The Psychology Department offers expertise in Quantitative and Computational Methods. The Quantitative and Computational Methods area focuses on innovating new experimental designs, methodologies, and statistical analyses for the purposes of studying complex human behavior. There is a growing need in today’s workforce for graduates who have strong quantitative and computational skills and our faculty are dedicated to providing formal and informal training to make our graduates competitive for jobs in academic, medical, governmental, and industry sectors. Faculty affiliates in the Quantitative and Computational Method’s area have expertise in a number of topics such as: psychometrics, item response theory, multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, nonlinear time series analysis, computational modeling, dynamical systems theory, network analysis, and agent-based modeling. Faculty Click to expand each of the below faculty members' research focus, program affiliation, and lab information in the Quantitative and Computational Methods research area. Drew Abney Drew Abney Drew Abney focuses on how behaviors and social interactions early in development impact developmental trajectories throughout infancy and into toddlerhood. Studies conducted in the lab use various techniques: from conducting controlled laboratory experiments to free-flowing toy play sessions to collecting daylong multimodal (e.g., vocalizations, body movements, etc.) behavioral data. In the lab, we are motivated to apply existing techniques from applied computational social science and dynamical systems theory and also develop new computational and analytic methods to understand the dynamics of development during infancy and early childhood. Program affiliation: Behavioral and Brain Sciences Laboratory: Developmental Dynamics Lab Dorothy Carter Dorothy Carter researches the individual, social, and contextual factors that enable leaders, teams, and larger collectives to tackle complex challenges across a variety of contexts including the military, medicine, corporations, scientific collaboration, and long-duration space exploration. Her research on leadership and teamwork often leverages advanced statistical approaches such as social network analysis, multilevel modeling, and agent-based computational modeling. Program affiliation: Industrial-Organizational Psychology Laboratory: Leadership, Innovation, Networks, and Collaboration (LINC) Laboratory Nathan T. Carter Nathan T. Carter is interested in the role of personality in explaining the behavior of individuals at work, and their general success and well-being in life. Toward this end, he utilizes and studies psychometric theory and analytic techniques to clarify these complex relationships, such as item response theory and psychometric network theory. Additionally, Dr. Carter is interested in the history of applied psychology, and the role of human judgment and decision making in applicant attraction and employee selection. Program affiliation: Industrial-Organizational Psychology Laboratory: Applied Psychometric Lab Allison Howard Allison Howard’s interests lie at the interface between animal cognition and spatial ecology, particularly regarding how animals conceptualize the space through which they move and how they remember and return to important locations in their environment. She is interested in how landscape variables influence animal movement choices as well as how these variables shape the content of animal spatial memory. Additionally, Dr. Howard is interested in the spatial decisions of humans in situations of environmental change, for example in climate-change-induced migration and evacuation scenarios. She uses a variety of observational, experimental, and simulation methods in my work, including GIS, spatial modeling, and remote sensing. Program affiliation: Behavioral and Brain Sciences Laboratory: Primate Cognition and Behavior Lab Gary Lautenschlager Gary Lautenschlager is interested in personnel selection, fairness in measurement of abilities, attitudes, interests, biodata and personality as well as applicant reactions to selection methods, processes and their impact on subsequent outcomes. Dr. Lautenschlager is also interested in the influence of contextual factors and technology on measurement properties in social science research and practice and improving methods for analyzing psychological data. Program affiliation: Industrial-Organizational Psychology Neal Outland Neal Outland answers questions concerning the necessary qualities of individual team members and the optimal patterns of interaction for teams to follow for superior performance. He has two main research streams: one in which he explores how teams dynamically interact and perform in complex and dynamic environments such as sports; and another where he uses computer simulated teams as analogies to real human teams in a variety of contexts. Program affiliation: Industrial-Organizational Psychology Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo studies how stereotypes, attitudes, biases, and prejudices are established, maintained, and facilitated through subtle nonverbal signals and contextual cues present in everyday life—and how these factors contribute to and reinforce systemic inequalities. To better understand these issues, the GABBA Lab examines these issues across the lifespan, among both children and adults. Program affiliation: Behavioral and Brain Sciences Laboratory: GABBA Lab
