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Mentor Areas

Many aspects of higher brain function rely on two closely related capacities, inference and learning. Inference is the process of drawing conclusions from uncertain data, like forming a percept from noisy sensory information or predicting the most rewarding future outcome from the recent history of outcomes. These inferences often inform decisions that determine behavior. Learning uses experience to shape how these kinds of inference and decision processes function, often optimizing them to meet particular goals. Recent work has begun to identify how and where in the brain inference processes are implemented, particularly in the service of perceptual and reward-based decision-making. Research in the Gold laboratory focuses on how these processes are shaped by learning to provide the flexibility a decision-maker needs to survive in a complex and dynamic world.

Description:

We combine non-invasive measures of arousal, including pupil diameter and heart-rate variability, with quantitative psychophysics to better understand how changes in arousal affect neural information processing. Students will be involved in task design, data collection and analysis, and presenting the work at conferences and via written manuscripts.

Preferred Qualifications

Programming, especially in Matlab, is a plus.

Project Website

Learn more about the researcher and/or the project here.
Gold Lab

Details:

Preferred Student Year

First-year, Second-Year

Academic Term

Fall, Summer

I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).

Volunteer

Yes

Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.

Paid

Yes

Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.

Work Study

Yes

Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.