About Us
We are the first Laboratory of Cognitive Clinical Sciences in the country and the first psychological research laboratory at the University of Bucharest, founded in 2017. The mission of LSCC is to advance the understanding of mental health as a public health issue, through interdisciplinary research, grounded in cognitive science principles. We are committed to science communication and combating pseudoscience.
We aim to make science accessible to everyone, and through rigorous research and transparent information, we strive to combat pseudoscience and malpractice in psychology.
Research Directions
Human-Computer Interaction in Mental Health
Studying the Uncanny Valley effect, which refers to the interaction between humans and anthropomorphized technological agents, is one of LSCC's priorities in this area. Additionally, we are exploring human-conversational agent interaction through involvement in interdisciplinary research projects. More details can be found in the video above.
Cognitive Psychopathology
In the laboratory, we focus on accurately depicting the importance of various cognitive processes that contribute to the development and maintenance of clinical concerns. We pursue the analysis and training of autobiographical memory in our research, being keen on highlighting its role in the depressive pathology.
Mental Health in Occupational and Educational Settings
Our research aims to investigate how certain organizational phenomena, such as remote work or work-family conflict, can spill over to our day-to-day experiences. We are also interested in linking organizational factors to certain clinical concerns (psychopathology and related symptoms) or to various mental-health related outcomes.
Digital mental health
Our work focuses on the development and optimization of conversational agents such as chatbots for diagnosing anxiety and depression (within the aiCARE project), as well as on the development of serious games addressing issues like eating disorders (within the SIGMA project).
Cancer Survivorship and Mental Health
Our team focuses on topics such as mental health, fear of cancer recurrence, and the resilience of cancer survivors and their caregivers, with the aim of identifying factors that can contribute to optimizing quality of life for this population. In this regard, we are the initiators of the aiCARE project.
Pseudoscience and Malpractice in Psychotherapy
The LCCS team has launched an initiative to disseminate up-to-date scientific information, titled "Together, We Can Combat Pseudoscience!" Through this initiative, we aim to present scientifically validated alternatives to some of the most common examples of pseudoscience found online.
Maladaptive Eating Behaviors
Within the Laboratory of Cognitive Clinical Sciences, we focus on the factors that play a key role in the development and maintenance of maladaptive and adaptive eating behaviors, with the aim of appropriately informing future interventions. Dietary habits and eating patterns, as well as eating disorders, are our key areas of interest.
Natural Language Processing in Mental Health
We use natural language processing (NLP) in an interdisciplinary approach to identify the occurrence of specific signs and symptoms associated with mental health. So far, we have applied NLP to study mental health-related discourse among cancer survivors active on social media platforms such as Reddit.
Socio-Economic Decisions
Within the Laboratory of Cognitive Clinical Sciences, we take interest in the dynamics of spending and saving behaviors in mental health disorders, as well as in decision-making processes in various forms of psychopathology, using ultimatum and dictator games.
Published ISI - WOS Articles
Conferences
Chapters in books
The Laboratory of Cognitive Clinical Sciences
Location: Bulevardul Iuliu Maniu, nr. 1-3, Corp A, et. 5, camera 522, sector 6, București.
Email Address labstiintecognitiveclinice@gmail.com
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