Jon M Fincham Email & Phone Number

My research at Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Psychology involves an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how the human brain processes information to perform complex tasks such as problem-solving, cognitive-skill acquisition, metacognition, and cognitive control. I develop, evaluate, and extend new approaches to analyzing brain imaging data. I use software-based simulation systems with Bayesian modeling frameworks to simulate and explain the data. The goal is to extend the mapping between brain activity and the types of information processing and computation being performed in the brain. My colleagues and I are currently combining bottom-up analysis techniques and top-down cognitive modeling to analyze brain-imaging data to infer what people are thinking when performing complex cognitive tasks over an extended time. Using hidden semi-Markov models and multi-voxel pattern analysis, we have successfully demonstrated that we can infer mental states such as whether or not someone is making a mistake, are on- or off-task, and what type of material they are thinking about at various points during the problem-solving process. Our research has been supported by the Defense Advanced Research Planning Agency (DARPA), the McDonnell Foundation, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Warfighter Readiness Research Division, and other organizations.