Research Assistant: Social Psychology in Adults

Introduction to the topic:

At the Games & Society Lab at Uppsala University, Research Mentor Dr. Joshua Juvrud uses psychological methods to examine social cognitive phenomena in adults.

Research questions are focused around two topics: learning and social perception. Ongoing projects examining learning look at how skills transfer from one domain to another, and how immersion in an environment can increase opportunities for learning . Research questions and findings are highly relevant for psychologists and sociologists, as well as educators and health scientists. As a Research Assistant, you have the opportunity to work in an experimental context using research tools such as eye-tracking and psychophysiological measures to answer questions related to human behavior.

Project details:

Research topics include:

Social perception: face processing – Using eye-tracking and face emotion analysis software, we examine the complex and dynamic processes involved in face processing. This includes emotion recognition, emotion contagion, preferences and bias, and selective visual attention. Using experimental designs, we examine the quick and automatic cognitive processes that we often take for granted, such as recognizing a loved one in a crowd or knowing when someone is happy or angry. Other work examines these processes in relation to other cognitive skills, such as visual search and attention. Eye movements, scanning patterns, and pupil dilation are used to understand mechanisms that underly how we process human and non-human faces.

Learning: expertise and transfer – Using eye-tracking, it has been shown that pupil dilation and eye-movements can be used as an indicator for learning expertise. We want to further understand the process of what it looks like to become an expert in a domain, such as chess players or musicians. Using psychophysiological measures and experimental designs, we run studies examining the process of learning, and importantly, to what extent learned skills and/or knowledge can transfer from one domain to another.

Learning inside and outside the classroom – Research has long shown the important of play in learning for both children and adults alike. Classrooms commonly integrate more playful experiences in the curriculum, and museums and other tourist centers use games and play-like experience to promote learning. Our research aims to better understand the important of play for learning, and specifically, how experiences such as escape rooms, ARG (alternate reality), and city-games can possibly be used inside and outside of the classroom for learning.

Selected relevant publications:

• Juvrud, J, Meyers, L., & Nyström, P. (2023). People overlook subtractive changes differently depending on age, culture, and task. Nature Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-51549-y
• Zhang, J. & Juvrud, J. (2023) Gender expression and gender identity in virtual reality: Avatars, role-adoption, and social interaction in VRChat. Frontiers in Virtual Reality. https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-504082
• Juvrud, J., Ansgariusson, G., Selleby, P. & Johansson, M. (2021). Game or watch: The effect of interactivity on arousal and engagement in video game media. IEEE Transactions on Games. https://doi.org/10.1109/TG.2021.3073084

Faculty

Joshua Juvrud

Faculty

Ph.D. in Psychology (Uppsala University). As a research psychologist, his work has focused on the ways that novel techniques in research (eye-tracking, pupil dilation, virtual reality) can be used to assess how children and adults perceive and interpret people, emotions, and actions. Josh focuses this research in two fields. In developmental psychology at the Child and Babylab in Uppsala, he seeks to understand how children learn about their world and the social cognitive development of face perception and socialization processes such as gender, race, and ethnicity. In games research at the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design in Visby, Gotland, his work examines the psychology of people, their actions, and emotions in game development, player engagement, learning, and immersion to understand better how different game players (with different personalities, traits, and experiences) interact with various game mechanisms and are, in turn, affected by game experiences. With DIS since 2020.

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