOM Prisma MRI scanner and a magnetoencephalography lab.

How do we think, remember, pay attention, communicate, form and implement goals, solve problems, and make decisions? Cognitive psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists at NYUAD use a wide array of methodologies, including behavioral methods, brain imaging techniques, and computational modeling, to investigate how the human brain performs these computations. Research on Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience at NYUAD includes the following areas:

  • Attention
  • Memory
  • Language and Speech Processing
  • Concepts and Categorization
  • Cognitive Control
  • Consciousness
  • Decision-making

Principal Investigators

Diogo Almeida

Research Areas:
Neurolinguistics, Language Processing

Olivia Cheung

Research Area: 
How the Human Brain Perceives the Visual World

David Melcher

Research Areas:
Cognitive Neuroscience, Perception, Attention, Working Memory, Eye Movements

Bas Rokers

Research Areas: 
Visual Perception; Motion Processing; Depth Perception; Neuroimaging; Virtual Reality

Research Institute Centers

Center for Brain and Health

The Center draws on existing strengths in the domains of Cognition, Health, and Data Science from NYUAD, the UAE, and NYU’s Global Network University (GNU). 

The study of perception aims to understand how the human brain interacts with the dynamic world, via perceiving sensory inputs and making sense of them. Researchers in the field of Perception use a variety of state-of-the-art techniques, including psychophysics, eye tracking, movement tracking, computational modeling, and neuroimaging. Perception research at NYUAD includes the following areas:

  • Visual Perception
  • Multisensory Perception and Motor Behavior
  • 2D and 3D Motion Perception
  • Reading and Speech Perception
  • High-level Vision (Object, Face, and Scene Recognition)
  • Perceptual Expertise
  • Virtual and Augmented Reality

Principal Investigators

Olivia Cheung

Research Area: 
How the Human Brain Perceives the Visual World

Bas Rokers

Research Areas: 
Visual Perception; Motion Processing; Depth Perception; Neuroimaging; Virtual Reality

Developmental Psychology is concerned with the complexity of human development across the lifespan. How do we develop? How do our early experiences shape who we are later in life? How can we support development so that all individuals can reach their full developmental potential? What can we learn about human development from studying individuals in different cultures? At NYUAD, researchers in the field of Developmental Psychology are interested in the following areas:

  • Caregiver-child Interactions
  • Supportive Parenting
  • Effects of Early Experiences Across the Lifespan
  • Development of Secure Attachment
  • Early Childhood Education 
  • School Readiness
  • Development in the Context of Adversity 

Principal Investigators

Antje von Suchodoletz

Research Area: 
Child Development, Early Childhood Education, Caregiver-Child Interactions

Social psychology is the scientific study of how the presence of others and social situations affect our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors. Social psychologists at NYUAD conduct experimental studies and statistical analyses of survey data to understand how situational and dispositional characteristics influence our opinions, attitudes, and actions. At NYUAD, research in social psychology is currently investigating questions in the following areas:

  • Prejudice
  • Intergroup Relations
  • Gender Norms
  • Inequality
  • Political Ideology

Principal Investigators

PJ Henry

Research Areas:
Social Psychology, Prejudice, Discrimination, Intergroup Relations

Anne Maass

Research Areas:
Language and Social Cognition; Stereotyping; Psychology of Economic Inequality

Jaime Napier

Research Areas:
Gender, Inequality, Heteronormativity

Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington

Research Areas:
Social Psychology; Poverty; Social Class; Inequality; Ideology; Prejudice; Political Behavior

Andrea Vial

Research Areas:
Social Psychology, Gender, Stereotyping, Power, Morality