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Psychology Research at Ontario Tech

The Faculty of Social Science and Humanities is home to several research entities. 

The below Forensic Psychology and Psychology Research Labs are very active, with professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students conducting research that aims to address a wide variety of research questions. Research in these labs focuses on key topics in the field of Forensic Psychology, such as investigative interviewing, lie detection, eyewitness memory, wrongful conviction, offender rehabilitation, juvenile witnesses, psychopathic behaviour, and police use of body-worn cameras, and offender profiling.

  • ALERT Lab

    ALERT Lab

    The goal of the ALERT (Applied Law Enforcement Research & Training) Lab is to improve law enforcement practices through psychological science, with a particular focus on the topic of investigative interviewing. 

    Main programs of research currently active in the lab include:

    • Assessment of alibis
    • Improving investigative interviewing procedures
    • Comprehension and utilization of interrogation rights

    For more information on the ALERT Lab and their research, please visit the ALERT Lab website.

  • CANDilab

    CANDilab

    Many people make bad decisions that bring them into contact with the criminal justice system. The Clinical Affective Neuroscience Laboratory for Discovery and Innovation (CANdiLab) at Ontario Tech University uses cutting-edge psychological and neuroscience methods to better understand what factors cause people to commit criminal, and often violent, acts (e.g. antisocial personalities, psychopathy, substance abuse).


    Students in CANdiLab learn how to diagnose psychopathy, how to administer and analyze MRI brain scans, and how to use these and other methods to better understand the cognitive and emotional factors that lead people to commit criminal acts.

    For more information on CANDilab and their research, please visit the CANDilab website.

    Undergraduate students interested in volunteering at CANdiLab are encouraged to review the application form.

  • DCC Lab

    DCC Lab

    Researchers at the Development, Context, and Communication (DCC) Lab investigate a range of research questions about children's and adolescents' cognitive and social development. 

    Questions they seek to answer include:

    • What are the best ways to ask children about their experiences to encourage accuracy?
    • How do children's life experiences shape how they view the world and other people?
    • How do peers and friends influence teens' decision-making?

    For more information on the DCC Lab and their research, please visit the DCC Lab's website.

    Undergraduate students interested in volunteering at the DCC Lab are also encouraged to review the application form.

  • DevSCN Lab

    DevSCN Lab

    The Developmental Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (DevSCN) Lab is interested in understanding the mental lives of children and adolescents. They take a holistic approach to examining demographic and lifestyle influences on the development of cognitive (i.e., executive function) and social cognitive (i.e., theory of mind) abilities, and the accompanying changes in brain structure and function. They are interested in examining neurocognitive development in both typically and atypically developing children and adolescents (e.g., those diagnosed with ASD) using naturalistic paradigms, such as movie watching. 

    For more information on DevSCN and their research, please visit the DevSCN Lab's website.

  • Dev Well Lab

    Dev Well Lab

    The Development and Wellbeing Lab use a variety of methods to assess factors that contribute to risk for mental health problems and poor adjustment during adolescence. The lab uses a variety of methods to assess risk factors, including self-report surveys, EEG, longitudinal analyses, and multiple indicators of development (pubertal status, age).

    For more information, visit Dev Well Lab.

  • Plant Lab

    The Psycho-Legal Analysis of Nonindividualized Thought (PLANT) Lab takes a psycho-legal approach to the stigma of wrongful conviction and biases in criminal legal systems." If that helps.

  • The Lie Lab

    The Lie Lab

    The Lie Lab studies deception detection and interviewing practices from social and cognitive perspectives. They are particularly interested in approaches that can be used for training purposes and policy development. 

    For more information on The Lie Lab and their research, please visit The Lie Lab's website.

    Undergraduate students interested in volunteering at The Lie Lab are also encouraged to review the application form.