CIMCYC is a leading research center for the study of mental functions and their applications across various fields, featuring renowned researchers working in memory, learning and decision-making, language and thinking, reasoning, numerical cognition, attention and cognitive control, consciousness, emotion, and motivation.
For example, we have developed experimental procedures to measure attention across different populations and to distinguish the mechanisms underlying attentional orienting to social and non-social cues. We have also characterized the interactions between different types of attention and perceptual awareness.
We have studied how memory- and language-related tasks involve executive control in managing interference among mental contents, and we have explored how people think about abstract concepts, along with the role of culture in this process.
Another productive line of research uses associative learning models and experimental protocols to understand the etiology of addictive processes, leading to influential theoretical proposals about the nature and causal mechanisms of addiction. Related applications focus on risky decision-making and the susceptibility of learning processes to nutritional interventions.