Mentor: Jane Risen

Project: Understanding Signatures of Interactive Human Communication

Our lab is working on several projects using NLP and textual analysis to answer questions concerning fundamental human behavior in communication and learning. For example, we are attempting to define a signature that could identify an example of dialogue from that of debate. Similarly, we are interested in understanding whether the language used for giving reasons versus rationalizations could be identified. Lastly, we are investigating the differences in learning when done for oneself versus someone else. An example of this is looking at knowledge acquisition followed by explanation to another versus acquisition followed by regurgitation. You would have the opportunity to develop skills related to conducting experiments, to help develop a project from concept through to analysis, and to share expertise in NLP with the lab team.

Mentor: Jane Risen, Professor of Behavioral Science and John E. Jeuck Faculty Fellow, Booth School of Business

Jane L. Risen conducts research in the areas of judgment and decision making, intuitive belief formation, magical thinking, stereotyping and prejudice, and managing emotion.

Her research has appeared in several notable publications, including “Looking Forward to Looking Backward: The Misprediction of Regret” with D. T. Gilbert, C. K. Morewedge, and T. D. Wilson in Psychological Science; ” Why People Are Reluctant to Tempt Fate,” with T. Gilovich in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,; “How Choice Affects and Reflects Preferences: Revisiting the Free-Choice Paradigm,” with K. Chen in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, “Visceral Fit: While in a Visceral State, Associated States of the World Seem More Likely,” with C. Critcher in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and “Believing What We Don’t Believe: Acquiescence to Superstitious Beliefs and Other Powerful Intuitions in Psychological Review.

Risen’s research has been featured in the New York Times , Washington Post, the APA Monitor, and Psychology Today.” She is a member of the American Psychological Society, Midwestern Psychological Association, and Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

Risen received a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in psychology from Harvard University in 2001 and a PhD in social and personality psychology from Cornell University in 2007.