Laura Thomas

Laura Thomas is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at North Dakota State University, where she has served since 2011 and founded the Action & Cognition Lab. Her research bridges vision science and cognitive psychology to investigate how physical actions shape perceptual and cognitive processes.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2008)
• B.A. in Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis (2002)

Her primary research examines the dynamic relationship between action and cognition, focusing on three interconnected domains: how tool use modifies representations of peripersonal space and body schema, how environmental affordances bias visual processing, and how sensorimotor simulations underpin language comprehension. These investigations employ rigorous experimental methodologies from cognitive neuroscience and vision science.

Dr. Thomas directs the Action & Cognition Lab, which serves as the central hub for her research team's experimental work on action-perception interactions. The lab's current projects explore embodied cognition through behavioral and psychophysiological approaches.