To argue that people can control the relative contributions of goal-driven and stimulus-driven processes to decision-making and action selection.

How do humans control their thoughts and actions, and what can high-field brain scanning reveal about the underlying processes?

The ‘right’ amount of dopamine in the brain makes study participants better at solving certain cognitive tasks. This is the conclusion of Bryant Jongkees after experiments and a literature review. PhD defence on 21 February.

What is the role of the noradrenergic system in human cognition?

Disruption to the gut flora can affect your mental health. How could this knowledge be used to prevent stress-related disorders? This is what psychologist Laura Steenbergen will investigate with the aid of a project grant from the Leiden University Fund (LUF) and the Gratama Foundation.

PhD Defence

... which conceptualizes and investigates cognitive and affective processes with respect to their ultimate function: the control of voluntary action and self-regulation.

Cognitive psychology is the study of cognitive functions such as attention, memory, consciousness, emotion, language and action control. The goal is to understand the complex relationships between brain, mind and behavior.

In the track Cognitive Neuroscience we focus on the investigation of the psychological, computational, and neuroscientific bases of human cognition by means of mind and brain research.

CERQ is a questionnaire measuring cognitive coping strategies developed by Dr. Nadia Garnefski and Dr. Vivian Kraaij.

How do cognitive, motivational, and affective processes interact to select actions?

How does stress influence cognitive performance? What is the role of selective attention to threatening information in this effect? Could we prevent stress-induced decline of cognitive performance with pharmacological interventions? Could we use resting state theta/beta ratio as a biomarker for cognitive…

Toward optimal measurement and greater understanding of youth cognition in school refusal and cognitive behavioural therapy outcome

How is structural and functional brain development related to behavioral change in cognitive-control, impulse regulation, and socio-emotional functioning?

Knowledge and culture subproject 1: "Music Cognition" of Leiden University Centre for Linguistics

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How does task context affect children’s word productions?

The major aim is to develop, evaluate, and implement disease-generic cognitive-behavioral interventions through the internet in order to optimize tailored health care for patients with chronic somatic conditions.

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The project aims at highlighting and strengthening Dutch research into the diversity of the world’s languages from a historic and a cognitive perspective.

Can playing certain games decrease cognitive decline or even enhance cognitive performance in the aging population?

The research question is that unconscious perseverative cognition (UPC) is responsible for a considerable part of cardiovascular (CV) activity that occurs even in the absence of threats and other stressors that one may encounter in one’s daily life.

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Cognitive enhancement reflects the use of any (legitimate) means such as for example food supplements to reach one’s personal best.

How can we improve quality of life and study success in young, high-functioning adults with autism?

The food one eats modulates the way we think and perceive the world. I investigate how the food supplement tyrosine may enhance the way we control our thoughts and goal-directed behavior and why some people may benefit more than others from this intervention.

A list of relevant links:

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This doctoral thesis elaborates Langacker’s reference-point model by applying it to lexical semantics.

Psychologist Lorenza Colzato is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement, a new interdisciplinary psychology publication. The journal will contribute to a higher understanding of research aimed at enhancing human performance and creative potential.