Our dynamic brain

How does our brain shape our behaviour and the way we experience the world? How does the capacities of our brain influence the way we adapt to the environment? Or, are our brains and the environment part of larger systems shaping our behaviours?

Many studies at our department are devoted to questions about the perceiving, thinking, and acting brain: How is it possible that we perceive the world around us as being stable and coherent? How do we perceive time? Which brain functions are needed to drive a car or ride a bike? How do they relate to our adaptation in daily life, mental disorders, and social interactions?

In the study of cognitive brain functioning, the department profits from its extensive expertise on psychophysiological measurement techniques, e.g. based on EEG or the pupillary response. Next to the aforementioned questions, we study, among others: rugged learning (see our ‘Psychology in Action’ section for this topic.), emotions and self-regulation, autobiographic memory, neurobiology of dissociation, mental fatigue, and cognitive correlates of media multitasking. In addition, studies in moral psychology and moral neuroscience describe the role of intuition and emotion in moral decision-making and the societal implications of knowledge of brain, behaviour, and cognition.

Involved research units: Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology, Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology , Developmental Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Psychometrics and Statistics, Social Psychology, Theory and History of Psychology.

Involved master tracks: Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology, Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and Psychophysiology, Developmental Psychology (in Dutch), Reflecting on Psychology, Talent Development and Creativity, Traffic Psychology and Sustained Mobility, Research Master Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience, Research Master Human-Machine Communication.