CSHC - Center for the Study of Human Cognition

The cognitive psychology of eyewitness testimony: A research program

Principal researchers CSHC
Svein Magnussen, Tor Endestad, Annika Melinder

Collaborators
Ulf Stridbeck, Abid Q. Raja, Norway; Gail S. Goodman, University of California, Davis, M.A Safer, Catholic University of America, & R. A. Wise, University of North Dakota, USA.

Emanating from the fields of cognitive psychology, developmental psychology and social psychology, the research on eyewitnesses in everyday and forensic contexts covers a wide range of basic and applied research questions, employs a wide range of research designs, and combines qualitative analyses with hard-core experimental data. The research of the cognitive psychology group mirrors this broad-scale approach, currently pursuing four lines of research.

Background
Aging was recently described as a “neurocatastrophe” involving increased oxidative stress, disturbed energy homeostasis, accumulation of damaged proteins, and lesions in nucleic acids, making aging the primary risk factor for development of neurodegenerative diseases. Age-related diseases constitute a huge burden for individuals and societies and problems are likely to grow as the proportions of the population vulnerable to these diseases increase.

People exposed to shocking, horrific events, experience longlasting negative effects. Some suffer a chronic combination of symptoms that is at the core of the debilitating condition called posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): re-experiencing, heightened physiological preparedness and avoidance behaviours. 

Low- and high-level mechanisms of perception and memory: A research program

Principal researchers CSHC
Svein Magnussen, Tor Endestad, Maria Korsnes

Collaborators
Mark W. Greenlee, University of Regensburg, Germany; Pauline Due Tønnesen & Atle Bjørnerud, Department of Radiology, Rikshospitalet, Norway

Studies of long-term memory for pictures of objects and natural scenes show that humans have a truly remarkable memory for meaningful visual images, correctly recognizing hundreds (even thousands) of individual pictures briefly viewed only once, a week prior to the memory test. What is the basis of this memory performance? Psychophysical studies, applying the concepts and methods of spatial vision to the study of visual memory, indicate the existence of a special low-level perceptual memory mechanism responsible for storing information about elementary features or dimensions of visual images (Magnussen, 2000).

Mild Cognitive Impairment – the Gøteborg-Oslo (GO) project.

Early diagnosis and treatment of dementing illnesses is a major goal of modern clinical neuroscience. Mild cognitive impairment is a symptom associated with increased risk of developing dementia, but itself too unspecific to lead to a diagnosis. When impairment is supported by thorough clinical assessment or neuropsychological evidence, the likelihood of a dementing illness is considerably increased, but causal mechanisms and prognosis is still uncertain.

Cognition and plasticity throughout the human lifespan
More about this project can be found at www.walhovd.com/neuro

Background
Throughout life, our mental capacities and brains are under continuous alteration, regardless of health, sickness or injuries. Some changes are part of positive development, others are debilitating. We know too little about the mechanisms underlying different types of change in brain and cognition, and whether, and how, we ourselves can initiate, enhance or slow them.

Cognitive control, mood, brain function and genetics in major depressive disorder and healthy people

One aim with the project is to investigate basic cognitive control aspects of executive functions and other key attentional and memory functions in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), with or without a co-morbid anxiety disorder, as compared to healthy subjects. Another main aim is to investigate the relations between polymorphisms identified within the promoter region of the serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) and cognitive control in both MDD patients and in healthy subjects. The 5-HTTLPR genotype seems to represent a classic susceptibility factor for mood changes and affective disorders. However, although there are some indications from studies with the rapid tryptophan paradigm, no cognitive vulnerability markers or endophenotypes have been identified. A possible interactive effect with gender will also be studied. A third aim is to use multimodal neuroimaging methods to investigate the effects of  serotonin transporter polymorphisms on affective processing in healthy people and in previously depressed subjects.