The research in our lab includes three major, interrelated areas, including;

1. Reasoning and decision making
2. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and developmental psychopathology
3. Correlates of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity in community samples

 A more minor area of reserach in our lab is in the field of pseudoscience and clinical psychology. 
 Our lab is also affiliated with the LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research,     
 collaborating in research with other colleagues.

Rational thinking and decision making

Rational thinking has to do with how well people meet their goals and track what is true in the world. In our lab, we use theories of rationality that are concerned with how people's decision-making deviates from normative models. The theoretical framework for our work in this area is based on dual process models of rational thinking in adults (Evans, 2003; 2007; Evans & Over, 1996; 2004; Over, 2007; Stanovich, 1999; 2004; Stanovich & West, 2000). According to these models, there are two broad sets of systems, one that is a default system that generates heuristic responses, and the other requires slower analytic processes to arrive at a decision. One of the goals of our research is to identify systematic performance indicators of these systems, and whether these differences are related to individual difference variables, including cognitive abilities, executive functions, and dispositional tendencies.

We have developed a taxonomy of cognitive failures in rational thinking and decision-making performance. Some of the research questions we are currently investigating in our lab are: associations between rational thinking tasks and cognitive abilities in a developmental sample, the impact of cognitive load on rational thinking tasks, and the association between rational thinking and cognitive abilities in special samples such as ADHD and young offenders.

Our research on reasoning and decision-making is been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Our collaborators on this work are Keith Stanovich and Richard West. 

In 2008, our paper with pathological gamblers ("The Reasoning Skills and Thinking Dispositions of Problem Gamblers: A Dual-Process Taxonomy", 

published in Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 20) selected as one of the 

50 best articles published in 2007 in management and won an Emerald Management Reviews Citation of Excellence.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and developmental psychopathology

Much of our work with ADHD has focused on understanding the cognitive correlates of this condition, including performance on reasoning and decision making, executive functioning, and time perception. In addition to this work, we are also interested in considering diagnostic issues, theoretical models of ADHD, associated academic difficulties such as written expression, psychosocial characteristics, comorbid conditions, and treatment strategies. We have also been conducting factor analytic investigations of ADHD symptoms in order to determine how symptoms are associated with latent constructs, and our findings support a hierarchical model of ADHD with a general ADHD factor and separable specific latent constructs for inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity.

Our theoretical approach is based on cognitive science models, and our approach takes into account the importance of understanding the interface between typical and atypical development and developmental appropriateness.

Our current projects on ADHD are done in collaboration with the Youth Education and Assessment Research Study (YEARS) at the Hospital for Sick Children with Marisa Catapang, Karen Ghelani, Min-Na Hockenberry, Umesh Jain, and Rosemary Tannock. We have been collecting data on adolescents who have a previous diagnosis of ADHD or a childhood history of attentional difficulties.

Correlates of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity in community samples

While inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are regarded as symptom domains in ADHD, there is a growing literature that has been examining these constructs in non-clinical, community samples. This work is critical for informing models that can explain the interface between typical and atypical development. We are examining some of the following questions:
• whether correlates of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are consistent in both typical and atypical samples.
• whether models of how these constructs are importantly related replicate in both typical and atypical samples.
• whether less severe levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are associated with poor reasoning and decision making and negative consequences in community samples. 
This line of work importantly contributes to our understanding of more dimensional, continuous approaches for understanding developmental psychopathology, in particular, ADHD.

Last updated: March 20, 2006