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Social Cognitive Science Lab
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The lab explores the foundations of the human social mind and how they develop, in the field of social cognitive science.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring the foundations of the social mind and how it develops.
The Social Cognitive Science Lab studies the cognitive foundations that underlie human social behavior and psychology, and the process by which they form.
The lab conducts cognitive science experiments with infants, young children, and adults.
It focuses on all kinds of social phenomena, including human relationships, understanding of others, cooperative behavior, and stereotypes.
Key terms
- Cognitive science
- A field that uses experiments and other methods to study the workings of the mind, such as how people perceive, remember, and think about things.
- Social memory
- Memory for information about other people. The lab studies whose information, and which information, is remembered with priority.
- Expectancy violation effect
- The tendency to remember people who go against expectations. The lab studies it through memory for people who show a gap between impression and reality.
- Stereotype
- Holding particular beliefs based on categories such as gender, as in "blue is for boys and pink is for girls."
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to clarify the cognitive foundations that underlie human social behavior and psychology, and the process by which they form. Using cognitive science approaches with infants, young children, and adults, it focuses on all kinds of social phenomena, including understanding of others, communication, and cooperative behavior.
*Illustrative imageThe origins of the mind that teaches
Cultural transmission and the development of society depend on the sharing of information between individuals. Through experiments with infants and young children, the lab investigates how humans came to teach others, exploring the developmental origins of information sharing.
*Illustrative imagePsychological foundations of prosocial behavior
Humans are cooperative animals who reach out to help even strangers. Through experiments with infants, young children, and adults, the lab investigates how the cooperative mind forms and how it changes depending on the situation.
*Illustrative imageCognitive mechanisms of memory for people
Because cognitive resources are limited, the lab investigates what kinds of information social memory prioritizes. It has found that even young children tend to remember people who show a gap between impression and reality, such as someone who seems nice but is actually bad, and it is studying the expectancy violation effect.
*Illustrative imageBeliefs about human behavior and psychology
The intuitive picture people have of human beings is not necessarily true. For example, the ability to recognize face-like patterns is innate, yet people seem to believe it is acquired later in life. The lab investigates such gaps between objective reality and subjective belief.
MembersFaculty
The lab's members consist of faculty, doctoral students, master's students, undergraduate students, and research students.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorXianwei Meng
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center )” U.S. Army CERDEC / Public domain (cropped)
- The origins of the mind that teaches: “RIVKA TEACHING IMMIGRANT CHILDREN AT MOSHAV MENUHA” 作者不詳 / Public domain (cropped)
- Psychological foundations of prosocial behavior: “Helping Hand Volunteer 03” Helpinghandsvolunteer / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Cognitive mechanisms of memory for people: “Woman reading picture book to children” Kids association / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Beliefs about human behavior and psychology: “A face can be seen in a stone fence post” Jemimah15 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Comparative Cognitive Science Lab): “Male chimpanzee using enrichment box” Damien Neadle / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Isomura Lab): “Reaction time stages” Emily Willoughby / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Hirai Lab): “A group of children playing baloons, Ismailia, Egypt” Husseingallery / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Takano Lab): “Stanford CCRMA Computer Lab” Visnu Pitiyanuvath / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
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