Lab News


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Hear about our public scholar Alexa Ruel's research in 50seconds.
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Sean recently presented at CogSci's virtual conference.
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Concordia's Lab Fair
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Pointe-Claire Science Fair
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Sean won best poster at the 2019 CRDH annual conference
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Sean at RLDM 2019
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Alexa at RLDM 2019


Current Studies

Young Men and Body Image

We are currently seeking young male participants aged 18 to 28 for an online study on decision-making related to body image.

If you are interested in participating, please email the lab.


Decision Making in Changing State Spaces

We are seeking young adults aged 18 to 28 for a study of decision-making in changing environments.

This is an online study where participants will play games with rewards and maps that change over time.

We would like to see how these sorts of changes are processed by young adults, and how they affect decision-making.

If you are interested in participating, please email the lab.

Past Workshops

Multilevel Modeling Workshop hosted by Sean

Multilevel models are statistical models of parameters that vary at more than one level. Sean hosted a free workshop about conducting them in R!

Check out Sean's workshop repository for more information.


JavaScript for psychology hosted by Nathalie

A tutorial in collaboration with CUPA designed to show undergraduates and graduate students in psychology how to conduct simple behavioral and cognitive experiments using the jsPsych library.

Check the tutorial repository for all the code and material.

Our latest preprints

Devine, S., Germain, N., Ehrlich, S., & Eppinger, B. (2021, July 12; Under Review). Changes in The Prevalence Of Thin Bodies Biases Young Womens’ Judgements about Body Size PsyArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/nur5k

Ruel, A., Bolenz, F., Li, S., Fischer, A. G., & Eppinger, B. (2021, April 23; Under Review). Neural evidence for age-related deficits in the representation of state spaces. PsyArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/nh5u7

Bolenz, F., Profitt, M. F., Stechbarth, F., Eppinger, B., & Strobel, A. (2020, June 10; Under Review). Need for cognition does not account for individual differences in metacontrol of decision making. PsyArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/d7y4w

Bolenz F, Eppinger, B. (2020, October 7; Submission) Valence bias in metacontrol of decision making in adolescents and young adults. PsyArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5u9jq

Bruckner, R., Nassar, M. R., Li, S., & Eppinger, B. (2020, July 29; Under Review). Differences in adaptive learning across the lifespan are driven by satisficing. PsyArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/nh9bq

2021

Alexa in the news!

Alexa has been making waves in the local news scene.

On local Montréal news station CJAD, she spoke about how we need to make technology more accessible to senior citizens. Listen to the show!

Alexa has also written an article on the same subject for the Montréal Gazette.

CSBBSC (Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science) 2021 Annual Conference.

Sean Devine, Nathalie Germain, Stefan Ehrlich, & Ben Eppinger. Changes in the prevalence of thin bodies biases young women's judgements about body size. Poster presentation.

See Sean and Nathalie's poster.

Alexa Ruel & Ben Eppinger. Neural evidence for age-related deficits in the representation of state spaces. Symposium talk.

Alexa named a Public Scholar!

Our very own PhD student, Alexa was named a 2021 Concordia Public Scholar.

Congratulations Alexa!

Follow Alexa on her Public Scholar journey!

CRDH (Centre de Recherche en Développement Humain) 2021 Annual Conference.

Nathalie Germain, Maxine Profitt & Ben Eppinger. Individual differences in decision-making: impact of Covid-19.

See Nathalie's poster and repository.

Alexa takes home a Scientific Citizenship Award.

Alexa was awarded a 2021 Scientific Citizenship Award from the Centre de Recherche en Développement Humain (CRDH) in recognition of her involvement in the scientific community.

Check out Alexa's website to learn more about her outreach projects.

Alexa awarded funding from NSERC!

In recognition of her academic success and research potential, our intrepid PhD candidate Alexa Ruel was awarded a postgraduate scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Congratulations Alexa!

Abstract: The Future of Science features Sean and Alexa's work.

Alexa talks about her PhD work on Abstract, a podcast hosted by Jeremy Ullman about graduate-level research.

Listen to Alexa's episode!

Sean has also been on the podcast back in 2020 to talk about decision-making and effort.

Listen to Sean's episode!

2020

Nature Research: Human Ageing is Associated with More Rigid Concept Spaces

This paper by Sean Devine, Cassandra Neumann, Robert Wilson, David Levari, & Ben Eppinger is currently under consideration at a Nature Research Journal.

See submission.

CogSci Virtual Conference July 2020

Sean Devine, Cassandra Neumann, David. E. Levari, Robert C. Wilson, & Ben Eppinger. Prevalence-Induced Concept Change in Older Adults. Accepted for online talk due to Covid19.

See Sean's submission and presentation

Cognitive Aging Conference Atlanta, Georgia

Sean Devine, Cassandra Neumann, Robert Wilson, David Levari, & Ben Eppinger. Prevalence-induced concept change in older adults. Accepted for poster presentation. CANCELLED DUE TO COVID19.

See Sean's poster.

Human Development Student Research Conference at McGill University

Sean Devine, Cassandra Neumann, Robert Wilson, David Levari, & Ben Eppinger. Prevalence-induced concept change in older adults. CANCELLED DUE TO COVID19.

CRDH (Centre de Recherche en Développement Humain) Webinar.

Sean Devine, Cassandra Neumann and Alexa Ruel presented online at the CRDH webinar on Judgement and Decision-Making In Human Ageing.

CRDH (Centre de Recherche en Développement Humain) Annual Conference in Montréal, Québec

Sean Devine, Cassandra Neumann, Robert Wilson, David Levari, & Ben Eppinger. Prevalence-induced concept change in older adults.

See Sean's poster.

2019

The 7th International Symposium on Motivational and Cognitive Control in Dresden, Germany

Alexa Ruel, Florian Bolenz, Shu-Chen Li, & Ben Eppinger. Older Adults Demonstrate Greater Model-based Decision-making when Task Demands are Reduced.

See Alexa's poster.

The 4th Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (RLDM) in Montréal, Québec

Alexa Ruel, Florian Bolenz, Shu-Chen Li, & Ben Eppinger. Adult Age Differences in Dynamics of Model-based Decision-making.

See Alexa's extended abstract.

Sean Devine, Florian Bolenz, Andrea Reiter, Ross Otto, & Ben Eppinger. Lifespan Developmental Differences in the Effects of Opportunity Costs on Cognitive Effort.

See Sean's extended abstract.

CRDH (Centre de Recherche en Développement Humain) Annual Conference in Montréal, Québec.

Sean Devine, Florian Bloenz, Andrea Reiter, Ben Eppinger, Ross Otto & Joni Shuchat. Lifespan developmental differences in the effects of opportunity cost on cognitive effort.

Congratulations to Sean Devine for winning the CRDH undergraduate poster presentation award!

See Sean's poster.

2018

Science of Learning Symposium in Berlin, Germany

Organised by Ben Eppinger, Julia Rodriguez Buritica, Dietsje Jolles, & Wouter van den Bos, the aim of this symposium was to lay out the different perspectives on science of learning research in education and developmental cognitive neuroscience and to crystalize challenges and gaps in both fields where an interdisciplinary exchange would be helpful.

See the program here!

The 6th Annual FLUX Congress in Berlin, Germany

Dr. Ben Eppinger and Sean Devine presented at the Flux Society's 6th Annual Congress on the topic of lifespan developmental differences in the effects of opportunity costs on cognitive effort.

See the program here!