Cognitive Program Laboratories, Facilities, and Equipment

The Department of Psychology is housed in the Behavioral Sciences Building. The Department occupies over 100,000 square feet of research, laboratory, instructional and office space within the Behavioral Sciences Building.

All faculty in the Cognitive Program have their own dedicated research laboratories. In addition, the Program coordinates the use of several state-of-the-art shared-use facilities. These facilities are maintained and upgraded annually using special university funds for enhancing technology and may be used when mentoring undergraduate research assistants and honor's students. Following is a brief description of some of the laboratories and equipment that are available:

Driving Simulator Facility: (Article by Alex Gonzalez)

As I push down on the gas pedal, the crescendo of engine noise gathers my attention. Trees and buildings fly by faster and faster while I am trying to follow the car ahead of me. I have followed a car before, but never when there is such nighttime downpour of heavy rain. The only sources of direction I have to guide me through the ambiguous darkness are my headlights and the lead car's brake lights. Turn by turn, I struggle to catch up with the car. Suddenly, a deer is illuminated by my headlights. I slam on the breaks of the car and realize my correction is too late. I feel a sense of dread come over me. Right at impact, my car goes straight through the translucent animal. With this break in reality, I reassess where I am. I am sitting in the front end of a Ford Focus automobile with the back end hacked off. The rear view and side mirrors have little TV screens in them. The thunderstorm in front me is actually three giant screens which simulated the stressful environment. A virtual reality tricked my senses all in the name of driving research.

Have you ever wondered…what it is like to drive on an ice covered road? Have you wondered if you could drive in a thunderstorm while on a cell phone without getting in an accident? Or even, does MapQuest’s map diagram get you to locations faster than just by using step-by-step directions? Researchers at Colorado State University are currently creating experiments that investigate questions like these and YOU can be a part of it.

Learn More About the Driving Simulator Here.

 

Electrophysiology Facility: A state-of-the art EEG/ERP facility is available. This facility houses two EEG systems, with a control area and two separate subject-running rooms. The newest system is a 128 channel Electrical Geodesic system that supports source localization and uses a proprietary technology that allows the cap to be applied and tested in just ten minutes.  We also have a 32-channel Neuroscan system.

 

 

Virtual Reality Facility: A state-of-the art virtual reality system is available. This facility houses a designated computer for running virtual reality simulations along with a head-mounted display for 3D immersive interaction within virtual reality environments.

Colorado State University Professor Tackles Déjà Vu with Virtual Reality

 

 

Other Equipment and Facilities

• Computer-based testing rooms that allow participants to be tested individually.
• A mobile computer lab comprised of 14 laptops that may be used for running multiple participants at once, or to conduct research off campus, when necessary.
• A laboratory equipped with touch screens for research on human-computer interfaces, spatial learning, etc.
• A modern eyetracking system that may be used in research areas such as attention, psycholinguistics, and web design and usability.
• Workstations with specialized software for experiment development and computational modeling, and additional workstations with specialized software for analyzing EEG and fMRI data.
• A 32-channel NeuroScan system for traditional EEG/ERP research.
• Several Biopac systems for measurement of ECG, EEG, EMG, EOG, Pulse, Airflow, Respiratory Effort, Lung Volume, Reaction Time, Skin Temperature, and Galvanic Skin Response.

The cognitive psychology research laboratories are housed in a common location adjacent to the cognitive neuroscience laboratories. All of these research laboratories are conveniently located in the same area as faculty and student offices for the Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Programs.

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