Joey wins SNE’s best dissertation award for his beautiful set of studies investigating how “Emotion prediction errors guide socially adaptive behavior”. Well done Joey!
Lab manager position: we are hiring!
UPDATE: As of May 2024, this position has been filled.
The Social & Affective Neuroscience Lab at Brown University (Lab Director: Oriel FeldmanHall) invites applications for a full-time Research Assistant/Lab Manager (start date to begin July 2024). Our lab uses behavioral, neuroimaging and psychophysiological techniques to explore the cognitive and neural basis of social decision-making (read more at FeldmanHallLab.com).
The research assistant/lab manager will gain experience with all aspects of the research process, which could serve as a launch pad to graduate studies. Primary responsibilities will include: (1) data acquisition using behavioral, psychophysiological, and brain imaging techniques; (2) management and analyses of datasets; (3) subject recruitment and screening; and (4) managing the lab and performing administrative duties, including IRB documentation.
The position is designed for an individual with a Bachelor's degree in psychology, neuroscience, computer science, cognitive science, or related fields. Previous experience in a lab is required. An ability to work independently with good judgment, organizational and time management skills is necessary.
A high degree of familiarity with programs such as E-Prime, SPSS, R, Matlab, SPM (or FSL), AcqKnowledge & BIOPAC systems, is especially desired but not required, and would otherwise be learned on the job. Further duties include managing the day-to-day activities of the lab including running experiments, managing subject payment systems, preparing experimental materials, handling IRB protocols, and training and supervising undergraduate research assistants.
To apply, please email Oriel FeldmanHall (feldmanhall.lab@gmail.com) your CV, a list of statistical and programming expertise, and the contact information of two references.
Research featured in Economist article: "People of different opinions process political data differently"
Our new study on opposing partisans’ neural representations of political content, Shared neural representations and temporal segmentation of political content predict ideological similarity, made the news in an article in The Economist this week! Read the article here.
CONGRATS TO JAE FOR RECEIVING BROWN’S 2022 PRESIDENTIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING
Jae won the 2022 Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, which recognizes up to four students across the Graduate School for “teaching that influences, motivates and inspires students to learn and fosters independent learning,” the “development of curriculum and resources that promote student learning,” and the “development of students as individual learners.” Learn more about the award here.
CONGRATS TO JOEY FOR PRESENTING AT RESEARCH MATTERS 2022
Joey was selected as one of twelve graduate students to give a talk about his research, “Economic Inequality Corrupts Moral Standards,” at Brown’s 2022 Research Matters event, which “showcases exceptional graduate student scholarship and celebrates their discoveries and ideas.” Learn more about Research Matters here and watch a recording of Joey’s amazing talk here.
CONGRATS TO ORIEL FOR A CNS YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE
Oriel was recognized with the Cognitive Neuroscience Society’s 2022 Young Investigator Award for outstanding contributions to science. Learn more about the award and her award lecture here.
CONGRATS TO ORIEL FOR AN APS JANET TAYLOR SPENCE AWARD FOR TRANSFORMATIVE EARLY CAREER CONTRIBUTIONS
Oriel won the Association for Psychological Science’s 2022 Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions, which recognizes “the best of the many new and cutting edge ideas coming from our most creative and promising investigators who together embody the future of psychological science.” Learn more about the award here and listen to a podcast episode highlighting her research here.
CONGRATS TO ORIEL FOR AN APA DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIFIC AWARD FOR EARLY CAREER CONTRIBUTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
Oriel received the American Psychological Association’s 2022 Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in the area of cognition and human learning for her “contributions to our understanding of how the brain detects, values and assesses conflicting reward and punishment contingencies during moral dilemmas, and to examine the role of emotion and its operational power in shaping these social interactions.” Learn more about the award here.
Research highlighted in Salon article: "This is your brain on partisan politics"
Our new study on political polarization, Intolerance of uncertainty modulates brain-to-brain synchrony during politically polarized perception, was featured in Salon this week. Read the article here.
Congrats to Grace Deng and Eric Ingram for receiving awards!
Grace Deng won the Muriel Fain Sher Premium in Psychology for her outstanding thesis. The prize is "awarded annually to the most outstanding woman student in the senior class 'showing the greatest promise in the field of Psychology.'"
Eric Ingram won the David Brooks Prize for outstanding promise as a scholar and researcher in the field of clinical psychology.
This recognition is well-deserved, and we are so proud!
Congrats to Eric Ingram for winning a Lyman T. Johnson Fellowship!
Eric Ingram has been awarded the prestigious Lyman T. Johnson Fellowship fellowship to fund his PhD at the University of Kentucky! The fellowship includes a full standard graduate tuition scholarship, student health plan enrollment, and an additional stipend. Awards are competitive and based on leadership experience, contribution to diversity, extracurricular activities, awards and recognition, and community service. Learn more about the award here.
Congrats to Grace Deng for being accepted to graduate school at Caltech!
Grace has formally accepted her offer from Caltech's Social and Decision Neuroscience program! Her first year, she will rotate between three advisors: Dean Mobbs, Antonio Rangel, and John O’Doherty. Then, she’ll decide whose lab she wants to stay in for the rest of grad school. Grace is particularly interested in using computational modeling and neuroimaging to understand the role of emotion in social learning.
We are so proud, and will miss her so much next year!
Congrats to Oriel for a Society for Social Neuroscience Early Career Award!
