Embodied Social Cognition Lab

Research at the Embodied Social Cognition Lab examines the way information from the social environment is processed and applied in social interactions. Subsumed by this high-level theme are many specific areas of interest, particularly within the intergroup domain. Some key questions that are asked through research in ESC include:

• How do close cross-group relationships affect social interactions with novel outgroup members?
• Do media reports of intergroup conflict affect daily intergroup interactions and health symptomatology?
• How do self-serving biases affect person perception and social esteem in same-group and intergroup interactions?
• Are cognitive resources required to monitor behaviour in intergroup interactions?
• Which modes of social stimuli carry the most weight in person perception: auditory and verbal stimuli, visual stimuli and nonverbal behaviour, cognitive representations, explicit attitudes and expectations, or physiological and neuroendocrine responses?
• What factors predict when people of different generations will confront intergenerational prejudice?

The ESC experimental suite was designed from the ground-up for dyadic psychophysiological paradigms and classic social cognitive studies. ESC includes two single-participant psychophysiological rooms, one dyadic psychophysiological room, an 8-cubicle computer testing facility, a Control Room, as well as a participant waiting area.

We measure a number of physiological responses of the autonomic nervous system: electrocardiograph, vascular impedance (for respiration and cardiac output), blood pressure, finger pulse, finger temperature, and skin conductance. The 3 psychophysiological testing rooms were built as Faraday cages to minimize 60-Hz noise in the data. The physiological equipment is specially configured by the lab director, Dr. Elizabeth Page-Gould, to simultaneously record physiological signals from two participants. The psychophysiological rooms are also equipped with 40-inch monitors that refresh at a rate of 8.33 milliseconds to present visual stimuli to participants.

In addition to autonomic nervous system responses, the lab specializes in psychoneuroendocrinology, with a specific emphasis on adrenal steroids such as cortisol, testosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Neuroendocrine samples are stored in the lab's -80ºC freezer, and all lab members are certified at Biosafety Level I.

All rooms of ESC are handicap-accessible and conveniently located on the first floor of the Science Wing at UTSC. Two kiosks in the computer testing facility were built with lowered shelves and wheelchair-compliant widths. If you are interested in participating, please visit the Participate Page for more information.

Altogether, the research environment of ESC was designed to be a uniquely enabling laboratory for researchers interested in dyadic psychophysiology and social cognitive work. If you are interested in joining the lab as a Ph.D. student, Undergraduate or Volunteer Researcher, or Post-doc, please visit the Join Page for more information.