Units

Consciousness, Cognition & Computation Group

The goal of the Co3 is to contribute to our understanding of the elementary cognitive processes involved in learning, cognitive development, and automaticity. One of the central research topics of the Co3 concerns the role of consciousness in these elementary processes, and in particular the issue of determining which can occur without awareness. The research projects of the Co3 generally combine behavioral methods (experimentation with healthy participants in a lifelong perspective and with brain-damaged patients), modelling (neural networks), and neuroimaging methods (PET, MEG et fMRI). Recently, a Babylab has been installed, in other words a laboratory dedicated to the study of the development of the infants and toddlers' cognitive and social abilities. http://babylab.ulb.ac.be/Bienvenue.html

Projetcs

Implicit learning and cognitive aging

This work focuses on (1) the implicit acquisition of sequential information depending on participants' age and (2) the influence of the amount of practice on the sequential material on participants' performance in a control demanding subsequent task. P

Executive control and consciousness

Control and consciousness intuitively seem intimately related. We argue however that there are conditions under which this is not the case (Cleeremans et Jiménez, 2002). A good way to investigate this relationship between consciousness and control is by manipulating the time to give a response, participants' age, attentional load etc

On the role of attention in learning, memory, and cognitive control : a lifespan approach

This research aims at studying the role of attention in learning, memory and cognitive control in lifespan. We will bind studies on sequence learning with studies focused on working memory. Indeed, learning sequential contingencies requires the simultaneous activation in working memory of the elements constituting this sequence. This is possible via an attentional orientation toward these elements.