A DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE

At the Cognition, Affect, and Temperament (CAT) Lab, our research focuses on the ways in which emotion and attention interact to shape how individuals navigate through their social world. We do this through biological measures, self-report questionnaires, and observations of behavior in our laboratory. Our main focus is on the interaction between temperament, early appearing biases in emotion, and attention in children and adults.

Behaviorally Inhibited Temperament and Anxiety

Exuberant Temperament and Attention Bias Towards Reward

Fearful Temperament and Social Withdrawal

BIAS TOWARDS NEGATIVE EMOTIONS

Most infants show a bias for negative emotions, evident in orienting faster and looking longer at angry and fearful faces, and also snakes. This bias is normative and our ability to more quickly detect threatening cues in our environment ultimately keeps us safe! However, under some circumstances, these biases become very pronounced and increase the risk for anxiety and social difficulties. Currently, we are trying to understand how these biases develop in infants through a longitudinal eye-tracking study.

BIAS TOWARDS POSITIVE EMOTIONS

Humans can also be biased towards positive emotions, which can be rewarding and motivate us to approach. When these biases are very strong or unregulated, they may increase the risk for addiction related disorders. Our research in children also has shown that a strong bias for happy faces plays a functional role in difficult and defiant behaviors during kindergarten. Learn more about this finding.