Research

Madeleine graduated as valedictorian from Cal Poly in 2015 before joining the META (Memory Emotion Thought Awareness) lab, within the Psychological and Brain Sciences department. Since then she has broadly studied the psychological basis of creative idea generation and insight, the physiology of awe and wonder— via the experience of “aesthetic chills”, the phenomenology of thought, artistic engagement, volitional personality change, and intellectual humility. Using eye tracking technology, she also investigates how inter-individual differences in eye movement behavior may relate to dopamine-related cognition and personality traits, such as curiosity, schizotypy, and creativity. Madeleine has a hobby fascination with the “hard problem" of consciousness. She enjoys swing dancing, playing the mandolin, and wearing hats.

APA Dissertation Award, 2021