Maddox's laboratory conducts research in the areas of cognitive neuroscience, categorization, identification, decision-making, attention, and mathematical modeling. Our lab is interested in studying the complex interplay between low-level perceptual processes, and high-level decisional processes, and in understanding the neuro-biological bases of these processes across these different but related tasks. Our approach is to apply quantitative models simultaneously to data collected in each task. This approach constrains the predictions of the models, and allows rigorous tests of hypotheses regarding perceptual and decisional processes and how they might be related (or unrelated) across tasks. Our lab is also interested in identifying the neural mechanisms involved in identification and categorization learning, with an emphasis on attentional processes. To achieve these goals we conduct studies with normal individuals as well as patients with Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease, and amnesiacs. Finally, our lab examines decision criterion learning tasks such as simulated medical diagnosis. Our approach is to examine the effects of base-rate and cost-benefit manipulations on performance measures such as accuracy and reward. Dr. Maddox is a professor in the Department of Psychology.