Learning and Implicit Processes Lab
Principal Investigators:
Jan De Houwer, Pieter Van Dessel
Post-Doctoral Researchers:
Yannick Boddez, Martin Finn, Marine Rougier, Jamie Cummins
(not on picture: Sean Hughes, Alex Macias)
Doctoral Students:
Maura Nevejans, Tilia Linthout, Matthias Raemaekers, Zita Meijer, Zhefei Mao
Head of the LIP lab research group
Research Interests
My research concerns the manner in which spontaneous (automatic) preferences are learned and can be measured. Regarding the learning of preferences, I focus on the role of stimulus pairings (evaluative conditioning). With regard to the measurement of preferences, I developed new reaction time measures and examined the processes underlying various measures. Other research interests include associative learning, learning via instructions, and stimulus-response compatibility. I am also interested in meta-theoretical issues such as the relation between cognitive and functional psychology (i.e., behaviorism).
Academic Bibliography
Research Interests
In my research, I try to unravelthe automatic mental processes that underlie behaviour and behaviour change. I focus on mental processes that involve the automatic application of beliefs (i.e., automatic inferential processes). I have developed new theories and interventions in different domains of psychological science, such as in research on learning; persuasion; automatic evaluation; prejudice; addiction; and psychopathology. I strive for the large-scale application of scientific evidence about the (cognitive) determinants of behaviour to tackle important problems at the individual, organizational or societal level. I am also a major proponent of integer and open science.
Academic Bibliography
Research Interests
My research concerns learning principles and their application. I have, for example, studied the role of learning in (the reduction of) psychological suffering (e.g., anxiety, grief, insomnia / fatigue) and in art appreciation. Generalization and extinction are recurrent topics in this work.
Academic Bibliography
Research Interests
My research interests include analyses of complex behavior, relational responding, and how exploring these issues informs our understanding of applied domains. Other areas that contribute to forwarding my primary research interests include the procedural features of implicit measures, measurement and experimental manipulation of implicit attitudes, functional psychology and learning psychology.
Academic Bibliography
Research Interests
My research interests are mainly about the measure of spontaneous preferences (such as approach and avoidance reactions) as well as on the modification of these preferences, that is, learning effects (e.g., approach/avoidance training, evaluative and attribute conditioning) and impression formation (e.g., spontaneous trait inferences). Relying on the feature transformation effect framework, my current research focuses more on how previous conceptual beliefs about features (and how they relate; e.g., trustworthiness and intelligence) can determine future learning effects.
Academic Bibliography
Research Interests
My research focuses on developing and using computerised training procedures, based on basic principles of learning, to train relational reasoning skills in children, typically-developed adults, and older adults with cognitive impairment and dementia. I examine whether training these skills can offer clinically-meaningful improvements in the cognitive performances of these groups (e.g., better performance at school for children, reduced cognitive decline in older adults). I am also interesting more generally in the psychology of learning, implicit measures, and the philosophy of science and language. I am a strong proponent of Open Science.
Academic Bibliography
Research Interests
My research interests lie in the field of experimental psychology, with a particular focus on the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB). I primarily study behavior and learning, investigating the behavior of an organism as a function of its environment.
Currently, I am expanding this functionalistic perspective beyond individual organisms to encompass other systems. By extending the principles and methodologies of behavior analysis, I aim to explore how the behavior of various systems—such as groups, plants, artificial intelligence, fungi, and others—can also be understood as functions of their respective environments.
Academic Bibliography
Research Interests
A Senior Learning Innovator and Design Specialist who partners with global leaders and institutions to revolutionize their educational practices for a post-AI era. I do so by building and managing interdisciplinary programs that draw on the latest advances in (active) learning science to equip learners with technical and durable skills (e.g., critical and creative systems thinking, ethical reasoning, emotionally intelligent leadership and social influence).
Research Interest
My research focuses on social imitation: when we’re in conversation with someone, we often take the same pose as our interaction partner and even copy the gestures they make. These imitative tendencies are thought to support successful social interactions. Based on this idea, it has been argued that imitation should be moderated by the social context and that it is disrupted in individuals with autism, causing them to show difficulties during social interaction.
My Ph.D. project investigates these two claims. More specifically, I study how imitative tendencies are influenced by social factors, such as eye contact or the social group the interaction partners belong to, in adults with and without autism. To do this, I use a functional-cognitive perspective, starting from the idea that imitation is operant behavior that is moderated by reinforcers, discriminative stimuli, and establishing operations.
