Positions
Undergraduate Projects
Why you should consider the Cognition & Action Lab for your Honour's Research Project:
You will have to opportunity to select and help design your own research project. (We do not just hand you a project.)
We try hard to come up with projects that address important, topical research questions so that, if they work out, they can contribute to a publication.
A number of past undergraduate students working in the lab have earned authorship on a publication. Recent papers in which an undergraduate (underlined) has earned authorship include:
Moskowitz JB, Berger SA, Fooken J, Castelhano MS, Gallivan JP, Flanagan JR (2023) The influence of movement-related costs when searching to act and acting to search Journal of Neurophysiology 129: 115-130
Proud K, Heald JB, Ingram JN, Gallivan JP, Wolpert DM, Flanagan JR (2019) Separate motor memories are formed when controlling different implicitly specified locations on a tool Journal of Neurophysiology 121: 1342-1351
de Brouwer AJ, Jarvis T, Gallivan JP, Flanagan JR (2017) Parallel specification of visuomotor feedback gains during bimanual reaching to independent goals eNeuro 4(2) e0026-17.2017 1–12
Gallivan JP, Bowman NAR, Chapman CS, Wolpert DM, Flanagan JR (2016) The sequential encoding of competing action goals involves dynamic restructuring of motor plans in working memory Journal of Neurophysiology 115: 3113-3122
Gallivan JP, Logan L, Wolpert DM, Flanagan JR (2016) Parallel specification of competing sensorimotor control policies for alternative action options Nature Neuroscience 19: 320-326
Gallivan JP, Barton KS, Chapman CS, Wolpert DM, Flanagan JR (2015) Action plan co-optimization reveals the parallel encoding of competing reach movements Nature Communications 6:7428 doi: 10.1038/ncomms8428
Trewartha KM, Case S, Flanagan JR (2015) Integrating actions into object location memory: A benefit for active versus passive reaching movements Behavioural Brain Research 279: 234-239
Many of our experiments involve using virtual reality environments, which often include robots used to simulate objects in the world.
Several project students working in the lab have won thesis awards, including Katie Douglas, Kathryn Barton, Lindsey Logan, and Dan Gale.
We hope that the skills and knowledge you obtain will be useful to you, regardless of what you go on to do.
Contact Randy Flanagan if you are interested in seeing the lab and discussing possible projects.
Graduate Study
The lab currently has space for one or two additional graduate students.
Students can apply either to the Department of Psychology Graduate Program or the Queen's Neuroscience Graduate Program. Funding is available from the Lab, Department, University, and extra-mural agencies.
Please email Randy Flanagan for more information.
Postdoctoral Research Fellows
The lab has a strong track record of attracting postdoctoral fellows, many of whom now have academic positions. If you are interested in carrying out postdoctoral work in the lab please contact Randy Flanagan.
Note that the lab works closely with Jason Gallivan's lab at Queen's and, together, the two labs provide a strong environment for both neuroimaging and behavioural studies.