Decision Making and Electrophysiology Laboratory

Decision Making and Risk Perception Laboratory

Room 213, Heimstra HF Laboratory

South Dakota Union Building

The Decision Making and Risk Perception (DMRP) lab of Psychology Department at the University of South Dakota is dedicated to the scientific study of behavioral decision making and risk perception, their precipitating factors, mechanisms and consequences.
Research questions
- What are the factors that make a person to take a risk or avoid a risk?
- Who is more risk prone (e.g., personality traits)?
- How do public perceive risk messages?
- Are all risks created equal?
- How do people make decisions based on information of risky outcomes (e.g., mean, variance,
   probabilities, delays, etc.)?

- How do people make decisions based on personal, managerial variables (e.g., goals, bottom
lines, wealth, life-span estimate, birth-order, family size etc.)?
- How do people make decisions in different social, cultural and political contexts?
- How do body and brain mechanisms regulate human decision making (e.g., blood glucose levels,
   hormone levels, basic metabolism rate, stress and sympathetic arousal)?

- How do people make use of decision cues (e.g., verbal, social, cultural, emotional,
environmental cues)?

- How does evolutionary psychology inform us about human decision making (e.g., kinship
selection, mating preferences, social exchange, hunting, foraging, resource allocation, small
group living)?

Projects:

Grant Activities

Current Members

XT Wang - xtwang@usd.edu (director and professor of psychology)

Steven Garelik - Steven.Garelik@usd.edu (human factors graduate student)

Dustin Greelis-Vanlaningham - Dustin.Greelis-Vanlaningham@usd.edu (human factors graduate student)

Chris Gunsolley - Chris.Gunsolley@usd.edu (human factors graduate student)

Sam Gaster - Sam.Gaster@usd.edu (clinical graduate student)

Tyler Brown -Tyler.Brown@usd.edu (undergraduate student)

Drew Michael Morris - Drew.Morris@usd.edu (undergraduate student)

Josh Patrick Stroup - Josh.Stroup@usd.edu (undergraduate student)

Jonalyn Blaha - Jonalyn.Blaha@usd.edu (undergraduate student)

Previous Members:

- Rebecca Benjamin

- Yungchi Chen

- Junyi Dai

- Ahn Diep

- Angela Galinsky

- Jaideep Godara

- Jay Kahl

- Alison Klein

- Angela Johnson

- Katey Leuning

- Di Meng

- Tyrel Raba

- Noel Schaeffer

- Frederic Simons

- Ryan Steever

- Nicholas Torbert

- MingLi Yang

- Hongming Zheng

- Gesine Ziebarth

Join the Lab

The DMRP lab is seeking applications from hardworking, motivated students who want to develop research, design, or programming skills while contributing to the study of human decision making.

We are filling positions from psychology, marketing, advertising, fine arts, design, computer science, engineering, statistics, marketing, and other majors who can contribute to one of three areas:

Research ?design and implementation of survey and experiments

Design ?design of web pages, stimuli, presentations, measurement tools

Programming ?web page creation, data base management, creation of digital tools

Students can work in a variety of capacities: volunteer, academic credit (independent study), undergraduate assistant (when grant support is available), and honors thesis.

If you are interested contact XT Wang at xtwang@usd.edu

Location: (Heimstra Lab Map)

Lab Pictures

X.T. Wang's Home Page

Psychology/Human Factors

USD Home Page