Welcome to the Symbolic Cognition and Interaction (SCI) Lab website!
The lab is located at the Psychology Department in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva (Bldg. 98, room 120).
We are interested in the interesting stuff, namely, the psychological capacities that seem to distinguish humans from non-human animals: conceptual and linguistic processing, mentalizing and internalization, and imagination and foresight.
The lab is located at the Psychology Department in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva (Bldg. 98, room 120).
We are interested in the interesting stuff, namely, the psychological capacities that seem to distinguish humans from non-human animals: conceptual and linguistic processing, mentalizing and internalization, and imagination and foresight.
We examine how these capacities play out in human lives: how they shape our phenomenology (e.g., our emotional lives), and our beliefs (e.g., political ideology, self-concept).
We study these processes at the level of implementation, algorithm, and function, and use neuroimaging, behavioral, and big-data methods.
Our current emphasis is on the mechanisms of prediction. We use big-data to generate predictive personality models, we apply machine learning methods to predict psychological outcomes (e.g., depression, relationship satisfaction), we examine the type of mental representations people use in order to predict the future, and study processes of "self-fulfilling prophecy".
We study these processes at the level of implementation, algorithm, and function, and use neuroimaging, behavioral, and big-data methods.
Our current emphasis is on the mechanisms of prediction. We use big-data to generate predictive personality models, we apply machine learning methods to predict psychological outcomes (e.g., depression, relationship satisfaction), we examine the type of mental representations people use in order to predict the future, and study processes of "self-fulfilling prophecy".