Riddle Lab
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Welcome to Riddle Lab
We study inter-individual differences in executive and socio-emotional functioning across the lifespan,
with implications for developmental science and legal psychology.
Interests
Our interests in the field of individual differences date as back as 2013 when the first Ph.D. students enrolled in our doctoral program. The legal dimension came into play in 2015 when the Legal Psychology Master’s Program established.
We study inter-individual differences in executive and socio-emotional functioning across the lifespan, with implications for developmental science and legal psychology.
Developmental research
Our developmental research investigates the interplay between emotion (emphasis on high-trait anxiety), memory and executive functioning from preschool years and throughout adulthood.
Our research lines aim:
● to investigate emotion-cognition interactions across the lifespan
● to understand how individual differences in executive functions (focus on working memory and cognitive flexibility) impact academic performance and socioemotional competence during childhood and adolescence
● the ability to process and distinguish authentic from inauthentic emotional expressions
● to evaluate the role of cognitive vulnerability and the various consequences posed by the economic migration of parents for the “left behind” children
● to design specific training programs, such as those focused on reducing math anxiety during early elementary school
● to gain insight into the affective and cognitive benefits of physical activity
● to explore the episodic future thinking in preschool- and school-aged children, but also inquire into the autobiographical memory in elders
Legal psychology
Our legal psychology lines of research concern individual differences in deceptive behavior.
Targeting:
● the development of deceptive skills, including deceptive behavior and attitudes towards lying, related to socio-cognitive development (theory of mind, executive functions)
● the ability of individuals to deceive, respectively to detect the deceptive behavior of others
● self-deception
● inter-individual differences that may predict antisocial behaviors such as juvenile delinquency, cyber-bullying or cybercrime
● vulnerability factors for the internalizing/externalizing problems and antisocial conduct in at-risk populations (e.g. the dark factor of personality in incarcerated population)
Besides the research work, our Lab members are involved in teaching several disciplines, including those aimed for the Legal Psychology Master’s Program. Some of us are also delivering training courses to practitioners regarding interviewing techniques for children, in collaboration with the Romanian Justice System.