Department of Psychology
PAS building, room 3020
Tel 519-888-4567 Ext. 42813
Fax (519) 746-8631
Email psych@uwaterloo.ca
B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (Waterloo)
Cognition and Natural Behaviour Laboratory
Named Canada Research Chair in Embodied and Embedded Cognition
Recipient of an Early Career Award from the Psychonomic Society
Recipient of the Early Career Award from the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science
Recipient of an Early Career Award from the Province of Ontario
Recipient 2014 and 2018 Outstanding Performance Award
Dr. Risko’s research is funded by grants from the:
Distributed Cognition. Human cognition often involves, as an integral part, the manipulation of the body and/or physical environment. For example, we tilt our head to help us perceive ambiguous images, and we use our smartphones to store and search for information. In all such cases, internal processes are closely coupled to external ones. From this perspective, we are trying to provide a deeper understanding of how we use our body and physical artifacts to help us think and how this coupling ultimately shapes our thinking.
Effort Perception. We are often described as cognitive misers. That is, we tend toward minimizing our cognitive effort. While this idea plays a central role in cognitive science, we know little about how individuals perceive effort and make decisions based on it. As such, we are trying to better understand how individuals understand effort and decide how effortful given lines of action might be.
Education and Training. We are also interested in using research in cognitive psychology to help improve practices in education and training. In particular, we have an active line of research investigating the characteristics of recorded lectures (e.g., like the ones used in online courses) that optimize learning. For example, we are interested in how various features of lectures impact mind wandering, affect, metacognition, and learning.
For an up-to-date list of publications check out Dr. Risko's Google Scholar profile
You can also find copies of more recent papers here
Lastly, for data, code, pre-registrations and materials for recent papers you can check out our OSF page
Department of Psychology
PAS building, room 3020
Tel 519-888-4567 Ext. 42813
Fax (519) 746-8631
Email psych@uwaterloo.ca
The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is centralized within our Office of Indigenous Relations.