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Eliot Smith Lab
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences



Research in Eliot Smith’s lab examines the ways people perceive members of their own and other social groups, evaluate them positively or negatively, and behave toward them. Four primary research directions (listed below) are being examined currently. Our research uses virtual reality technology and multi-agent modeling, as well as more traditional social psychological techniques (laboratory studies, implicit attitude testing, questionnaires).


Research interests include:

Stereotyping, prejudice, and intergroup relations:   This research focuses on the role of emotions in prejudice and intergroup behavior.

Situated/embodied cognition:   This research examines the role of the body in shaping our beliefs, attitudes and behaviors toward others. We also investigate how other people serve as a social context that constrains and enables cognition, for example when people share information with others in social networks.

Connectionist models:   This research examines how "neural network" or "brainlike" computational processes can display the properties, such as context sensitivity and flexibility, that are found in social perception and social behavior.

Social cognition:   In general, most research in the lab focuses on the mental representations and cognitive processes that underly social perception and social behavior.


Special Methods include:

Virtual Reality:   Research in the lab that examines embodiment and self-other overlap is often performed using virtual reality techniques. Computer graphics are used to create the illusion that one is in a computer-simulated virtual space along with other people or objects.

Multi-Agent Modeling:   We have used multi-agent modeling, a dynamic, multi-level approach to constructing theories of social behavior, to look at person perception and social decision making.

Dr. Eliot R. Smith
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Indiana University
1101 E. 10th Street
Bloomington, IN 47405

Office
Psychology 354
(812) 856-0196
esmith4@indiana.edu
Lab
Psychology A316
(812) 856-1350
smithlab@indiana.edu

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