The Psychology department has various research labs focused on studying contemporary issues in psychology. Research generated in university labs worldwide are the driving force behind scientific knowledge. Both graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to participate in research labs on campus. The experience gained from working in a lab will make students appealing candidates for any graduate program, in addition to providing basic skills for employment in research labs outside of campus.
Students interested in any of the available labs should contact the instructor or principal investigator of the respective lab.
Research Labs
Forensic Psychology Eyewintess Memory Lab
Lab: KH D3071-E
Mitchell Eisen
Email: [email protected]
Research interests span over two broad areas. Much of his current work examines issues related to eyewitness memory and suggestibility. In addition, Dr. Eisen does research on children's memory and suggestibility with a focus on examining the impact of stress and trauma on memory reports, and disclosures of abuse.
Freedom Lab
Lab: KH D3077
Dana Saifan
Email: [email protected]
FREEDOM Lab is an acronym for our lab’s research focus: Facilitating Research for Equity, Empowerment, and Decolonization of Mental Health. Our lab conducts community-partnered research to improve mental health for marginalized communities by examining experiences of intersectional identities, culture, belonging, and discrimination, as well as factors that may impact people’s experiences with mental health services.
Prosper Lab
Lab: KH D3079
Yvette Z. Szabo
Email: [email protected]
PROSPER is an acronym for our lab's research focus: Psychoneuroimmunology Research on Stress, PTSD, Emotions, and Recovery. Broadly, our research examines factors that connect stress and trauma to mental and physical health problems, with a focus on inflammation, emotion and cognition.
Child Development and Learning Lab
Lab: KH D3073
Corinne Bower
Email: [email protected]
Research interests include understanding the equity gap in young children's school readiness skills and ways to reduce it. This involves designing and examining the effectiveness of educational interventions created to help children's early science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning. These interventions include hands-on activities, like block-building, as well as educational app use in both early home environments and formal educational settings, like classrooms.
Forensic Psychology Eyewitness Memory Lab
Lab: KH D3071-E
Mitchell Eisen
Email: [email protected]
Research interests span over two broad areas. Much of his current work examines issues related to eyewitness memory and suggestibility. In addition, Dr. Eisen does research on children's memory and suggestibility with a focus on examining the impact of stress and trauma on memory reports, and disclosures of abuse.
Cognitive Psychophysiology Laboratory
Lab: KH D3077-C
Joel Ellwanger
Email: [email protected]
Research interests include cognitive psychology neuroscience, including the study of attention and memory through the use of physiological indices of cognition.
Silver Eagle Lab on Aging, Cognition, and Emotion
Lab: KH C3105
Robert Kennison
Email: [email protected]
The Silver Eagle Lab on Aging, Cognition, and Emotion focuses on age-related changes in cognition and emotion regulation. Current research directions include 1) the positivity effect in aging, and 2) longitudinal assessment of age changes in memory and cognition and the individual differences predictors of those changes.
Learning Lab
Lab: KH C165
Ji Son
Email: [email protected]
Research focus: How can we help all students learn hard things? The CalStateLA Learning Lab conducts research on this question and other important questions about learning and development to address major issues in education. Our lab (in partnership with the UCLA Teaching and Learning Lab) has developed a unique interactive statistics textbook (check it out at CourseKata.org) to study how to promote strong and flexible learning in statistics and data science.
Freedom Lab
Lab: KH D3077
Dana Saifan
Email: [email protected]
FREEDOM Lab is an acronym for our lab’s research focus: Facilitating Research for Equity, Empowerment, and Decolonization of Mental Health. Our lab conducts community-partnered research to improve mental health for marginalized communities by examining experiences of intersectional identities, culture, belonging, and discrimination, as well as factors that may impact people’s experiences with mental health services.
Culture and Relationships Lab
Karen Wu
Email: [email protected]
The lab investigates topics surrounding culture and/or close relationships, including interracial relationships, racial and ethnic preferences in dating, genes and social relationships, and relationship dynamics across cultures.
Child Development and Learning Lab
Lab: KH D3073
Corinne Bower
Email: [email protected]
Research interests include understanding the equity gap in young children's school readiness skills and ways to reduce it. This involves designing and examining the effectiveness of educational interventions created to help children's early science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning. These interventions include hands-on activities, like block-building, as well as educational app use in both early home environments and formal educational settings, like classrooms.
Silver Eagle Lab on Aging, Cognition, and Emotion
Lab: KH C3105
Robert Kennison
Email: [email protected]
The Silver Eagle Lab on Aging, Cognition, and Emotion focuses on age-related changes in cognition and emotion regulation. Current research directions include 1) the positivity effect in aging, and 2) longitudinal assessment of age changes in memory and cognition and the individual differences predictors of those changes.
Legal Attitudes Lab
Lab: KH D3073A
Alma Olaguez
Email: [email protected]
The Legal Attitudes (LA) Lab examines factors that may impact children and adults in the legal system. Specifically, our research examines factors that affect children's performance during legal interviews and how those factors affect jurors' evaluations of children in court.
Learning Lab
Lab: KH C165
Ji Son
Email: [email protected]
Research focus: How can we help all students learn hard things? The CalStateLA Learning Lab conducts research on this question and other important questions about learning and development to address major issues in education. Our lab (in partnership with the UCLA Teaching and Learning Lab) has developed a unique interactive statistics textbook (check it out at CourseKata.org) to study how to promote strong and flexible learning in statistics and data science.
Cognitive Psychophysiology Laboratory
Lab: KH D3077-C
Joel Ellwanger
Email: [email protected]
Research interests include cognitive psychology neuroscience, including the study of attention and memory through the use of physiological indices of cognition.
Prosper Lab
Lab: KH D3079
Yvette Z. Szabo
Email: [email protected]
PROSPER is an acronym for our lab's research focus: Psychoneuroimmunology Research on Stress, PTSD, Emotions, and Recovery. Broadly, our research examines factors that connect stress and trauma to mental and physical health problems, with a focus on inflammation, emotion and cognition.
Legal Attitudes Lab
Lab: KH D3073A
Alma Olaguez
Email: [email protected]
The Legal Attitudes (LA) Lab examines factors that may impact children and adults in the legal system. Specifically, our research examines factors that affect children's performance during legal interviews and how those factors affect jurors' evaluations of children in court.
Social Relations Lab
Lab: KH D3071
Pamela Regan
Email: [email protected]
Research focuses on interpersonal attraction, gender, sexuality.
Heidi Riggio
Lab: KH D3083
Email: [email protected]
Research interests include family relationships in young adulthood (including sibling relationships), parental marital conflict and divorce, attitudes in personal relationships, political attitudes and persuasion.
Decision-Making Lab
Lab: KH D4055
Douglas Sternstrom
Email: [email protected]
Law/psychology and social/personality psychology. I conduct law/psychology research into legal decision making and how jurors/judges reach judgments. I also conduct social/personality psychology research into factors influencing the perceptions of aggressors and intergroup/interpersonal conflict.
Culture and Relationships Lab
Karen Wu
Email: [email protected]
The lab investigates topics surrounding culture and/or close relationships, including interracial relationships, racial and ethnic preferences in dating, genes and social relationships, and relationship dynamics across cultures.