This Early Career Award recognized "the most creative and promising investigators in the field of social neuroscience and will embody the future of social neuroscience through their cutting edge ideas and novel research." Learn more about the award here.
Congrats to Eric Ingram for being accepted to Dr. Justin Karr's lab at the University of Kentucky for graduate school!
After receiving multiple graduate school offers, Eric has formally accepted his offer from the University of Kentucky's Clinical Neuropsychology program! Eric has also been nominated for an additional fellowship. Eric will be working with Dr. Justin Karr on cognitive aging and the outcomes of mild traumatic brain injuries in victims of intimate partner violence.
We are so proud, and will certainly miss him next year!
Congrats to Oriel for a Society of NeuroEconomics Early Career Award
The Early Career Award recognizes Oriel's "significant contributions to understanding the neural basis of decision making." In the closing remarks of the 2020 Virtual Society for NeuroEconomics Annual Meeting, Hilke Plassmann announced the award, saying, "Oriel has contributed significantly to our understanding of the neural basis of human social behavior. She is specifically interested in how the brain takes values and assesses conflict in reward and punishment contingencies during moral dilemmas and to examine the role of emotion and it operational power in shaping these social interactions." Learn more about the award here.
Congrats to Joey for a Graduate Award in Brain Science
Joey was awarded a Graduate Award in Brain Science by the Carney Institute for his research on the role of emotions in decision-making. The Graduate Awards "recognize early career scientists who have made outstanding achievements as graduate students and have demonstrated strong potential for successful lifelong scientific careers." The award is supported by the Howard Reisman ’76 Family Graduate Fellowship Fund, the Dr. Daniel C. Cooper Graduate Award, and the Macklin Bequest. Learn more here.
Congrats to Joey for a 2020 Library Innovation Prize and a Carney perspective piece
Joey, a 4th year graduate student in the lab, was awarded a 2020 Library Innovation Prizes for Innovations in Research Rigor, Transparency or Reproducibility for his project and publication “Emotional responses to prosocial messages increase willingness to self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In a perspective piece on the project for the Carney Institute for Brain Science, Joey, Marc, & Oriel wrote:
“As the COVID-19 pandemic tears through almost every country, public health officials and governments continue to implore citizens to take preventative measures in the hopes of ‘flattening the curve.’ Unfortunately, preliminary reports show vast differences in people’s willingness to embrace public health measures: In March, only 50% of individuals reported wearing face masks in public. And recent anti-quarantine protests represent an even more extreme resistance to complying with preventative measures. This pandemic presents a unique, generation-defining challenge — how do we encourage people to adapt and change their usual habits to adhere to preventative measures that can mitigate the spread of COVID-19?
With each new day bringing more infections and deaths from COVID-19, it is vital to understand how different emotional frames drive behavioral compliance. We tackled this question in a new study by developing two messages to motivate participants to self-isolate: One that leveraged threatening language, and another meant to evoke positive emotions through prosocial actions.”
congrats to Amrita on her first, first-authored publication: "Anxiety Impedes Adaptive Social Learning Under Uncertainty"
Very little is known about how individuals learn under uncertainty when other people are involved. We propose that humans are particularly tuned to social uncertainty, which is especially noisy and ambiguous. Individuals exhibiting less tolerance for uncertainty, such as those with anxiety, may have greater difficulty learning in uncertain social contexts and therefore provide an ideal test population to probe learning dynamics under uncertainty. Using a dynamic trust game and a matched nonsocial task, we found that healthy subjects (n = 257) were particularly good at learning under negative social uncertainty, swiftly figuring out when to stop investing in an exploitative social partner. In contrast, subjects with anxiety (n = 97) overinvested in exploitative partners. Computational modeling attributed this pattern to a selective reduction in learning from negative social events and a failure to enhance learning as uncertainty rises—two mechanisms that likely facilitate adaptive social choice. PDF, Psychological Science, SI, OSF
New blog post in Psychology Today: "The Psychology Behind Inequality"
By Joseph Heffner & Oriel FeldmanHall
“Economic inequality is at an all-time high in the United States. Some claim that decades of systematic legislation have resulted in the wealthiest three families owning more wealth than the bottom half of the country. This trend is not reflected in other countries with developed economies: out of all 36 countries with comparable economics, the US ranks last in equal income distribution. As a result, we have returned to Great Depression levels of income inequality, and for the first time in American history, the working class pay a higher effective tax rate than billionaires.
The adverse effects of economic inequality are well documented. Across societies, higher rates of inequality are associated with a myriad of health and social problems including obesity, mental illness, decreased life expectancy, and higher crime rates. The World Economic Forum ranked income inequality as one of the most important trends driving global riskssuch as social instability and unemployment. And yet a recent poll shows that less than half of Americans view income inequality as a serious problem. Why don’t people care?
Political scientists, economists, and philosophers have wrestled with this paradox for decades. The answer to this question—at least in part—can be explained by understanding how people experience inequality in their daily lives. Here, we offer one slice of the explanation: the psychology behind inequality perpetuates an unequal system.”
You can check out the rest of their blog post here!
The lab is growing!
To begin 2020, we’d like to welcome three new visiting graduate students! Daantje and Lotte are joining us as Master’s students in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Amsterdam and Daniel is joining us as a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute!
A “welcome back” is in order for Marc-Lluis, a previous visiting graduate student, who will be getting situated in his new role in the lab as a post-doctoral fellow.
