How can educators help students learn from their mistakes? What motivates behavior change to improve health and address climate change? How can we correct and counteract misinformation online? These real-world challenges are linked by common cognitive and neural mechanisms. The Sinclair Lab studies how people update their knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors.

Our brains are like time-machines: the same neural systems that enable us to vividly re-experience the past also allow us to make predictions and imagine the future. This cycle of prediction and updating helps us learn from error and adaptively change our behavior. The Sinclair Lab studies these mechanisms and applies insights by developing interventions that support learning and behavior change. Our team uses a combination of psychological experiments, brain imaging (fMRI), computational modeling, and large-scale online field studies to answer these questions and scale impactful interventions.