Welcome to the Grab(man) Lab!
Located at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM, our goal is to understand how we evaluate the outputs of cognitive processes — both our own and others’.
For example, consider an eyewitness who recalls details of a crime. Not only do they report what they remember (i.e., the content of their memory), but they also assess how confident they are in the accuracy of their memory. This process is a key part of metacognition — the ability to monitor and control our own cognitive processes.
Once the eyewitness’s statement is recorded, it becomes important for others (such as law enforcement) to evaluate the reliability of the information. This assessment is another form of metacognition: judging someone else’s memory and the likelihood of it being accurate.
Our research focuses on several key areas, including:
Individual differences in metacognitive abilities, such as changes as we age.
The predictive value of eyewitness confidence in the criminal justice system.
Developing and testing mathematical models of the confidence generating process.
We invite you to explore our research, and note that we are accepting applications from prospective graduate students. Please view the ‘Prospective Lab Members’ and NMSU Psychology Department pages https://psychology.nmsu.edu/pages/subpages/admissions.html for more details.