Academic Bibliography
Research Interests
During this Ph.D., the primary goal is to develop new interventions to help solve current problems related to the prison environment. To develop these interventions, we draw upon the goal-directed predictive processing theory. One of our projects focuses on developing an intervention aimed at improving impulse control among prisoners. We will test this intervention across various contexts, namely online, in the lab, and eventually in prison where there is a high demand for such intervention. Another project centers on understanding and addressing the needs of Flemish correctional officers, with the ultimate goal of informing the development of more effective and targeted correctional officers’ training programs.
I intend to collaborate closely with various stakeholders, such as prison directors, educators, and correctional officers, and to actively engage them in the development of the interventions. I also hope to foster a more informed and empathetic perspective among the general public regarding these challenges faced in the prison environment.
Academic Bibliography
Research Interests
My work at the LIPLab involves the study of learning from a functional psychological perspective. Currently, we are investigating complex learning effects (i.e., changes in behavior that are due to the joint effect of multiple regularities, or regularities in the presence of regularities, in the environment), including the functions that relations can have in relational learning effects and the moderators of these functions. I am also interested in the possible practical applications of this work on relational learning (e.g., relational training to increase scholastic aptitude or symbolic thinking in ASD), as well as implications for research in cognitive psychology. Furthermore, for my doctoral project, we aim to interface functional learning psychology with computational reinforcement learning models, to address the limitations of these models as well as suggest improvements, additions and predictions from a functional perspective.
Academic Bibliography
Research Interests
During my PhD, I focus on the impact of training relational skills in children with an online training intervention called SMART (Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Responding). I investigate whether, and how, this programme can enhance real-world abilities, such as academic performance in areas like numeracy, literacy and problem solving.
A key aspect of my research is the use of single-case experimental designs to rigorously evaluate the effects of SMART on individual participants, allowing for detailed analysis of cognitive improvements. This also provides us insights into children's subjective experience with online training programmes. Additionally, I want to examine SMART's potential in clinical settings, specifically with children who have learning or developmental disabilities, to assess its effectiveness as a cognitive intervention. Through this work, I aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of relational reasoning and its applications in both educational and clinical contexts.
Academic Bibliography
Research Interests
My research focuses on reducing prejudices and discriminatory behaviors, especially in real-life contexts. To do this, I currently follow the idea of inferential processes that underlie behavior change and test the effectiveness of inference-based evaluative conditioning interventions (implemented in the real world). One feature of such interventions is that people can theoretically make inferences from stimuli pairings and subsequently feel fewer reactances towards interventions. I also pay attention to other interventions that can improve intergroup evaluations and reduce discrimination.
Former members of the LIP lab
Senne Braem
Evelien Bossuyt
Femke Cathelyn
Jamie Cummins
Evelyne Debey
Mieke De Clercq
Marie Delabie
Maarten De Schryver
Jeffrey De Winne
Tom Everaert
Anne Gast
Niclas Heider
Sean Hughes
Ian Hussey
Ariane Jim
Sarah Kasran
Baptist Liefooghe
Valerie Maresceau
Simone Mattavelli
Gaetan Mertens
Agnes Moors
Tal Moran
Lies Notebaert
Sarah Opsomer
James Schmidt
Colin Smith
Adriaan Spruyt
Kristina Suchotzki
Helen Tibboel
Marijke Theeuwes
Jolien Vanaelst
Katrien Vandenbosch
Julia Vogt
Dorit Wenke
Riccardo Zanon
Visiting scholars
2007: Matt Field
2008: Jorg Huijding
2009: Helena Matute, Robert Balas
2011: Miguel Vadillo
2012: Bertram Gawronski
2013: Marco Perugini
2013: Mandy Hütter
2013-2014: Ayumi Tanaka
2015: Brian O'Shea
2015: Benedek Kurdi
2016: Juliane Scheill
2017: Christina Ffeuffer
2018: Marco Perugini
2019: Niels Kukken
2021: Catalina Bunghez, Florina Huzoaica, and Cristina Zogmaister
2022: Anca Lazar, Cristina Maroiu
2023-2024: Francesco Fedeli
2024: Deborah Ferrante, Reinout Wiers