Research Interests

What is thinking? How do we understand concepts? How does the brain learn? 

Welcome to the CREATE Lab where we seek to answer these questions. I am a theoretically motivated experimental psychologist pursuing the idea that cognition is embodied—that thinking and learning arise from brain-body-environment interactions in the service action. Using the brain imaging techniques of cognitive neuroscience (brain wave measurements using electroencephalography), my lab tests hypotheses about the role of embodied experience in shaping brain function and thought. 

Some of our current research focuses on: 

1. Object recognition and semantic memory 
2. Body schemas and conceptual thinking
3. Creative problem solving
4. Predictive coding and semantics in language
5. Philosophy of neuroscience

CREATE is an acronym for Collaborative Research in Empirical And Theoretical Embodiment. Our name hints at one of the central tenants of the theory of embodied cognition: that the mind is created from brain, body, environmental interactions. In the CREATE Lab, we conduct fundamental research on the nature of the mind/brain, addressing ‘big picture’ questions about how we learn concepts and think with them. In understanding how the healthy brain works, our research has important implications for education and health. Students in the lab gain valuable hands-on training in the scientific study of human behaviour and the brain, skills that allow them to address a variety of problems related to human psychology. With this approach, we ultimately seek to improve our understanding of the organization of the brain and behaviour. 

To learn more, please visit me online:

https://twitter.com/Heath_Matheson or https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=0g3VfDgAAAAJ&hl=en